 Many people have clear preconceptions about what life in modern Jerusalem must look like. After all, Jerusalem is one of the most ancient, continuously inhabited cities in the world, and those conceptions are often fairly accurate. For one, Jerusalem isn't at home to a lot of religious people, both Jewish and Muslim. Jerusalem has both an ancient old city and a more recently built modern one. But one reality about Jerusalem that many people who have not visited don't think about, Jerusalem has a lot of cats. Really, an awful lot of cats. The reason why there are so many stray cats in Jerusalem is something of a matter of historical intrigue. The most prevalent theory is that cats were airlifted into Israel in order to help keep down a rat epidemic at the time of the British mandate. Unfortunately, nobody seems to have photographic evidence of this miraculous mass cat airlift, but it seems to be widely accepted that it did in fact happen. However, the cats got here en masse, they soon began breeding like rabbits or maybe just like stray cats, and their population quickly began to mushroom. Since then, the question of how to deal with the enormous cat population has been a frequent topic of debate among animal right activists. While local municipalities have carled budgets for spaying and neutering programs, the measures have drawn opposition from many locals who have come to regard the cats as kind of adorable friendly denizens of the city. Other more drastic proposals have been airlifting the cats out of Israel and putting them in, I don't know, some other country. However, this measure never seems to have gained any serious traction. Just how many cats are there in Jerusalem and Israel? Well, the numbers are pretty shocking. There are believed to be roughly 2 million feral cats in Israel. Given that Israel's population is just shy of 10 million, that's about one cat for every five Israelis. In Jerusalem alone, there are about 240,000 stray cats, according to some figures. Jerusalem's population is expected to cross the 1 million mark in the very near future, so in Jerusalem the ratio of cats to humans is more like 1 to 4. According to a blog by Perry Schwartz, writing in the Times of Israel, Israel would need to sterilize 80% of its stray cats within six months in order to adequately control the population. Something that hasn't happened because municipalities' budgets are strained in their effort to control the population of cats. Like most things in Jerusalem, the issue isn't straightforward, and is further complicated by the fact that some Jewish groups oppose spaying and neutering programs on halachic or Jewish religious grounds. So for the moment, Jerusalem remains a mixed city of Jews, Arabs, Christians, and lots of cats. Want to receive more videos from me about life in Israel and Jerusalem? Subscribe to follow along with more updates.