Descriptions of Palestine - Population and Landscape

       As can be easily guessed, Palestinian Arabs portray a pre-Zionist Palestine with as high a count of locals as possible. To sustain the highly politicized claims coming from Palestinian Arabs today such as high numbers of Palestinian Arab refugees created from the 1948 War (upwards of 900,000 some claim), as well as complaints that they were dispossessed from their land due to Jewish land purchases (because there were so many Arabs and so little land), the higher the population they can get credit for, the better. Were it to be shown that Palestine was, in fact, underpopulated, such high numbers would prove to be nonsense. These claims would unravel and along with them much of the justification for war and terrorism today also.

       The simple fact of the matter is, the data available for estimating the population of Palestine during the reign of the Ottoman Empire as well as in the early days of the British mandate is largely incomplete and unreliable. 'The nature of the data do not permit precise conclusions about the Arab population of Palestine in Ottoman and British times'. Anyone who pretends otherwise is deliberately misleading you."1 Though we don't have sufficient documentation to provide exact numbers, we do have estimates and descriptions of Palestine through the centuries that support such conclusions as Palestine was thinly populated. With this data, I am not making an argument that because Palestine was underpopulated, then the rights of the legitimate land owners should suffer. It is after all, their land, and they have a right to cultivate it or not, lease it or not, and otherwise do with it what they want. I am also not justifying the expropriation by foreign populations of land because it is thinly populated. The legal and political arguments for how a nation should go about acquiring territory are well beyond the scope of this page.

       Since the information on this page is concerned with comparative terms such as underpopulated, sparse, thin, etc, it is necessary to have a frame of reference for these terms to have any meaning. Establishing this frame of reference will be the number of people Palestine supported both near the time of Christ and how many are there today:

       "When Jewish independence came to an end in the year 70, the population numbered, at a conservative estimate, some five million people. (By Josephus’ figures, there were nearer seven million.) Even sixty years after the destruction of the Temple, at the outbreak of the revolt led by Bar Kochba in 132, when large numbers had fled or been deported, the Jewish population of the country must have numbered at least three million, according to Dio Cassius’ figures."18 Another citation I make use of below states that the province of Galilee alone during the time of Christ had many more than 700,000 people living there. Today, there are 7.1 million people in Israel proper, over 1.4 million in Gaza, and 2.5 million in the West Bank, leading to a total population west of the Jordan River of about 11 million. Keep these figures in mind while reading the rest of the page.


Frederick Hasselquist, M.D.

       In the mid-1700s, Hasselquist traveled throughout Palestine. In his book Voyages and Travels in the Levant38, Hasselquist makes the following observations of the land and people:


James Silk Buckingham

       Buckingham travelled through Palestine on both sides of the Jordan river in the early-mid 1800s as recorded in his book Travels in Palestine42. He takes note of the land, whether it was barren or cultivated. Several areas of the land Buckingham describes as highly cultivated as they corresponded to villages on good land with water sources. For the majority of the country, however, he notes the general desolation and barren landscapes he had to cross through:


Alphonse De Lamartine

       Alphonse De Lamartine spent the better part of a year and a half travelling all over the Middle East in the 1830s and recorded his trip in detail in what is now a two-volume book by the name of De Lamartine's Visit to the Holy Land or Recollections of the East21. Though his vivid descriptions of Palestine do acknowledge a certain degree of cultivation (mostly in Lebanon and the Galilee), the primary theme is underpopulation and desolation:


Edward Robinson

       In 1838, Robinson toured Palestine as well as several other near east countries, recorded in Biblical Researches in Palestine43. Desolation, barren countryside, and signs of previous inhabitants characterized his experience:


Alexander Keith

       After visiting Palestine in the mid-1800's, Keith detailed in his book The Land of Israel37 one view of desolation after the next. One can only refer the interested reader to his book where he concludes, "The astonishment is, not that a land now desolate should once have teemed with population and produce, but that, rich as it is, and able as ever to sustain many myriads throughout all is borders, regions of the highest fertility should remain fallow; that continuous leagues of the richest soil should be wholly unproductive to man; that corn should be imported for the few men that are left, while surrounded by the richest land capable of furnishing food for hundreds of thousands of inhabitants. Well may a stranger from a far land, and the enemies that dwell within it, be astonished at it; even at the desolation of so fertile a country in so fine a clime." (Italics in the original, Pg. 372)


