Jewish Quarter (Jerusalem) in the context of "1948 Palestine war"

Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Both Israel and Palestine claim Jerusalem as their capital city; Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there, while Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power. Neither claim is widely recognised internationally.

Throughout its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times. The part of Jerusalem called the City of David shows first signs of settlement in the 4th millennium BCE, in the shape of encampments of nomadic shepherds. During the Canaanite period (14th century BCE) Jerusalem was named as Urusalim on ancient Egyptian tablets, probably meaning "City of Shalem" after a Canaanite deity. During the Israelite period, significant construction activity in Jerusalem began in the 10th century BCE (Iron Age II), and by the 9th century BCE the city had developed into the religious and administrative centre of the Kingdom of Judah. In 1538 the city walls were rebuilt for a last time around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire. Today those walls define the Old City, which since the 19th century has been divided into four quarters—the Armenian, Christian, Jewish and Muslim quarters. The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Since 1860 Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old City's boundaries. In 2023 Jerusalem had a population of 1,028,366. In 2022 60% were Jews and almost 40% were Palestinians. In 2020 the population was 951,100, of which Jews comprised 570,100 (59.9%), Muslims 353,800 (37.2%), Christians 16,300 (1.7%) and 10,800 unclassified (1.1%).

The Old City of Jerusalem (Hebrew: הָעִיר הָעַתִּיקָה, romanized: Ha'ír Ha'atiká; Arabic: المدينة القديمة, romanized: al-Madīna al-Qadīma) is a 0.9-square-kilometre (0.35 sq mi) walled area in East Jerusalem.

In a tradition that may have begun with an 1840s British map of the city, the Old City is divided into four uneven quarters: the Muslim Quarter, the Christian Quarter, the Armenian Quarter, and the Jewish Quarter. A fifth area, the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as Al-Aqsa or Haram al-Sharif, is home to the Dome of the Rock, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and was once the site of the Jewish Temple.

The Armenian Quarter (Armenian: Հայոց թաղ, romanized: Hayots t'agh; Arabic: حارة الأرمن, romanized: Ḥāraṫ al-Arman; Hebrew: הרובע הארמני, romanized: Ha-Rova ha-Armeni) is one of the four sectors of the walled Old City of Jerusalem. Located in the southwestern corner of the Old City, it can be accessed through the Zion Gate and Jaffa Gate. It occupies an area of 0.126 km² (126 dunam), which is 14% of the Old City's total. In 2007, it had a population of 2,424 (6.55% of Old City's total). In both criteria, it is comparable to the Jewish Quarter. The Armenian Quarter is separated from the Christian Quarter by David Street (Suq el-Bazaar) and from the Jewish Quarter by Habad Street (Suq el-Husur).

The Armenian presence in Jerusalem dates back to the 4th century CE, when Armenia adopted Christianity as a national religion and Armenian monks settled in Jerusalem. Hence, it is considered the oldest living diaspora community outside the Armenian homeland. Gradually, the quarter developed around the St. James Monastery—which dominates the quarter—and took its modern shape by the 19th century. The monastery houses the Armenian Apostolic Church's Jerusalem Patriarchate, which was established as a diocese in the 7th century CE. The patriarchate is the de facto administrator of the quarter and acts as a "mini-welfare state" for the approximately 2,000 Armenian residents.

The Christian Quarter (Arabic: حارة النصارى, romanized: Ḥāraṫ al-Naṣārā; Hebrew: הרובע הנוצרי, romanized: Ha-Rova ha-Notsri) is one of the four quarters of the walled Old City of Jerusalem, the other three being the Jewish Quarter, the Muslim Quarter and the Armenian Quarter. The Christian Quarter is situated in the northwestern corner of the Old City, extending from the New Gate in the north, along the western wall of the Old City as far as the Jaffa Gate, along the Jaffa Gate – Western Wall route in the south, bordering on the Jewish and Armenian Quarters, as far as the Damascus Gate in the east, where it borders on the Muslim Quarter.

The Christian quarter contains about 40 Christian holy places and one of the most important communities of Christianity in there and holy places for Christians in the world. First among them is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Christianity's holiest place. Most of the residents of the Christian quarter remain Christians however their numbers have dwindled.

A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war.

The Temple Institute, known in Hebrew as Machon HaMikdash (Hebrew: מכון המקדש), is an organization in Israel focusing on establishing the Third Temple. Its long-term aims are to build the third Temple in Jerusalem on the Temple Mount—the site occupied by the Dome of the Rock—and to reinstate korbanot and the other rites described in the Hebrew Bible and Jewish legal literature. It aspires to reach this goal through the study of the previous Temples' construction and rituals and through the development of Temple ritual objects, garments, and building plans suitable for immediate use in the event conditions permit the Temple's reconstruction. It runs a museum in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. It was founded and is headed by Rabbi Israel Ariel. Its current director-general is Dovid Shvartz. New York billionaire Henry Swieca has supported the Institute. The Israeli government has also provided funding.

This article lists the gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. The gates are visible on most old maps of Jerusalem over the last 1,500 years.

During different periods, the city walls followed different outlines and had a varying number of gates. During the era of the crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem (1099–1291), Jerusalem had four gates, one on each side.