Opposition to Zionism exists among Arabs and Muslims. In 1947, Arabs outnumbered Zionists two-to-one, but not all were opposed to the establishment of Israel. Still, Arab/Muslim occupation of the area had existed for many centuries and the great and sudden influx of over 600,000 Jews in a relatively short period of time created great disruption to the way things had been pre-1947. As a result, Palestinian numbers reduced. Many went to neighboring Jordan. Add to this dramatic demographic change, the fact that both Jews and Muslims claim Jerusalem as a site holy to their respective religions, and it is not difficult to see the beginnings of the Middle East conflict.
Yet being Zionist remains an contentious issue, particularly in the Arab and Muslim world, where it is generally viewed that the Jews had no right to take an occupied homeland. Christianity also has a claim to Jerusalem — the birth place of the religion. Still, most Christian sects are Zionist and support Israel, asserting that the Jews had the right their ancestral homeland and to establish their own nation. Moreover, many Zionists do not contest Islam's and Christianity's right to claim Jerusalem and Israel as central to their respective religions, but Zionists generally feel their religion has a superior claim being that Judaism is the oldest of the three religions.
