The status of Jerusalem has been described as "one of the most intractable issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict" due to the long-running territorial dispute between Israel and Palestine, both of which claim it as their capital city. Part of this issue of sovereignty is tied to concerns over access to the holy sites of Jerusalem in the Abrahamic religions; the current religious environment in Jerusalem is upheld by the "Status Quo" of the former Ottoman Empire.Moshe Hirsch, Deborah Housen-Couriel, Ruth Lapidoth. Whither Jerusalem?: Proposals and Positions Concerning the future of Jerusalem, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, 1995. pg. 15. .Leigh Phillips (19 November 2009). "EU rebukes Israel for Jerusalem settlement expansion". EUObserver. "The issue of Jerusalem is one of the most intractable issues in the Israel-Palestine conflict. While both Israelis and Palestinians claim Jerusalem as their capital, most countries maintain their embassies in Tel Aviv while the occupied territories are administered by the Palestinian Authority in the town of Ramallah." As the Israeli–Palestinian peace process has primarily navigated the option of a two-state solution, one of the largest points of contention has been East Jerusalem, which was part of the Jordanian-annexed West Bank until the beginning of the Israeli occupation in 1967.
The United Nations recognizes East Jerusalem (and the West Bank as a whole) as being a part of Palestine, thus rejecting Israel's claim to that half of the city. There is broader consensus among the international community with regard to West Jerusalem being Israel's capital city, as it falls within Israel's sovereign territory (per the Green Line) and has been recognized as under Israeli control since the 1949 Armistice Agreements.
Most countries and organizations support that West Jerusalem and East Jerusalem should be allocated as capital cities to the Israelis and the Palestinians, respectively; this position has been endorsed by the United Nations,A/RES/67/19 of 4 December 2012. United Nations General Assembly. The General Assembly emphasized "the need for a way to be found through negotiations to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the capital of two States"."Jerusalem must be capital of both Israel and Palestine, Ban says". UN News Centre. 28 October 2009. the European Union,2012/2694(RSP) – 05/07/2012 Text adopted by Parliament, single reading. European Parliament. Archived from the original on 11 March 2014.Leigh Phillips (19 November 2009). "EU rebukes Israel for Jerusalem settlement expansion". EUObserver. Quoting a statement by the European Union: "If there is to be genuine peace, a way must be found to resolve the status of Jerusalem as the future capital of two states." and France, among others.Jerusalem's status: the statement made by the Israeli Prime Minister is detrimental to the final status negotiations , French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, (21 May 2009) Russia, which is a member of the Middle East Quartet, already recognizes East Jerusalem as the Palestinian capital and West Jerusalem as the Israeli capital.
The majority of United Nations member states hold the view that the city's final status should be resolved through negotiations and have therefore favoured locating their embassies to Israel in Tel Aviv, pending a final status agreement. Seven countries have embassies to Israel in Jerusalem: the United States, Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, and Nauru, alongside the disputed nations of Kosovo and Somaliland.
Background
From 1517 until the First World War, Jerusalem was part of the Ottoman Empire. It was part of the Damascus eyalet (province) until, as a result of widespread administrative reform in the mid-1800s, it became an independent sanjak (district) in 1872. From the 1860s, the Jewish community became the largest religious minority grouping in the city and from 1887, with the beginning of expansion outside the old city walls, became a majority.Ruth Kark and Michal Oren-Nordheim (2001). Jerusalem and Its Environs: Quarters, Neighborhoods, Villages, 1800–1948. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, p. 28.
Throughout the 19th century, European powers were competing for influence in the city, usually on the basis (or pretext) of extending protection over Christian churches and holy places. Much of the property that is now owned by the churches was bought during this time. A number of these countries, most notably France, entered into capitulation agreements with the Ottoman Empire and also established consulates in Jerusalem. In 1847, with Ottoman approval, the first Latin patriarch of Jerusalem since the Crusades was established.
After capturing Jerusalem in 1917, the United Kingdom was in control of Jerusalem; initially under a wartime administration, then as part of the Mandate of Palestine assigned to Britain in 1920. The principal Allied Powers recognized the unique spiritual and religious interests in Jerusalem among the world's Abrahamic religions as "a sacred trust of civilization",Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory , Advisory Opinion, ICJ Reports 2004, p. 165 para. 70.Paul J. I. M. de Waart (2005). "International Court of Justice Firmly Walled in the Law of Power in the Israeli–Palestinian Peace Process". Leiden Journal of International Law. 18 (3): pp. 467–487. "The Court ascertained the legal significance of the 'sacred trust of civilization' of the League of Nations (LoN) in respect of the 1922 Palestine Mandate as the origin of the present responsibility of the United Nations". and stipulated that the existing rights and claims connected with it be safeguarded in perpetuity, under international guarantee.See, for example, Article 28 of the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine.
