Events and quotations cited here demonstrate Jerusalem’s political and religious importance and craving to Christianity, Islam and Judaism, as well as when each of them controlled parts of the city. Other items here note when and/or why caliphs, churches, conferences, emirs, empires, generals, kings, resolutions, sultans, treaties and other entities proclaimed privileges and control and asserted views on how the city should be ruled, or which denominations within a faith could impose physical control over the city, portions of it or a particular venerated site. Indiana University Professor Bernard Frischer estimates that since 2000 B.C.E. the city was destroyed twice, was besieged 23 times, was attacked 52 other times, was recaptured 44 times, experienced 20 revolts and many riots, and endured half a dozen periods of violent terrorist attacks the past century. The city peacefully changed hands only twice.
Three monotheistic religions possess core connections and/or holy sites in the walled Old City or adjacent to it in Jerusalem. Christian holy sites include the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, enclosing Jesus’ tomb; the churches of St. Anne, St. James and St. Mark; the Tomb of the Virgin; the Garden of Gethsemane; and the Basilica of the Nativity in nearby Bethlehem. Jewish holy sites include the Western Wall of the Second Temple, the Temple Mount from the First and Second Temples, Jewish tombs in the Kidron Valley, and the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives. Muslim holy sites include the mosques on the Haram al-Sharif (al-Aqsa and Domb of the Rock), the Tomb of David (Nebi Da’ud), and the Western Wall of the Haram, or Buraq.
Jews have a 3,000-year history with the city of Jerusalem as a political, economic, religious and cultural center and focus. In ancient times, the city housed the First and Second Temples, where Jews from throughout the Land of Israel and the growing Diaspora made regular pilgrimages. Jewish tradition accepts the Temple Mount, where the Temples stood, as the site of the binding of Isaac by Abraham. The retaining wall is believed to be the place where the Shechinah, the spirit of God, has never departed.
After the destruction of the Second Temple in the first century C.E., a liturgical tradition of praying for a return to the city emerged, and it remains a part of Jewish worship today. Jews praying anywhere in the world outside the holy city always look toward Jerusalem.
During the British Mandate (1922-1948), the city was home to the Zionist leadership and most Zionist political, cultural and religious institutions, including the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the Hebrew University. After the War of Independence ended in 1949, the Israeli government declared Jerusalem its capital. Since January 1950, the country’s parliament, Supreme Court and offices of the prime minister have all been established in Jerusalem.
Immediately after the June 1967 war reunited the city, Israel annexed 70 square kilometers of greater Jerusalem and declared the expanded municipality the unified capital of the state. In July 1980, the Knesset (Israel’s parliament), in the sixth Basic Law, reaffirmed its sovereign prerogative to declare Jerusalem again the eternal capital of the Jewish people, promising to secure the rights of all religions within the city.
On several occasions in the past 50 years, the United Nations or its affiliated organizations affirmed that some or all of Jerusalem should be adjudicated in future negotiations or ruled with prejudice that the city has no connection to Jewish history, even as Israel has upheld its sovereign right to control the city as its united capital.
— Ken Stein, May 26, 2025
1004 B.C.E.: King David establishes Jerusalem as the capital of the Kingdom of Israel.
970 B.C.E.: King Solomon builds the First Temple in Jerusalem as the religious and spiritual center of the Jewish people.
922 B.C.E.: The Jewish kingdom divides between the North (Israel) and South (Judea). Jerusalem becomes the capital of Judea.
586 B.C.E.: King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon conquers Jerusalem and destroys the First Temple.
538 B.C.E.: Jews returning from Babylonian exile build the Second Temple on the site of the destroyed First Temple in Jerusalem.
370 B.C.E.: Persians capture Jerusalem.
332 B.C.E.: Alexander the Great conquers Jerusalem.
163 B.C.E.: Jerusalem is restored to Jewish autonomy under the Hasmoneans after the Maccabees’ defeat of the Seleucids and Hellenistic Jews.
63 B.C.E.: Roman rule in Jerusalem begins through the intercession of Pompey the Great.
10 C.E.: The 9th day of the Jewish month of Av (Tisha b’Av) is observed as a day of mourning for the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem. In an annual observance that continues today, Jews all over the world fast as they mourn the loss of both Temples in Jerusalem, as well as other tragedies in Jewish history.
28-30: Jesus practices his ministry in Jerusalem.
30: The Romans crucify Jesus in Jerusalem, and Jesus’ early followers, known as “the Twelve,” move from the Galilee to the holy city.
70: After a siege, the Romans destroy Jerusalem and the Second Temple.
132-135: Simon Bar Kokhba leads a revolt against the Roman Empire and controls Jerusalem for most of three years. Either sparking the revolt or resulting from the revolt’s defeat, Roman Emperor Hadrian declares Jerusalem to be a colony known as Aelia Capitolina and bans Jews from the city.
313: The Brotherhood of the Holy Sepulchre is founded in Jerusalem.
325-335: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is built in Jerusalem.
Early 600s: Muhammad founds Islam and faces Jerusalem during prayer.
614: The Sasanian Persians capture Jerusalem from the Byzantines with the help of Jewish rebels, whose planning for a third temple is soon foiled by a Christian uprising.
636-637: Muslim Caliph Umar conquers Jerusalem. Jews once again are allowed to live in Jerusalem.
638: The Armenian Apostolic Church begins to appoint its own bishop in Jerusalem.
679-690: Al-Aqsa mosque is constructed in Jerusalem along the southern wall of the Temple Mount.
687-691: The Dome of the Rock mosque is built on the Temple Mount near al-Aqsa.
797: King Charlemagne sends his first embassy to the Muslim caliph, Harun al-Rashid, who is reported to have offered the custody of the holy places in Jerusalem to Charlemagne, including the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
1009: The Muslim caliph orders the destruction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
1042-1048: Byzantine Emperor Constantine IX Monomachos sponsors the rebuilding of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in cooperation with the Muslim caliph.
1054: Christians in the Land of Israel are placed under the jurisdiction of the Greek Orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem.
1095: Pope Urban II calls for the First Crusade.