Sir Frederick Treves

       Treves visited Palestine in the early 1900s and recorded his experience in the book, The Land That is Desolate36. By this time, the population of Palestine was already on the upswing. Treves notes the modernization of cities such as Jaffa and Haifa, the relatively high numbers of people inhabiting Jerusalem, and large areas of cultivated fields. But despite the fact Treves visited after Jewish immigration began increasing the inhabitants of Palestine, he was still able to make the following observations:


Jacob De Haas

       De Haas was not writing a first-hand account of his travels, but he consolidates numerous first-hand descriptions of Palestine through the ages in his book History of Palestine23.


Arieh Avneri

       The Claim of Dispossession11, in what is probably one of the best books written on the subject, compiles a wide montage of the desolation in Palestine and reasons for the sparse population.


The British Mandatory Government

       And finally we come to the British reports and observations starting after WWI and onward that concur with the picture of a sparsely populated Palestine:


Miscellaneous


An Objection to Mark Twain

       Our friends at Palestine Remembered put together a page taking issue with the often repeated Mark Twain quotes from his book The Innocents Abroad where he describes Palestine as underpopulated and desolate.20 Among their complaints, they say people using these quotes ignore the facts that:

  1. Palestine's arable land is under 17% of its total area
  2. Twain's visit occurred in the middle of hot summer
  3. his visit came directly after hostilities
  4. his visit was brief
  5. he provided no statistical data
  6. his comparisons of the fertility of the land in Palestine to that of America was unfair

       Presumably, this fairly shallow rebuttal was put together because Palestine Remembered does not believe Palestine fit Twain's description. Yet, while the accuracy of Twain's descriptions of Palestine are questioned, another American writer by the name of Herman Melville goes on to declare that "No country will more quickly dissipate romantic expectations than Palestine … Is the desolation of the land the result of the fatal embrace of the Deity? ... Whitish mildew pervading whole tracts of landscape – bleached – leprosy – encrustation of curses – old cheese – bones of rocks, - crunched, knawed, & mummbled - … You see the anatomy – compares with ordinary regions as skeleton with living & rosy man."44

       This is one of the problems that comes with emphatically declaring one man's description to be misleading while ignoring the deluge of identical descriptions from dozens of other travelers. Even more telling, however, is how content Palestine Remembered is with only raising objections to Twain while not actually providing evidence of the alleged multitudes in Palestine. Wouldn't providing evidence for a large population of locals be more effective than creating a list of reasons why few of them might have been seen? Why are they silent about the descriptions coming from Volney, Shaw, De Lamartine, De Haas, Hasselquist, Blount, Robinson, Buckingham, Gabashvili, Ebanoidze, Wilkinson, the Palestine Exploration Fund, and the British Mandatory government?


"Ben-Gurion opened his remarks with the claim that 'we bring a blessing to the Arabs of Palestine, and they have no good cause to oppose us.' Musa Alami dispatched this standard argument with one quick blow: 'I would prefer that the country remain impoverished and barren for another hundred years, until we ourselves are able to develop it on our own.'"39


Querying the Experts

       This next section takes population estimates from demographic studies and population censuses. It should be reiterated that many of these figures are rough and lacking in quality for various reasons, but we have nothing else to go by. Most of the earlier estimates do not distinguish between Arabs and non-Arabs so the overall total includes non-Arab minority groups.


So what does it all Mean?

       In a nutshell, it means that we can, with a high degree of confidence, make a historically sound judgment that Palestine was for centuries on end drastically underpopulated. There are two major trends manifested in the data above. The first is the fact the population estimates have very little growth for a very long time. This region that supported close to 7 million near the time of Christ and today supports close to 11 million scarcely approached a meager 300,000 inhabitants over the course of at least 500 years (14th to 19th centuries). Several factors explain the constant diminished population of Palestine over the centuries, some of which have already been detailed above. Palestine was the host of incessant warfare on large and small scales. In the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, Bedouin raids were a common occurrence. Palestine also hosted several epidemic diseases. The Black Plague starting with its debut in the 1300s made appearances all the way up to the mid-1800s. Typhus fever made its rounds. Dysentery was rampant.