However, the Arab and Jewish communities in Palestine were in mortal dispute and Britain sought United Nations assistance in resolving the dispute. During the negotiations of proposals for a resolution that culminated in the United Nations Partition Plan for Palestine (also known as Resolution 181) in November 1947, the historic claims of the Vatican, Italy and France were revived. The Vatican's historic claims and interests, as well as those of Italy and France were based on the former Protectorate of the Holy See and the French Protectorate of Jerusalem. From their point of view this proposal was essentially to safeguard Christian holy sites and was expressed as a call for the special international regime for the city of Jerusalem. This status was also confirmed in UN General Assembly Resolution 194 in 1948, which maintained the position that Jerusalem be made an international city.
The United Nations Partition Plan called for the partition of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states, with Jerusalem (with borders expanded to include Bethlehem, see UN map of Jerusalem) being established as a corpus separatum, or a "separated body", with a special legal and political status, administered by the United Nations.General Assembly resolution 48/158D, 20 December 1993. para. 5(c) stipulated that the permanent status negotiations should guarantee "arrangements for peace and security of all States in the region, including those named in resolution 181(II) of 29 November 1947" The Free City of Danzig was a historical precedent for this solution; Trieste was a contemporaneous city ruled by the UN. Jewish representatives accepted the partition plan, while representatives of the Palestinian Arabs and the Arab states rejected it, declaring it illegal.
On 14 May 1948, the Jewish community in Palestine issued the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, stating that it was "prepared to cooperate with [the UN] in implementing [the UN Partition Plan]". Israel became a member of the United Nations the following year and has since been recognised by most countries.United Nations General Assembly Resolution 273. The countries recognizing Israel did not necessarily recognize its sovereignty over Jerusalem generally, citing the UN resolutions which called for an international status for the city. The United States, Guatemala, Honduras and Kosovo have embassies in Jerusalem.
With the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel and the subsequent invasion by surrounding Arab states, the UN proposal for Jerusalem was never implemented. The 1949 Armistice Agreements left Jordan in control of the eastern parts of Jerusalem, while the western sector (with the exception of the Mount Scopus exclave in the east) was held by Israel. Each side recognised the other's de facto control of their respective sectors. The Armistice Agreement, however, was considered internationally as having no legal effect on the continued validity of the provisions of the partition resolution for the internationalisation of Jerusalem.See: "Corpus Separatum §33 Jerusalem" Marjorie M. Whiteman editor, US State Department Digest of International Law, vol. 1 (Washington, DC: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1963) pages 593–594. Foreign relations of the United States, 1948. The Near East, South Asia, and Africa (in two parts) Volume V, Part 2, Page 748. Ira Sharkansky (1996). Governing Jerusalem: Again on the World's Agenda. Wayne State University Press. p. 23. ; John Quigley (1994). "The Legal Status Of Jerusalem Under International Law". The Turkish Yearbook Of International Relations, vol. XXIV, pp. 11–25. In 1950, Jordan annexed East Jerusalem as part of its larger annexation of the West Bank. Though the United Kingdom and Iraq recognized Jordanian rule over East Jerusalem, no other country recognized either Jordanian or Israeli rule over the respective areas of the city under their control. Pakistan is sometimes falsely claimed to have recognized the annexation as well.
Following the Six-Day War of 1967, Israel declared that Israeli law would be applied to East Jerusalem and enlarged its eastern boundaries, approximately doubling its size. The action was deemed unlawful by other states who did not recognize it. It was condemned by the UN Security Council and General Assembly which described it as an annexation and a violation of the rights of the Palestinian population. In 1980, Israel passed the Jerusalem Law, which declared that "Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel"."Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel (Unofficial translation)". www.knesset.gov.il. Passed by the Knesset on the 17th Av, 5740 (30 July 1980). The Security Council declared the law null and void in Resolution 478, which also called upon member states to withdraw their diplomatic missions from the city. The UN General Assembly has also passed numerous resolutions to the same effect.. United Nations General Assembly. Archived from the original on 3 February 2014.
Prelude: UN resolution from 1947 On 29 November 1947 the UN General Assembly passed a resolution which, as part of its Partition Plan for Palestine, included the establishment of Jerusalem as a separate international entity under the auspices of the United Nations, a so-called corpus separatum.
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