1099-1187: Crusaders control parts of the Land of Israel, including the first capture of Jerusalem by Europeans.
May 1141: Spanish/Hebrew poet Judah Halevi promotes the return of Diaspora Jews to Jerusalem.
1187: Saladin, a Kurdish Muslim, captures Jerusalem from the Crusaders.
1244: Jerusalem is destroyed.
1250-1517: The Mamluks rule Jerusalem.
1264: Nachmanides, also known as Ramban, revitalizes the Jewish presence in Jerusalem and encourages other Jews to return there.
1392: English King Henry IV makes a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
1516-1517: The Ottoman Empire replaces the Mamluks in controlling Jerusalem and much of the Levant.
1535-1538: Suleiman the Magnificent rebuilds the city walls of Jerusalem.
1563: Rabbi Joseph Karo compiles the Shulchan Aruch, considered the definitive code of Jewish law. Among many other rulings, it requires that doors and windows of Jewish synagogues open toward Jerusalem so that worshippers can pray toward the holy city. According to archaeological evidence, Jews living outside Jerusalem since the Babylonian exile (586-538 B.C.E.) have maintained Jerusalem as an object of prayer.
1604: The Ottoman Empire reaches an agreement with King Henry IV of France to allow his subjects to freely visit holy sites in Jerusalem.
1774: Catherine the Great and the Ottoman sultan sign an agreement giving Russia the right to preside over all Christian holy sites in the Ottoman Empire, including those in Jerusalem.
1799: During the siege of Acre, Napoleon unsuccessfully tries to capture Jerusalem and to rally Jews in the Land of Israel to his cause.
1831: Muhammad Ali of Egypt takes Jerusalem.
1840: Ottoman Turks retake Jerusalem.
1847: Giuseppe Valerga becomes the first Latin patriarch of Jerusalem since the Crusades.
1853: The Ottoman sultan’s attempt to fix the rights and responsibilities of different denominations with regard to specific holy places in Jerusalem results in European powers fighting in the Crimean War.
1860: Moses Montefiore establishes residential areas outside the Old City, Mishkenot Sha’ananim, later known as Yemin Moshe. Other Jewish neighborhoods soon are established outside ancient Jerusalem (Mahne Israel in 1868, Nahalat Siva’a in 1869, Beit David in 1872, Mea She’arim in 1873).
1866: Jerusalem has a population of 16,000, including 8,000 Jews.
June 1867: American author Mark Twain visits Jerusalem during a great trip to the holy land. His travelogue is still referenced in many works on Israel and Zionism.
June 1878: Six European powers, the Balkan states and the Ottoman Empire’s leaders sign the Treaty of Berlin, which aims to iron out border and jurisdiction rights. The treaty proclaims that “no alteration can be made in the status quo of the holy places.”
1878: Galician poet Naftali Herz Imber writes the poem “Tikvatenu” (“Our Hope”), which becomes the Zionist anthem “Hatikvah” with the phrase “An eye looks to Zion, our hope is not yet lost, the hope of 2,000 years, to be a free people in our land, the land of Zion and Jerusalem.”
1887-1888: The Ottoman area where Palestine will be defined under the British in the 1920s is divided into the districts of Acre, Nablus and Jerusalem. It is autonomous and ruled directly by Constantinople.
1888: At the initiative of Tsar Alexander III, the Russian Orthodox Church completes the construction of the iconic Church of Mary Magdalene in Jerusalem.
1899: St. George’s Cathedral, the seat of the Anglican bishop of Jerusalem, is built.
December 29, 1901: The Jewish National Fund is established to finance land acquisition in Palestine. Yona Krementzky is named first president and opens the organization’s first headquarters in Jerusalem in 1907.
1906: The Bezalel Academy for Arts and Design opens in Jerusalem.
December 9, 1917: The British take Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks. It is not the capital of any jurisdiction.
May 1918: The Muslim-Christian Association is founded in Jaffa and meets next in Jerusalem.
July 14, 1918: The cornerstone is laid for the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The university officially opens in April 1925.
1918-1920: A British military administration rules Jerusalem and the rest of Palestine.
January 1919: The First Palestine Arab Congress, with 27 delegates, meets in Jerusalem and suggests that Palestine should be a part of Arab Syria.
1920-1948: A British civilian administration governs Jerusalem as part of the British Mandate over the entire area of Palestine. Successive British high commissioners govern Palestine from Government House in Jerusalem.
1920: The Va’ad Leumi (National Council) is established in Jerusalem as the governing body of the Jewish community in British Palestine.
March 1920: The Jerusalem committee led by Vladimir “Ze’ev” Jabotinsky and Pinhas Rutenberg recruits and trains volunteers in self-defense. In June, the Haganah is formally established as a national underground Jewish defense organization.
April 4-7, 1920: During the Muslim Nebi Musa festival, Muslims and Jews clash in the Old City.
December 12, 1920: The Histadrut (General Federation of Jewish Labor) is established in Haifa. In 1924, a cornerstone is laid for a headquarters in Jerusalem.
1922: Jerusalem’s population totals 62,500, including 34,000 Jews.
1922: British High Commissioner Herbert Samuel appoints a young member of a prominent Jerusalem family, Hajj Amin al-Husseini, to be the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the head of the Supreme Muslim Council, which oversees all Muslim affairs in Palestine.
1928: The Western Wall Commission, made up of Swedish, Dutch and Swiss nationals, rejects the Arab view that Jews have no rights of access or worship at the Wall. The commission grants Jews free access to the Wall for prayer but says they may not bring “appurtenances of worship,” such as an ark contained the Torah scrolls. The Western Wall is placed under the authority of the Chief Rabbinate, established by the British administration.
August 1929: Muslim-Jewish clashes break out in Jerusalem over rights to the Jewish holy places and spread to Hebron and other cities, killing hundreds.
August 12, 1929: The first meeting of the expanded Jewish Agency is held in Zurich. Conceived as an expanded, more representative body of world Jewry, the Jewish Agency is created to cooperate with the British on matters affecting the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine. In 1930, the agency moves into its present headquarters on King George Street in Jerusalem.