       Malaria took over where plague left off. Malaria alone was the cause of abandoned land in other parts of the world as De Lamartine makes reference to: "A dead silence over all the country, and that aspect of solitude and desolation which is presented by all the malarious regions in Romania, Calabria, and among the Pontine marshes ..."22 Why would it have any other effect in Palestine? These diseases drastically cut down the population and chased off many of the survivors. Palestine was also never the seat of any political or economic significance. The result of Turkish rule was said to have "afflicted the country with a kind of social and political malaria."34 Gaining control of the Holy sites in Palestine was of mild concern to the warring parties, but mostly so they could tax foreign pilgrims making the trek to see these sites. I'm still searching for a plausible explanation as to why the elusively high numbers of locals we are constantly assured of would stick it out in the face of such harsh living conditions.

       The second trend is that the Arab (as well as overall) population began increasing above its historic plateau, at first gradually in the mid to late 1800s, and then again sharply starting around 1920:

       The two events corresponding to these population increases are the beginnings of Jewish immigration en masse to Israel and the British Mandatory government taking control of the region, respectively. Jewish immigration started becoming a factor in the population counts in the mid-1800s while the British civilian administration began governing Palestine in 1920. The influx of money and technology, along with improved living conditions and health care drastically lowered the mortality rate which accounts for the population boom in addition to immigration.





Related Information:

A Land Without a People for a People Without a Land
Norman Finkelstein Mishandles Zionist Conquest and Palestine's Population Estimates





