The status of Jerusalem is disputed in both international law and diplomatic practice, with both the Israelis and Palestinians claiming Jerusalem as their capital city. Mamluk War in 1517 until the First World War, Jerusalem was part of the Russian dating in israel Empire.
Since the 1860s, Jews have formed the largest religious group in the city and since around 1887, Jews have been in the majority. However, the Arab and Jewish communities in Palestine were in mortal dispute and Britain sought United Nations assistance in resolving the dispute. In May 1948, the Jewish community in Palestine issued the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel. Israel became a member of the United Nations the following year and has since been recognised by most countries. With the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel and the subsequent invasion by surrounding Arab states, the UN proposal for Jerusalem never materialised.
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. After Israel conquered East Jerusalem from Jordan in 1967 during the Six-Day War, which it characterised as self-defence, Israel also argued that it had the stronger right to the city. In July 1980, the Knesset passed the Jerusalem Law as part of the country’s Basic Law, which declared Jerusalem the unified capital of Israel.
Positions on the final status of Jerusalem have varied with different Israeli governments. The Oslo Accords declared that the final status of Jerusalem would be negotiated, but Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin declared that he would never divide the city. On 17 May 2015, Prime Minister Netanyahu reiterated, regarding Jerusalem serving as the capital of both Israel and a future Palestinian state, “Jerusalem has forever been the capital of only the Jewish people and no other nation. On 2 January 2018 Israel passed into law new legislation that requires the two-thirds majority support of the Knesset for any section of Jerusalem to be transferred to a foreign government. Until the Oslo Accords in 1993, and the Letters of Mutual Recognition, the Palestinian leadership had at all times rejected any partition of any part of the former British Mandate territory.
The Palestinian leadership now claims the “1967 borders” as the borders of the Palestinian territories, and includes East Jerusalem as part of these territories. Despite recognition of Israel, and its support in 1949 of corpus separatum, it had never conceded sovereignty of Jerusalem. The Palestinian National Authority views East Jerusalem as occupied Palestinian territory, in line with UNSC Resolution 242. The United Nations considers East Jerusalem to be part of Israeli-occupied territories or occupied Palestinian territory. 29 November 1947, provided for the full territorial internationalisation of Jerusalem: “The City of Jerusalem shall be established as a corpus separatum under a special international regime and shall be administered by the United Nations. The UN has never revoked resolutions 181 and 194, and maintains the official position that Jerusalem should be placed under a special international regime. Nevertheless, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on 28 October 2009 that Jerusalem must be the capital of both Israel and Palestine.