1933: After the Nazis take power in Germany, the Central Zionist Archives are moved from Berlin to the Jewish Agency building in Jerusalem.
July 1937: The British Royal Commission (Peel Commission) first proposes partitioning Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states, with a separate corridor that includes Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The Peel report says, “A new Mandate should be instituted to execute the trust of maintaining the sanctity of Jerusalem and Bethlehem and ensuring free and safe access to them for all the world.” Safeguarding the holy places is considered a “sacred trust of civilization.”
1946: Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Herzog purchases land in Jerusalem with the intention of making it the Seat of the Chief Rabbinate.
July 22, 1946: The Irgun sets off a bomb at Jerusalem’s King David Hotel, killing more than 90 British administrators and military officials.
November 29, 1947: On a 33-13 vote, the U.N. General Assembly passes Resolution 181, calling for separate Arab and Jewish states, an economic union between them, and the internationalization of an area around Jerusalem under U.N. administration.
1947-1949: Deadly violence turns into war throughout Israel, including Jerusalem. Acting under orders, Arab soldiers loot and dynamite synagogues and Jewish schools. Twenty-seven synagogues and 30 schools are destroyed.
1948: Jerusalem’s population at the start of the year is 165,000, 100,000 of whom are Jewish.
April 9, 1948: Jewish combatants attack Deir Yassin, an Arab village outside Jerusalem, and kill more than 150 Arabs, sending a shock wave across Palestinian Arab society and leading massive numbers of Palestinians to leave their homes.
April 13, 1948: Arabs attack a Hadassah medical convoy and kill 79 people, most of them health care workers. Nearby British troops refuse to intervene.
May 13, 1948: Jordan’s Arab Legion brutalizes a Jewish community near Jerusalem, Kfar Etzion, and kills 130 Jews.
May 24, 1948: An Israeli attack, including many newly arrived Holocaust refugees, fails to dislodge Jordanian troops from Latrun, a key fortification on the road to Jerusalem.
May-June 1948: With Arab combatants blockading conventional routes into Jerusalem, the Israel Defense Forces build a makeshift, covert route to drive supplies into the besieged city. The “Burma Road” runs roughly 40 kilometers (25 miles) from Kibbutz Hulda in the center of Israel to Jerusalem.
1949-1967: In the aftermath of the War of Independence and until after the June 1967 war, Jerusalem is divided by fences and barriers. Israel controls the western portion of the city, totaling about 38 square kilometers. Jordan controls the smaller eastern side of the city, including the Old City with the most important holy sites. Israel and Jews are not given access to the holy sites. The Mandelbaum Gate, a crossing between the Jordanian and Israeli sides, is constructed. Israeli Arab Christians are allowed to use the crossing to visit Christian holy sites at Christmastime.
December 1949: The Israeli Cabinet votes to move the majority of Israel’s governmental institutions from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
1950: The English-language newspaper founded as The Palestine Post in 1932 changes its name to The Jerusalem Post.
January 23, 1950: The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, declares Jerusalem the capital of Israel and backs the placement of such major institutions as the Supreme Court, the prime minister’s office and the Knesset itself in Jerusalem.
April 24, 1950: Jordan officially annexes the West Bank and the part of Jerusalem it conquered in the 1947-1949 war. During Jordan’s 19-year control of eastern Jerusalem, the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives is desecrated, with thousands of tombstones smashed or removed. The Jordanian army trashes the Jewish Quarter of the Old City.
July 20, 1951: Jordan’s King Abdullah I is assassinated at Friday prayers at al-Aqsa mosque while preparing for further discussions about an Israeli-Jordanian agreement.
August 1951: The 23rd Zionist Congress convenes in Jerusalem. It’s the first time the organization, founded in 1897, meets in Israel.
July 1953: Israel moves its Foreign Ministry to Jerusalem.
1953: Jordan passes legislation prohibiting Christian charitable and religious institutions from purchasing property for religious purposes. The law later is amended.
1958: Heychal Shlomo, the headquarters of the Rabbinate, is built in Jerusalem on the plot Chief Rabbi Yitzhak Herzog purchased in 1946.
October 14, 1958: The cornerstone is laid for the current Knesset building in Jerusalem. Until the building’s completion, the Knesset meets in the Frumin House in Jerusalem from 1950 to 1966.
January 4, 1964: Pope Paul VI makes the first papal visit to Jerusalem. It’s also the first time a pope rides an airplane.
May 28, 1964: The Palestinian National Council convenes in Jerusalem and states that its goal is the liberation of Palestine through armed struggle. The council forms the Palestine Liberation Organization.
May 11, 1966: The Israel Museum is established in Jerusalem.
1967: Jerusalem has 263,300 inhabitants, including 195,700 Jews.
May 15, 1967: Naomi Shemer composes “Jerusalem of Gold” for a contest, and the song becomes iconic.
June 7, 1967: During the Six Day War, Israel takes control of all of Jerusalem. After the war, the Vatican abandons its demand that Jerusalem be internationalized. Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Dayan claims sovereignty over the Temple Mount immediately after the war but allows de facto control to Muslim officials “absent the breakdown of public order.” Controversy exists among Jews about the rights to access the Temple Mount and to pray there.
June 19, 1967: “There must be adequate recognition of the special interest of the three great religions in the holy places of Jerusalem,” President Lyndon Johnson says in laying out his five principles for peace after the Six-Day War.
June 28, 1967: The Knesset officially adds 70 square kilometers to Jerusalem’s municipal borders and extends sovereignty over the whole city, amending the 1950 law that proclaimed Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital.
June 28, 1967: “The hasty administrative action taken today cannot be regarded as determining the future of the Holy Places or the status of Jerusalem in relation to them,” the U.S. State Department says in response to Israel’s annexation.
1967: The Temple Mount Faithful, a Jerusalem-based movement of Orthodox Jews, seeks to build the Third Temple, antagonizing Muslims.
October 17, 1967: “Anyone who fully appreciates Israel’s position knows how hard — maybe impossible — it will be to force Israel back to 4 June lines, especially in Jerusalem,” National Security Council Middle East adviser Harold H. Saunders writes in a memorandum to special presidential assistant Eugene Rostow.