Footnotes:
1  Population of Ottoman and Mandate Palestine: Statistical and Demographic Considerations
2  De Haas, Jacob. History of Palestine: The Last Two Thousand Years. New York: Macmillan Co, 1934. 39.
3  British Zionism: Support for Jewish Restoration in Britain
4  Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Jewish Problems in Palestine and Europe. Report to the United States Government and His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, Lausanne, Switzerland, April 20, 1946. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off, 1946.
5  An Interim Report on the Civil Administration of Palestine During the Period 1st July, 1920-30th June, 1921. Cmd. (Great Britain. Parliament), 1499. London: H.M.S.O., 1921.
6  Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Jewish Problems in Palestine and Europe. Report to the United States Government and His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, Lausanne, Switzerland, April 20, 1946. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off, 1946.
7  Great Britain, and John Hope Simpson. Palestine: Report on Immigration, Land Settlement, and Development. London: H.M.S.O., 1930.
8  Great Britain, and John Hope Simpson. Palestine: Report on Immigration, Land Settlement, and Development. London: H.M.S.O., 1930.
9  Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Jewish Problems in Palestine and Europe. Report to the United States Government and His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, Lausanne, Switzerland, April 20, 1946. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off, 1946.
10  Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry on Jewish Problems in Palestine and Europe. Report to the United States Government and His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom, Lausanne, Switzerland, April 20, 1946. Washington: U.S. Govt. Print. Off, 1946.
11  Avneri, Aryeh L. The Claim of Dispossession: Jewish Land-Settlement and the Arabs 1878-1948. Efal, Israel: Yad Tabenkin, 1982.
12  Palestine. A Survey of Palestine Prepared in December 1948 and January 1946 for the Information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. Vol. 2. 1946. 581.
13  Palestine. A Survey of Palestine Prepared in December 1948 and January 1946 for the Information of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry. Vol. 2. 1946. 592.
14  An Interim Report on the Civil Administration of Palestine During the Period 1st July, 1920-30th June, 1921. Cmd. (Great Britain. Parliament), 1499. London: H.M.S.O., 1921.
15  An Interim Report on the Civil Administration of Palestine During the Period 1st July, 1920-30th June, 1921. Cmd. (Great Britain. Parliament), 1499. London: H.M.S.O., 1921.
17  Bachi, Roberto. The Population of Israel. Jewish population studies. [Jerusalem]: Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem [and] Demographic Center, Prime Minister's Office, 1974. 40.
18  Katz, Shmuel. Battleground: Fact and Fantasy in Palestine. Toronto: Bantam Books, 1973. 105-107.
19  Bachi, Roberto. The Population of Israel. Jewish population studies. [Jerusalem]: Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem [and] Demographic Center, Prime Minister's Office, 1974. Appendix. 3.
20  Quoting Mark Twain out of Context on Palestine (Site accessed Nov 2, 2007)
21  Lamartine, Alphonse de. De Lamartine's Visit to the Holy Land; Or, Recollections of the East, Accompanied with Interesting Descriptions and Engravings of the Principal Scenes of Our Savior's Ministry. London: G. Virtue.
22  Lamartine, Alphonse de. De Lamartine's Visit to the Holy Land; Or, Recollections of the East, Accompanied with Interesting Descriptions and Engravings of the Principal Scenes of Our Savior's Ministry. London: G. Virtue. 34.
23  De Haas, Jacob. History of Palestine: The Last Two Thousand Years. New York: Macmillan Co, 1934.
24  Bachi, Roberto. The Population of Israel. Jewish population studies. [Jerusalem]: Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem [and] Demographic Center, Prime Minister's Office, 1974. Appendix. 3.
25  Bachi, Roberto. The Population of Israel. Jewish population studies. [Jerusalem]: Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem [and] Demographic Center, Prime Minister's Office, 1974. Appendix. 3.
26  Bachi, Roberto. The Population of Israel. Jewish population studies. [Jerusalem]: Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem [and] Demographic Center, Prime Minister's Office, 1974. Appendix. 3.
27  Bachi, Roberto. The Population of Israel. Jewish population studies. [Jerusalem]: Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem [and] Demographic Center, Prime Minister's Office, 1974. Appendix. 4.
28  Bachi, Roberto. The Population of Israel. Jewish population studies. [Jerusalem]: Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem [and] Demographic Center, Prime Minister's Office, 1974. Appendix. 4.
29  Bachi, Roberto. The Population of Israel. Jewish population studies. [Jerusalem]: Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Hebrew University of Jerusalem [and] Demographic Center, Prime Minister's Office, 1974. Appendix. 4.
30  Great Britain, and William Robert Wellesley Peel Peel. Palestine Royal Commission Report. London: H.M. Stationery Office, 1937.
31  Simons, Chaim. A Historical Survey of Proposals to Transfer Arabs from Palestine, 1895-1947. (Site accessed Nov. 2, 2007)
32  Simons, Chaim. A Historical Survey of Proposals to Transfer Arabs from Palestine, 1895-1947. (Site accessed Nov. 2, 2007)
33  Great Britain, and John Hope Simpson. Palestine: Report on Immigration, Land Settlement, and Development. London: H.M.S.O., 1930.
34  Treves, Frederick. The Land That is Desolate; An Account of a Tour in Palestine. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co, 1912. 24.
35  De Haas, Jacob. History of Palestine: The Last Two Thousand Years. New York: Macmillan Co, 1934. 437.
36  Treves, Frederick. The Land That is Desolate; An Account of a Tour in Palestine. New York: E.P. Dutton & Co, 1912.
37  Keith, Alexander. The Land of Israel, According to the Covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. New York: Harper & Bros, 1844.
38  Hasselquist, Fredrick, and Carl von Linne?. Voyages and Travels in the Levant: In the Years 1749, 50, 51, 52; Containing Observations in Natural History. London: Printed for L. Davis and C. Reymers, 1766.
39  Teveth, Shabtai. Ben-Gurion and the Palestinian Arabs: From Peace to War. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press, 1985. 132.
40  Palestine, and Lewis French. First Report on Agricultural Development and Land Settlement in Palestine. Letchworth, Herts: Garden City Press, 1931.
41  Oren, Michael B. Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2007. 138.
42  Buckingham, James Silk. Travels in Palestine: Through the Countries of Bashan and Gilead, East of the River Jordan, Including a Visit to the Cities of Geraza and Gamala in the Decapolis. London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1822.
43  Robinson, Edward, and Eli Smith. Biblical Researches in Palestine, and in the Adjacent Regions. A Journal of Travels in the Year 1838. Boston: Crocker and Brewster; [etc.], 1856.
44  Oren, Michael B. Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2007. 162.
45  Oren, Michael B. Power, Faith, and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2007. 158-159.
46  Gilbert, Martin, and Martin Gilbert. The Routledge Atlas of the Arab-Israeli Conflict. London: Routledge, 2002. 12.
47  Finn, James. Byeways in Palestine (Kindle Locations 23-31). manybooks.net.