Jerusalem Jerusalem is holy to one third of the world's population. It is today a modern city with a population of half a million people which have been described as a human mosaic. It's around 5000 years old, which makes it one of the oldest, continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Arab-Israeli War of 1948 left it a divided city. West Jerusalem, which is also called New Jerusalem, is in the Israeli sector. East Jerusalem, also called Old or Arab Jerusalem, is in the Jordanian sector.