August 21, 1969: An Australian evangelical Christian starts a fire started in al-Aqsa, believing that the Temple Mount mosque’s destruction would hasten the Second Coming of Jesus.
1970: Egyptian Copts and Ethiopian Christians continue their centuries-long dispute over ownership and access to Deir al-Sultan, a church near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. On Easter night, the Ethiopians change the locks on the monastery.
December 4, 1973: “Liberation of the Arab city of Jerusalem and rejection of any situation which may be harmful to complete Arab sovereignty over the Holy City” are among the secret resolutions of the Arab League summit held in Algiers from November 26 to 28, as published by Beirut newspaper An-Nahar.
December 22, 1973: “A peace agreement must include these elements, among others: withdrawals, recognized frontiers, security arrangements, guarantees, a settlement of the legitimate interests of the Palestinians, and a recognition that Jerusalem contains places considered holy by three great religions,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Ismail Fahmi says at the opening of the Middle East peace conference in Geneva.
December 22, 1973: “Arab Jerusalem is an inseparable part of the Arab-occupied territory; therefore, Israel is to relinquish its authority over it. Arab sovereignty must be restored in the Arab sector of the city. The holy places of all the three divine religions must be preserved, protected and respected, and free access for the followers of these three religions must be secured and maintained,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Zayd al-Rifai says at the opening of the Middle East peace conference in Geneva.
June 16, 1974: Richard Nixon becomes the first U.S. president to visit Israel and Jerusalem.
July 19, 1977: Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin tells President Jimmy Carter in their first meeting, “In Israel there is an almost total national consensus that the city shall forever remain the undivided and eternal capital of the Jewish people. Yet we are not asking the Arabs to accept this position in advance as our condition for going to Geneva” for a peace conference.
November 20, 1977: Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, making the first visit to Israel by the leader of an Arab state, tells the Knesset: “In short, then, when we ask what is peace for Israel, the answer would be that Israel lives within her borders, among her Arab neighbors in safety and security, within the framework of all the guarantees she accepts and which are offered to her. But how can this be achieved? How can we reach this conclusion which would lead us to permanent peace based on justice? There are facts that should be faced with courage and clarity. There are Arab territories which Israel has occupied and still occupies by force. We insist on complete withdrawal from these territories, including Arab Jerusalem.”
1978-1979: Sadat wants the United States to pressure Israel to explicitly say Jerusalem is part of the negotiated areas under discussion during the Egyptian-Israeli peace process; Begin will have none of it. Jerusalem does not become an agenda item.
September 17, 1978: President Jimmy Carter writes to President Anwar Sadat that “I have received your letter of September 17, 1978, setting forth the Egyptian position on Jerusalem. I am transmitting a copy of that letter to Prime Minister Menachem Begin for his information. The position of the United States on Jerusalem remains the same as stated by Ambassador Goldberg in the United Nations General Assembly on July 14, 1967, and subsequently by Ambassador Yost in the United Nations Security Council on July 1, 1969.” Begin writes to Carter to thank him for his letter that day and “to inform you, Mr. President, that on June 28, 1967, Israel’s Parliament (The Knesset) promulgated and adopted a law to the effect: ‘The Government is empowered by a decree to apply the law, the jurisdiction and administration of the State to any part of Eretz Israel (Land of Israel — Palestine), as stated in that decree.’ On the basis of this law, the Government of Israel decreed in July 1967 that Jerusalem is one city indivisible, the true Capital of the State of Israel.”
March 10-13, 1979: President Jimmy Carter goes to Israel to seek the conclusion of Egyptian-Israeli treaty negotiations and sees Israeli political leaders in Jerusalem before returning to Cairo.
March 22, 1979: The United States abstains on U.N. Security Council Resolution 446, in which the council “calls once more upon Israel, as the occupying Power, to abide scrupulously by the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, to rescind its previous measures and to desist from taking any action which would result in changing the legal status and geographical nature and materially affecting the demographic composition of the Arab territories occupied since 1967, including Jerusalem, and, in particular, not to transfer parts of its own civilian population into the occupied Arab territories.”
March 31, 1979: Egypt “has thus deviated from the Arab ranks and has chosen, in collusion with the United States, to stand by the side of the Zionist enemy in one trench; has behaved unilaterally in the Arab-Zionist struggle affairs; has violated the Arab nation’s rights; has exposed the nation’s destiny, its struggle and aims to dangers and challenges; has relinquished its pan-Arab duty of liberating the occupied Arab territories, particularly Jerusalem, and of restoring the Palestinian Arab people’s inalienable national rights, including their right to repatriation, self-determination and establishment of the independent Palestinian State on their national soil,” reads the Beirut Arab League Council resolution criticizing Egypt for breaking ranks with other Arab states by signing a treaty with Israel five days earlier.
July 30, 1980: The Knesset passes the Fifth Basic Law, addressing Jerusalem. It states, “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel; it is the seat of the President of the State, the Knesset, the Government and the Supreme Court. The Holy Places shall be protected from desecration and any other violation and from anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings towards those places.”
August 20, 1980: U.N. Security Council Resolution 478, the last of five Israel-criticizing resolutions the Carter administration allowed to pass, condemns Israel’s Fifth Basic Law, censures Israeli actions and calls Israel an occupying power of Jerusalem. On a 14-0 vote with the U.S. abstention, the resolution calls on “Those States that have established diplomatic missions at Jerusalem to withdraw such missions from the Holy City” and “determines that all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and in particular the recent ‘basic law’ on Jerusalem, are null and void and must be rescinded forthwith.”
1980: The International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem is founded by evangelical Christians in support of the Israeli government’s Jerusalem Law.
August 6, 1981: Saudi Crown Prince Fahd presents an eight-point peace plan that includes Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied in 1967, “including Arab Jerusalem,” and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.
September 1, 1982: “When the border is negotiated between Jordan and Israel, our view on the extent to which Israel should be asked to give up territory will be heavily affected by the extent of true peace and normalization and the security arrangements offered in return. Finally, we remain convinced that Jerusalem must remain undivided, but its final status should be decided through negotiations,” President Ronald Reagan says in a statement on the Palestinians and the West Bank.
