ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the main characteristics of the travellers' discourse about Arabs and Jews in Palestine and to emphasize its chronological evolution, especially through their vision of the urban space. During the nineteenth century and until the mid-twentieth century, Palestine underwent many political and social changes. After the Crimean war, in the 1850s, the defeat and the opening of the Ottoman Empire to the European population meant that the number of pilgrims, religious congregations, businessmen, diplomats, scientists, and various travellers and settlers increased in the region. During this period, most of the Palestinian cities were inhabited by a Muslim Arab population, as in Hebron or Nablus; a few, like Bethlehem and Nazareth, were inhabited by a majority of Christian Arab population; and, finally, a few had important Jewish community, such as Safed, Tiberias, and later Tel Aviv. As a result, Arab and Muslim cities and places that were not familiar to the travellers were most of the time depicted negatively.
