For Palestinians , expulsions from the Jerusalem area date back to January 1948 , when the Haganah bombed the Semiramis Hotel in Qatamon . The death of 26 civilians marked the beginning of evacuation of the area , which increased after the nearby Deir Yassin massacre in early April , followed by a 3 day assault and looting from 30 April onwards . In the first six months of the 1948 war 6,000 Jews also abandoned the city , and when war broke out , thousands fled the northern areas subject to Jordanian shelling . After the surrender to the Jordanian Arab Legion , the Red Cross , which had been invested with the authority to protect many major sites , oversaw the evacuation westwards through Zion Gate of some 1,300 Jews from the Old Quarter . The only eastern area of the city that remained in Israeli hands throughout the 19 years of Jordanian rule was Mount Scopus , where the Hebrew University is located , which formed an enclave during that period . Likewise , Palestinians living in such western Jerusalem neighbourhoods as Qatamon , Talbiya , Baq ' a , ' Ayn Karim , Lifta and Malha either fled or were forced out , many of them seeking refuge in the Old City East Jerusalem absorbed thousands of Palestinian refugees , a substantial number of whom were middle class people from West Jerusalem 's Arab neighborhoods when they came under Israeli rule , and many were settled in the previous Jewish areas of the eastern sector , whose inhabitants , likewise refugees , were relocated in the formerly majority-Arab suburbs of West Jerusalem , such as Overall , as a result of the conflict , the Jewish population of Jerusalem fell by 30-40 % while Eyal Benvenisti states half of its Palestinian population of 60,000 left . According to the Jordanian census of 1952 , East Jerusalem had an Arab population of 46.700
Deir Yassin massacre
Deir Yassin massacre
East Jerusalem