February 11, 1985: “The Government of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the Palestine Liberation Organization have agreed to move together toward the achievement of a peaceful and just settlement of the Middle East crisis and the termination of Israeli occupation of the occupied Arab territories, including Jerusalem,” according to the PLO-Jordan accord signed by Yasser Arafat and King Hussein.
January 5, 1988: “Jerusalem will be internationally recognized as Israel’s capital under any future peace agreements. But Jerusalem is the center of Palestinian aspirations as well. Therefore, a peaceful Jerusalem should remain a unified city, with guaranteed freedom of worship and access, and political arrangements should be found that reflect the nature of the city’s population,” the Brookings Institution says in Toward Arab-Israeli Peace: Report of a Study Group.
July 28, 1988: “Of late, it has become clear that there is a general Palestinian and Arab orientation which believes in the need to highlight the Palestinian identity in full, in all efforts and activities that are related to the Palestine question and its developments. It has also become obvious that there is a general conviction that maintaining the legal and administrative relationship with the West Bank, and the consequent special Jordanian treatment of the brother Palestinians living under occupation through Jordanian institutions in the occupied territories, goes against this orientation. It would be an obstacle to the Palestinian struggle which seeks to win international support for the Palestine question, considering that it is a just national issue of a people struggling against foreign occupation,” Jordan’s King Hussein says in a speech announcing the withdrawal of his country’s claims to legal and administrative ties to the West Bank, except for the Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.
August 18, 1988: The Hamas Charter includes the following: “The Arab countries surrounding Israel are requested to open their borders for the Mujahidin of the Arab and Islamic countries so they can take their role and join their efforts with their Muslim brothers of Palestine. As for the other Arabic and Islamic countries, they are asked to ease the movement of Mujahidin from it and to it — that is the least they could do. We shouldn’t lose this opportunity to remind every Muslim that when the Jews occupied immaculate Jerusalem in 1967, they stood on the stairs of the blessed Masjid al-Aqsa, loudly chanting: ‘Muhammad has died and left girls behind.’”
November 15, 1988: “The PNC declares in the name of God and in the name of the Palestinian Arab people the emergence of the State of Palestine over our Palestinian soil and its capital, holy Jerusalem. The State of Palestine belongs to Palestinians wherever they may be,” PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat says in declaring a Palestinian state in a speech to the Palestine National Council.
October 15, 1989: “O masses of our great people, masses of our heroic Arab nation: The continuation of the blessed intifada and its firmness on the soil of the homeland; the management of the political battle in accordance with the right policy adopted by the PLO leadership on the basis of the PNC resolutions on Algiers; and the Palestinian peace initiative produced by this policy and unleashed by brother President Yasser Arafat in his speech before the United Nations in Geneva opened the way for the group of achievements that were scored. They also led to the growth of national victories toward realizing our peoples’ aims of return, self-determination and the establishment of our independent state, with holy Jerusalem as its capital, on our sacred soil,” the PLO’s Central Council says in a statement.
March 3, 1990: “My position is that the foreign policy of the United States says we do not believe there should be new settlements in the West Bank or in East Jerusalem. And I will conduct that policy as if it’s firm, which it is, and I will be shaped in whatever decisions we make to see whether people can comply with that policy. And that’s our strongly held view, and we think it’s constructive to peace — the peace process too — if Israel will follow that view. And so, there’s divisions in Israel on this question, incidentally. Parties are divided on it. But this is the position of the United States, and I’m not going to change that position,” President George H.W. Bush says in a statement on Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
January 25, 1991: “Nothing the Palestinians do in selecting the members of this delegation at this stage will affect their demands on East Jerusalem or constitute a precedent or a prejudgment of the results of the negotiations. … The U.S. position is that Jerusalem should never again be a divided city. Its final status should be determined during the negotiations,” reads a U.S. memorandum of understanding with the Palestinians.
March 12, 1991: “Israel should not be allowed to continue to block and foil the U.N. resolutions on the Palestinians, particularly with regard to the annexation of East Jerusalem, the establishment of settlements, and the expropriation of land and resources. It is vital that the fourth Geneva Convention be applied,” Palestinian negotiators say in the Eleven-Point Manifesto for Negotiating Outcome and Application of Relevant U.N. Palestinian Resolutions.
September 16, 1991: “The United States reaffirms its position that Israel has the right to secure and defensible borders (being aware that the armistice lines of 5 June 1967 are neither secure nor defensible). The borders must be discussed directly with the neighboring states. … The United States opposes the idea of a Palestinian state between Israel and Jordan. … Jerusalem will never be re-divided. The United States notes the Israeli position that united Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel,” reads a U.S. Memorandum of Agreement to Israel on the Peace Process.
October 18, 1991: “The United States understands how much importance Palestinians attach to the question of East Jerusalem. Thus, we want to assure you that nothing Palestinians do in choosing their delegation members in this phase of the process will affect their claim to East Jerusalem, or be prejudicial or precedential to the outcome of negotiations. It remains the firm position of the United States that Jerusalem must never again be a divided city and that its final status should be decided by negotiations. Thus, we do not recognize Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem or the extension of its municipal boundaries, and we encourage all sides to avoid unilateral acts that would exacerbate local tensions, or make negotiations more difficult or preempt their final outcome. It is also the United States’ position that a Palestinian resident in Jordan with ties to a prominent Jerusalem family would be eligible to join the Jordanian side of the delegation,” the United States assures the Palestinian delegation to the upcoming Madrid Middle East Peace Conference.
1992: After the Israeli Supreme Court is housed in a rented building in Jerusalem for 44 years, the permanent building is completed in the Givat Ram neighborhood between the Knesset and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
September 13, 1993: Israel and the PLO sign the Oslo Accords (Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements). The agreement says Jerusalem is a matter for negotiation: “It is understood that these negotiations shall cover remaining issues, including: Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, security arrangements, borders, relations and cooperation with other neighbors, and other issues of common interest. … Palestinians of Jerusalem who live there will have the right to participate in the election process, according to an agreement between the two sides. … Jurisdiction of the Council will cover the West Bank and Gaza Strip territory, except for issues that will be negotiated in the permanent status negotiations: Jerusalem, settlements, military locations and Israelis.”
