Several days ago, the occupation authorities began conducting new secret excavations under the western side of Al-Buraq Square leading to Al-Sharaf and Al-Mughrabi Quarters in Old Jerusalem, which form an integral part of Al-Aqsa Mosque.“Haret al-Sharaf” is an Islamic neighborhood in Old Jerusalem, with an area of 133 dunams, and it is adjacent to the Magharebia Quarter. In 1967, the occupation demolished about 70% of its area and confiscated most of its remaining buildings, expelled 3,000 Palestinians from its residents, and changed its name to “The Jewish Quarter.”
That's news to those who lived in the Jewish Quarter before 1948.
It is true that the Old City had a neighborhood called Haret al-Sharaf since before Ottoman times, along with a lot of other neighborhoods that did not line up with the four quarters that became popular in Western maps in the late 19th century. But even in the 16th century, there was a Haret el-Yahud near Zion Gate. (Maps from this 1992 article in Middle Eastern Studies.)
But the Haret el-Yahud neighborhood had already spread through Hret al-Sharaf during the 19th century as more Jews moved into the Old City.
But modern antisemites hate Jews so much that they refuse to admit that there was a Haret el-Yahud, and you can find webpages showing absurd things like these:
As it was, there were plenty of Jews who lived outside the Jewish quarter. 32% of Jewish families lived in the Muslim quarter, and at least one of the neighborhoods of that quarter - the al-Wad neighborhood to the northwest of the Temple Mount - was majority Jewish in the 1905 census.
Jerusalem itself was majority Jewish from the middle of the 19th century. The desire to erase the Jewish presence in Jerusalem today proves that Palestinians are still antisemitic.
