jews israel 16th–19th centuries

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During the 16th century the Jewish community in Galilee prospered, with Safed reaching a size of 15,000 residents, mostly Jews. However the regional economic decline and the power struggles of the Druze and the Ottomans led to the community's gradual decline by the mid-17th century. In 1660, the Druze power struggle led to the collpse of major Old Yishuv cities of Safed and Tiberias.

In the late 18th century a local Bedouin Sheikh Daher el-Omar created a de-facto independent Emirate in the Galilee, extending also on the coastline as far as Jaffa. Ottoman attempts to subdue the Sheikh failed as he succeeded in withstanding the Siege of Tiberias by the Wali of Damascus. Only with Daher's death could the Ottomans restore their rule in the area.

A major change in the region occurred in 1831, when Muhammad Ali of Egypt conquered Ottoman Syria and decided to revive and resettle much of its regions. His conscription policies led to a popular Arab revolt in 1834, resulting in major casualties for the local Arab peasants and massacres of Christian and Jewish communities by the rebels.

Following the revolt, Muhammad Pasha, the son of Muhammad Ali, expelled nearly 10,000 of the local peasants to Egypt, while bringing loyal Arab peasants from Egypt and discharged soldiers to settle the coastline of Palestine and settling the northern Jordan Valley with his Sudanese troops.

In 1838, another revolt by the Druze erupted in Mount Lebanon and the Galilee, while in 1840 Egyptians withdrew, returning it to Ottoman governorship.

In 1844, Jews constituted the largest population group in Jerusalem and by 1890 an absolute majority in the city, but as a whole the Jewish population made up far less than 10% of the region.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Israel#16th.E2.80.9319th_centuries
Yishuv - jewish settlement.

[ygalg]

Tanzimat period
In 1864, most of the area of modern Israel became part of the Vilayet of Syria (including the Sanjaks of Acre, Nablus and Jerusalem), following the Tanzimat reformation. In 1874, the area of Jerusalem gained a special status of the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem.

Following widespread pogroms and antisemitism, millions of Jews left Eastern Europe in the late 19th century, mainly for the United States, with a small percentage heading for Israel. At that time some Jews began to consider the possibility of re-establishing themselves as an independent nation in the Levant, first as a religious movement in Russia and Yemen, and eventually as a secular movement that became popular across Jewish communities in Europe.

In 1870, an agricultural school, the Mikveh Israel, was founded near Jaffa by the Alliance Israelite Universelle. The first modern Jewish settlement in Palestine, Petah Tikva, was founded in 1878, followed by Rishon LeZion (1882). Other settlements were established by members of the Bilu and Hovevei Zion ("Love of Zion") movements. This was accompanied by a revival of the Hebrew language. Zionism attracted Jews of all kinds; religious, secular, nationalists and left-wing socialists. Socialists aimed to reclaim the land by becoming labourers and forming collectives. In Zionist history, the different waves of Jewish settlement are known as "aliyah". During the First Aliyah, between 1882 and 1903, approximately 35,000 Jews moved to Palestine.

By 1890, Palestine was populated mainly by Muslim (settled and nomad Bedouins) and Christian Arabs, as well as Jews, Greeks, Druze and other minorities. The Jewish population was still mostly concentrated in the Four Holy Cities.

In 1896 Theodor Herzl published Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State), in which he asserted that the solution to growing antisemitism in Europe (the so-called "Jewish Question") was to establish a Jewish state. In 1897, the Zionist Organisation was founded and the First Zionist Congress proclaimed its aim "to establish a home for the Jewish people in Palestine secured under public law." However, Zionism was regarded with suspicion by the Ottoman rulers and was unable to make major progress.

Between 1904 and 1914, around 40,000 Jews settled in Southern Syria (the Second Aliyah). In 1908 the Zionist Organisation set up the Palestine Bureau (also known as the "Eretz Israel Office") in Jaffa and began to adopt a systematic Jewish settlement policy in Palestine. Migrants were mainly from Russia (which then included Poland), escaping persecution. The first kibbutz, Degania, was founded by Russian socialists in 1909. The first entirely Hebrew-speaking city, Ahuzat Bayit was established in 1909 (later renamed Tel Aviv). Hebrew newspapers and books were published, and Jewish political parties and workers organizations were established.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Israel#16th.E2.80.9319th_centuries

[ygalg]

interesting to note jews existed not in slim numbers relatively to these period. the treatment received by the islamic thugs. and jewish cities before the zionist movement. these details are not 1000 nor 2000 nor 3000 old.