December 1993: Israel and the Vatican sign an accord that leads to mutual recognition and the exchange of ambassadors. The accord notes that “the State of Israel affirms its continuing commitment to maintain and respect the ‘status quo’ in the Christian holy places.” The Vatican recognizes the PLO in October 1994.
May 10, 1994: Yasser Arafat says in a speech about jihad and the ongoing Oslo process: “My brothers, it must be understood that after the Gulf war the main conspiracy was to completely eliminate the Palestinian problem from the international agenda. … Our community in Kuwait, which was one of the largest and richest, was kicked out of Kuwait. Not only that, but later we were presented with the Bush initiative on the Madrid conference. And it was not easy to agree to go to Madrid conference because of its very difficult conditions. … The jihad will continue. Jerusalem is not only of the Palestinian people, but of the entire Islamic nation. You are responsible for Palestine and for Jerusalem. … After this agreement you must understand that our main battle is not to get the maximum out of them here and there. The main battle is over Jerusalem, the third most sacred site of the Muslims. Everybody must understand it. Therefore, I insisted before signing [the Gaza and Jericho agreement in Cairo] to get a letter from the Israelis that Jerusalem is one of the items for discussion in the negotiations. We are not talking about Israel’s permanent status. No. We are talking about the permanent status of Palestine. It is very important that everybody understand it.”
October 26, 1994: Israel and Jordan sign a peace treaty, which states that “in accordance with the Washington Declaration, Israel respects the present special role for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy Shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.”
November 1994: Twelve Christian church denominations sign a memorandum, “The Significance of Jerusalem for Christians,” calling for the maintenance of the “status quo” for holy sites in Jerusalem.
January 1995: The Islamic Conference’s Jerusalem Committee opposes Jordan’s role in maintaining the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem and supports a transfer of power to the Palestinian Authority, continuing the angry jockeying for influence over Jerusalem between Jordan and the Palestinians that began well before Israel was established.
September 28, 1995: Speaking at the Washington signing ceremony for the Taba Agreement, part of the Oslo process, PA President Yasser Arafat says: “We still carry on our shoulders many other tasks, such as moving toward the permanent status negotiations as soon as possible. The permanent status negotiations will deal with such issues as settlements, the delineation of the borders, the rights of Palestinian refugees as determined by international legitimacy, and the fundamental issue concerning the status of Jerusalem, which our people, irrespective of their faith — Muslims, Christians or Jews — consider to be the heart and soul of their entity and the center of their cultural, spiritual and economic life. Here, I must note that the sanctity of Jerusalem for us all dictates that we make it the joint cornerstone and the capital of peace between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples inasmuch as it is a beacon for believers all over the world.”
October 1995: Congress passes the Jerusalem Embassy Act, 93-5 in the Senate and 374-37 in the House. It calls for the president to move the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem by May 1999 unless the president uses a waiver for national security reasons.
July 10, 1996: In his first speech to a joint session of Congress, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says: “Since 1967, under Israeli sovereignty, united Jerusalem has, for the first time in 2,000 years, become the city of peace. For the first time, the holy places have been open to worshippers from all three great faiths. For the first time, no group in the city or among its pilgrims has been persecuted or denied free expression. For the first time, a single sovereign authority has afforded security and protection to members of every nationality who sought to come to pray there. There have been efforts to redivide this city by those who claim that peace can come through division — that it can be secured through multiple sovereignties, multiple laws and multiple police forces. This is a groundless and dangerous assumption, which impels me to declare today: There will never be such a redivision of Jerusalem. Never.”
March 21, 2000: In the second papal visit to Jerusalem ever, Pope John Paul II visits Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites, meets with Israeli politicians and chief rabbis, and blesses the State of Israel. While visiting the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Jerusalem, he says, “’As bishop of Rome and successor of the Apostle Peter, I assure the Jewish people that the Catholic Church, motivated by the Gospel law of truth and love, and by no political considerations, is deeply saddened by the hatred, acts of persecution and displays of antisemitism directed against the Jews by Christians at any time and in any place.”
July 11-25, 2000: As part of the Camp David II summit, the Israeli delegation offers to divide Jerusalem into Jewish and Arab areas. Israel would maintain control over the settlement blocks of Kedar, Ma’aleh Adumim, Givat Ze’ev and Gilo. The PA would gain control of the Arab neighborhoods of Shuafat, Kafr Aqab, Issawiya, Wadi Joz, A-Tur, Abu Tor, Beit Safafa and Sur Baher. The Old City would be divided between the PA and Israel. Yasser Arafat turns the deal down, causing a halt in negotiations.
September 28, 2000: Likud leader Ariel Sharon visits the al-Aqsa area and is met by Palestinian protesters, sparking five years of sporadic, often intense Palestinian violence known as the Second Intifada, in which more than 1,000 Israelis are killed. Research shows that Yasser Arafat instigates the violence to coincide with Sharon’s visit.
November 2002: Construction of a 225,000-square-foot Ministry of Foreign Affairs building is completed. The ministry moved to Jerusalem in 1953.
December 23, 2000: President Bill Clinton issues the Clinton Parameters for Negotiating Peace. Regarding Jerusalem, the parameters read: “The general principle is that Arab areas are Palestinian and Jewish ones are Israeli. This would apply to the Old City as well. I urge the two sides to work on maps to create maximum contiguity for both sides. Regarding the Haram/Temple Mount, I believe that the gaps are not related to practical administration but to symbolic issues of sovereignty and to finding a way to accord respect to the religious beliefs of both sides.”
March 19, 2001: “I bring you greetings from Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people for the past 3,000 years and of the State of Israel for the past 52 years and forever. Jerusalem belongs to all the Jewish people. We in Israel are only custodians of the city. Only under the sovereignty of Israel has Jerusalem been open to all faiths. Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, the holiest site to the Jewish people, is something you should stand up and speak out about. Jerusalem will remain united under the sovereignty of Israel — forever,” Prime Minister Ariel Sharon says at the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington.
