Facts Forgetten or Intentionally Misplaced #3

Myth: United Nations Security Council Resolution 242 requires Israel to withdraw from all of the territories it occupied during the Six-Day War.

Fact: Resolution 242 does not call for Israel to cede all the land. In fact, the drafters of the resolution intentionally referred to an Israeli withdrawal "from territories" rather than "from the territories" or "from all the territories" so that Israel would not be compelled to return to its precarious pre-1967 lines. See more details here.


Myth: The eastern portion of Jerusalem, which came under Israeli control during the Six-Day War, is the Arab section of the city.

Fact: While there is certainly an Arab tradition in the eastern portion of the city, the Jewish tradition is equally (if not more) worthy of mention. There has been a Jewish presence in eastern Jerusalem for thousands of years. The City of David, the ancient Jewish Quarter, the 2000 year old Jewish cemetery on the Mt. of Olives, and institutions such as Hadassah Hospital and Hebrew University are all in eastern Jerusalem, as are the Temple Mount and Western Wall, Judaism's most sacred religious sites.

Today, eastern Jerusalem is ethnically and religiously mixed: Jews make up slightly less than half — 43 percent — of the area's residents. Moreover, this portion of the city has had a long tradition of Jewish plurality. Reforms that came with Egyptian rule over Jerusalem in 1831, and continued with the Ottoman reconquest in 1840, improved the status of non-Muslims and allowed the Jews to become the largest religious group in Jerusalem. In 1838 there were 6,000 Jews in Jerusalem, compared to 5,000 Muslims and 3,000 Christians (Martin Gilbert, Jerusalem: Rebirth of a City). Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1853 "assessed the Jewish population of Jerusalem in 1844 at 7,120, making them the biggest single religious group in the city" (Terence Prittie, Whose Jerusalem). (These numbers do not refer to the western portion of the city, since until about 1860 Jerusalem residents lived almost exclusively within the walls of the Old City, in eastern Jerusalem.)

It was only during the 19 years of illegal Jordanian occupation — from 1948, when Jews were expelled, through 1967 — that Jews were prevented access to their holy city. In an effort to erase evidence of centuries of Jewish presence, all 58 synagogues in the Jordanian controlled sector were destroyed.