According to the godfather of communism, Karl Marx, the Palestinian claim that Jews only had a significant presence after the advent of modern Zionism is false. Marx, who was the grandson of two rabbis but then became a virulent anti-Semite, (as demonstrated in his essay “On the Jewish Question”) wrote an article for the New York Daily on April 15, 1854 which described Jerusalem at that time. This was because the Crimean War between Russia and the Ottoman Empire was triggered by a dispute over the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. In the article, Marx wrote:
“[Jerusalem’s] sedentary population numbers about 15,500 souls, of whom 4,000 are Mussulmans [Muslims] and 8,000 Jews . . . the Mussulmans, forming about a quarter of the whole, consisting of Turks, Arabs, and Moors, are, of course, the masters in every respect … Nothing equals the misery and the suffering of the Jews of Jerusalem, inhabiting the most filthy quarter of the town, called hareth-el-yahoud … between the Zion and the Moriah …[They are] the constant objects of Mussulman oppression and intolerance, insulted by the Greeks, persecuted by the Latins [Catholics], and living only on the scanty alms transmitted by their European brethren.”
The notion that the founder of Marxism acknowledged the Jewish claim to the city demographically must be highly disturbing to the present-day Marxists, who are ardent opponents of the notion that Jerusalem is a Jewish city.
For example, Medea Benjamin, the Marxist founder of Code Pink, whose organization was lauded by Michelle Obama as recently as last month, led chants against Israel outside the White House in May, 2011. In 2009, she announced that she was going to deliver a letter to Obama from the deputy foreign minister of Hamas. And, of course, Bill Ayers, Obama’s Marxist mentor, joined with Code Pink as a sponsor of the terrorist Gaza Flotilla.
More than that, the article from Marx demonstrates that the widespread myth that Jews were treated extraordinarily well under Muslims is just that – a myth. If the founder of Marxism could acknowledge as much, perhaps it’s time for today’s Marxists to re-examine their preconceived notions about the legitimacy of Jewish claims.