March 28, 2002: The Arab League summit in Beirut endorses a Saudi proposal that becomes known as the Arab Peace Initiative. It states, “Having listened to the statement made by his royal highness Prince Abdullah Bin Abdullaziz, the crown prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in which his highness presented his initiative, calling for full Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories occupied since June 1967, in implementation of Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338, reaffirmed by the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the land for peace principle, and Israel’s acceptance of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, in return for the establishment of normal relations in the context of a comprehensive peace with Israel.”
April 30, 2003: The Quartet of the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia presents its Roadmap for a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict. It reads in part: “Parties reach final and comprehensive permanent status agreement that ends the Israel-Palestinian conflict in 2005, through a settlement negotiated between the parties based on UNSCR 242, 338, and 1397, that ends the occupation that began in 1967, and includes an agreed, just, fair, and realistic solution to the refugee issue, and a negotiated resolution on the status of Jerusalem that takes into account the political and religious concerns of both sides, and protects the religious interests of Jews, Christians, and Muslims worldwide, and fulfills the vision of two states, Israel and sovereign, independent, democratic and viable Palestine, living side-by-side in peace and security.”
February 8, 2006: As part of a joint statement with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during talks in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, PA President Mahmoud Abbas says: “We differ on several issues. And this may include settlement, the release of prisoners, the wall closing, and institutions in Jerusalem. We will not be able to solve all of these issues today, but our positions towards these issues are clear and firm.”
June 4, 2008: “Let me be clear. Israel’s security is sacrosanct. It is non-negotiable. The Palestinians need a state that is contiguous and cohesive and that allows them to prosper — but any agreement with the Palestinian people must preserve Israel’s identity as a Jewish state, with secure, recognized and defensible borders. Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel, and it must remain undivided,” Sen. Barack Obama, running for president, tells the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington.
May 11, 2009: In a papal visit hailed by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs as “an important stage in the development of the relationship between the Vatican and Israel, strengthening the dialogue between Christianity, Judaism and Islam, as part of the effort to achieve peace in the region,” Pope Benedict XVI meets with Israeli and Palestinian leaders and visits Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy sites, including those in Jerusalem.
June 14, 2009: “Regarding the remaining important issues that will be discussed as part of the final settlement, my positions are known: Israel needs defensible borders, and Jerusalem must remain the united capital of Israel with continued religious freedom for all faiths,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says in a speech at Bar-Ilan University in which he embraces the concept of a two-state solution.
March 19, 2010: “Recalling that the annexation of East Jerusalem is not recognized by the international community, the Quartet underscores that the status of Jerusalem is a permanent status issue that must be resolved through negotiations between the parties and condemns the decision by the Government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem. … The Quartet recognizes that Jerusalem is a deeply important issue for Israelis and Palestinians, and for Jews, Muslims, and Christians, and believes that through good faith and negotiations, the parties can mutually agree on an outcome that realizes the aspirations of both parties for Jerusalem, and safeguards this status for people around the world,” reads a statement from U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on behalf of the Quartet in Moscow.
March 22, 2010, “And the United States recognizes that Jerusalem — Jerusalem is a deeply, profoundly important issue for Israelis and Palestinians, for Jews, Muslims and Christians. We believe that through good-faith negotiations the parties can mutually agree on an outcome that realizes the aspirations of both parties for Jerusalem and safeguards its status for people around the world,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tells the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington.
May 24, 2014: Marking the 50th anniversary of the first papal visit to Jerusalem, Pope Francis travels to the holy city and other locations and meets with Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinians leaders. The Pope made numerous pleas for peace in the region.
December 17, 2014: The European Parliament calls for the recognition of a Palestinian state as part of a two-state solution, saying it “reiterates its strong support for the two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states, with the secure State of Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous and viable Palestinian State living side by side in peace and security on the basis of the right of self-determination and full respect of international law.”
2015: Jerusalem population’s is 857,800, 524,700 of whom are Jewish.
March 21, 2016: “But when the United States stands with Israel, the chances of peace really rise and rises exponentially. That’s what will happen when Donald Trump is president of the United States. We will move the American Embassy to the eternal capital of the Jewish people, Jerusalem. And we will send a clear signal that there is no daylight between America and our most reliable ally, the State of Israel,” presidential candidate Donald Trump tells the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington.
December 23, 2016: The U.N. Security Council in Resolution 2334, passed on a 14-0 vote with the United States abstaining, “reaffirms that the establishment by Israel of settlements in the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967, including East Jerusalem, has no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace; reiterates its demand that Israel immediately and completely cease all settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and that it fully respect all of its legal obligations in this regard; underlines that it will not recognize any changes to the 4 June 1967 lines, including with regard to Jerusalem, other than those agreed by the parties through negotiations.”
March 26, 2017: “And know this, after decades of simply talking about it, the president of the United States is giving serious consideration to moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.” Vice President Mike Pence tells the AIPAC Policy Conference in Washington.
December 6, 2017: President Donald Trump announces U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, saying: “I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today, I am delivering. I’ve judged this course of action to be in the best interests of the United States of America and the pursuit of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This is a long-overdue step to advance the peace process and to work towards a lasting agreement. Israel is a sovereign nation with the right, like every other sovereign nation, to determine its own capital. Acknowledging this is a fact is a necessary condition for achieving peace. … Jerusalem is today, and must remain, a place where Jews pray at the Western Wall, where Christians walk the Stations of the Cross, and where Muslims worship at al-Aqsa mosque. … This decision is not intended, in any way, to reflect a departure from our strong commitment to facilitate a lasting peace agreement. We want an agreement that is a great deal for the Israelis and a great deal for the Palestinians. We are not taking a position of any final status issues, including the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem or the resolution of contested borders. Those questions are up to the parties involved.”
December 21, 2017: The U.N. General Assembly rejects a recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, passing Resolution GA/11995 on a 128-9 vote with 35 abstentions. Under the resolution, the General Assembly “affirms that any decisions and actions which purport to have altered the character, status or demographic composition of the Holy City of Jerusalem have no legal effect, are null and void, and must be rescinded in compliance with relevant resolutions of the Security Council, and in this regard calls upon all States to refrain from the establishment of diplomatic missions in the Holy City of Jerusalem, pursuant to Resolution 478 (1980) of the Security Council.”
May 14, 15 and 20, 2018: The United States, Guatemala and Paraguay, respectively, move their embassies to Jerusalem. Paraguay moves its back to Tel Aviv four months later, leading Israel to close its embassy in Paraguay.
March 31, 2019: The Israel Antiquities Authority announces the discovery within a few weeks of each other of two 2,600-year-old inscriptions in Jerusalem’s City of David. “These artifacts attest to the highly developed system of administration in the Kingdom of Judah and add considerable information to our understanding of the economic status of Jerusalem and its administrative system during the First Temple period, as well as personal information about the king’s closest officials and administrators who lived and worked in the city,” the authority says.
June 2, 2019: Hundreds of Palestinians protest when 120 Jews are allowed to enter the Temple Mount during the final days of Ramadan, something that police have not permitted during the last 10 days of Ramadan for 30 years — the last time Jerusalem Day overlapped with the Muslim holiday. Palestinians throw stones and chairs at Israeli security forces, which use riot-dispersal methods.
January 23, 2020: The world’s largest political gathering, “Remembering the Holocaust, Fighting Antisemitism,” takes place in Jerusalem at Israel’s fifth World Holocaust Forum on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. More than 45 heads of state, world leaders and royalty attend.
February 6, 2020: Around 2 a.m., a Palestinian rams his car outside First Station into a group of Golani soldiers visiting Jerusalem ahead of their swearing-in ceremony. Twelve are wounded, one seriously.
2020: Jerusalem’s population is 951,100, including 584,400 Jews. The city has Israel’s largest Jewish and Arab populations and 10% of the country’s total population.
May 9, 2021: After several days of clashes between protesters and police, the Supreme Court postpones a hearing about evicting Palestinian families from homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
May 10, 2021: Major clashes break out between Palestinians and Israeli police at the Temple Mount during Ramadan, with many Palestinians injured. A viral video on social media increases tensions. It depicts young religious Jews dancing against the backdrop of fire. What isn’t clear at first glance is that the dancing celebrates Jerusalem Day and that a tree, not al-Aqsa mosque, is aflame. From Gaza, Hamas fires rockets into Jerusalem.
June 21, 2021: Honduras moves its embassy to Jerusalem.
November 26, 2021: The U.N. General Assembly passes Resolution A/76/L16 on Jerusalem on a vote of 129-11, with 31 abstentions. The text refers to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, solely by its Muslim name, Haram al-Sharif.
November 23, 2022: Two bus stops at the entrance to Jerusalem are bombed, killing two people and injuring 22 others. It is the first bombing carried out against Israel civilians since a 2016 suicide bombing in Jerusalem.
January 3, 2023: Days after being sworn in as national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir makes a pilgrimage to the Temple Mount under heavy security. Palestinians consider Ben-Gvir’s visit a scandalous provocation because the right-wing minister is a longtime advocate of Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount.
January 8, 2023: National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir orders the police to remove Palestinian flags from public places, a directive protested by Arabs in East Jerusalem.
January 25, 2023: In a secret meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah II, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reportedly responds to the recent Ben-Gvir visit to the Temple Mount by promising that the status quo on the Temple Mount will be preserved. “Under an arrangement that has prevailed for decades under Jordan’s custodianship, Jews and other non-Muslims are permitted to visit the Temple Mount during certain hours but may not pray there.”
January 27, 2023: A Palestinian opens fire near a Neve Yaakov synagogue, killing seven and wounding three. Police Chief Yaakov Shabtai describes as “one of the worst terror attacks in the past few years.”
February 23, 2023: A Palestinian Arab rams his car into a bus stop in the Jewish neighborhood of Ramot in eastern Jerusalem, killing four and wounding three others.
April 2023: Tensions escalate on the Temple Mount as Ramadan and Passover overlap. Palestinians barricade themselves in al-Aqsa mosque, stockpiling stones and firecrackers and calling on Israel to allow prayer there overnight, not just during the day.
April 24, 2023: A Palestinian Arab plows his car into Jewish pedestrians in Davidka Square in western Jerusalem, injuring several Israelis, one critically.
May 21, 2023: National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir ascends the Temple Mount, his second visit to the religious flash point since taking his Cabinet post. PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ spokesman denounces the visit as a “blatant attack” on al-Aqsa mosque.
September 6, 2023: A Palestinian Arab boy with a meat cleaver slashes Israeli civilians indiscriminately outside the Old City’s Jaffa Gate.
October 13, 2023: Amid heightening tensions after the October 7 terrorist attack and Israel’s retaliatory campaign in Gaza, Israel refuses entry to all Palestinian worshippers bound for al-Aqsa mosque who are younger than 60.
February 22, 2024: Palestinian Arab gunmen near the Jerusalem suburb of Malei Adumim open fire on Israeli civilians, killing one and wounding 10 others.
April 4, 2024: The Jerusalem District Police and the Shin Bet foil a plot by two ISIS sympathizers to attack an East Jerusalem police station and the city’s Teddy Stadium.
June 5, 2024: Clashes break out between Jews and Arabs in the Old City during the annual Jerusalem Day processions.
November 7, 2024: Causing a diplomatic spat with Paris, Israeli police briefly detain two French security guards after they refuse to produce identification when prompted at the Church of the Pater Noster on the Mount of Olives, one of four churches administered by the French Consulate.
December 12, 2024: Paraguay becomes the sixth country to relocate its embassy to Jerusalem, joining the United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Kosovo and Papua New Guinea.
January 18, 2025: Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen fire missiles at Israel, including Jerusalem, hours after Israel approves a Gaza cease-fire and hostage deal.
April 2025: An Italian-Israeli archaeology group finds olive and grape pollen near the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, supporting the Gospel account of a “garden tomb.”
May 26, 2025: An estimated 30,000 Jewish ultranationalists storm the Muslim Quarter in the Old City, chanting anti-Arab slogans and clashing with police and Palestinians.
