One of the main obstacles to previous peace-making efforts in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been the issue of dividing Jerusalem.

The Palestinian position views eastern Jerusalem as part of the West Bank, which it considers Arab territory that Israel is illegally occupying. While Palestinians reject Israeli sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem, they claim eastern Jerusalem – with holy sites to three religions – as the capital of their future state. They view the permanent status of western Jerusalem to be subject to final negotiations.

The Israeli position considers Jerusalem – both western and eastern– the country’s eternal, undivided capital based on its historical, religious and political claims to the holy city. Since Israel’s reunification of Jerusalem in 1967, following 19 years of division during which Israeli Jews were excluded from the eastern part, the government through successive administrations has vowed never to re-divide the city again. In 1980, the Israeli Knesset passed a Basic Law declaring reunified Jerusalem the eternal capital of Israel, while providing for freedom of access to each religion’s holy sites.

There is no doubt that these competing demands and claims will be difficult to reconcile. It is made all the more difficult by a media that errs or misleads on the topic.

Do Jews have a right to settle in eastern Jerusalem? What are the legal issues regarding sovereignty over eastern Jerusalem’? Is Israel’s annexation of eastern Jerusalem legitimate? The media often blurs these distinct questions together as one, answered with the facile and misleading conclusion that Israel is guilty of breaking international law. But without looking at the complex historic and legal considerations that underlie each of these questions, the media prevents news consumers from understanding one of the primary issues in the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict.

This backgrounder addresses some of the common media misrepresentations regarding Jerusalem.

Click on each question below to expand.

Click on each image for a larger version.

This is what much of the media suggests. EXAMPLES: “The panorama included…Jewish neighborhoods in traditionally Arab east Jerusalem, the Israeli-annexed sector of the city that Palestinians claim as a future capital.” (Chicago Tribune, March 21, 2010) “Abbas temporarily walked away from the negotiations in March after Israel announced more housing for Jews in traditionally Arab east Jerusalem.” (AP, June 1, 2010) “Should an independent Palestinian state ever be established on the West Bank, the 250,000-plus Jewish settlers scattered around it would have to be moved – as well as the more than 200,000 Israelis who now live in and around Arab east Jerusalem.” (The Sunday Telegraph, Dec. 23, 2012) “Maalot David …is a new apartment block sandwiched into the very fabric of Arab East Jerusalem…” (The New York Times, March 17, 2013) This is not, however, the case. The area was only exclusively Arab for the 19 year-period between 1948 and 1967 in which Jordan occupied eastern Jerusalem. Jewish presence and sovereignty in east Jerusalem actually predated the Arab presence there, and has been nearly continuous. For over three millennia, since King David established Jerusalem as the capital of his kingdom in 1004 BCE, there has been an almost continuous Jewish presence in Jerusalem, the holiest city in Judaism. And for most of that time it was concentrated in east Jerusalem, where Judaism’s holy sites lie. Since the mid-1800’s, Jews have constituted the largest single group of residents in the city. According to historical and cultural geographer Professor Yehoshua Ben-Arieh, “In the second half of the nineteenth century and at the end of that century, Jews comprised the majority of the population of the Old City…”1 Historian Martin Gilbert reports that 6,000 Jews resided in Jerusalem in 1838, compared to 5,000 Muslims and 3,000 Christians.2 Encyclopaedia Britannica of 1853 “assessed the Jewish population of Jerusalem in 1844 at 7,120, making them the biggest single religious group in the city.”3 And others 4 estimated the number of Jewish residents of Jerusalem at the time as even higher. Until about 1860, those residents lived almost exclusively in east Jerusalem. Between 1860 and 1948, when building expanded out to western Jerusalem, Jews and Arabs lived in both east and west Jerusalem.













































Jerusalem was divided for the first time as a result of the 1948 war, in which neighboring Arab nations invaded the new State of Israel and attempted to capture the entire city, both east and west. Transjordan’s Arab Legion shelled and besieged the city, cutting off its Jewish residents from the coastal plain. The Jordanian forces seized east Jerusalem, expelled its Jewish residents, destroyed Jewish property and religious sites, and made it a Judenrein (Jew free) area, while Jews continued to live in west Jerusalem.













A New York Times article published right after Jordanian forces took control of eastern Jerusalem describes how Jewish demographics were changed at that time: Thus the Jews have been eliminated from the City of David for the first time since the sixteenth century. Except for sixty years in the sixteenth century, they are believed to have been there continuously since the return from the Babylonian captivity. New [ i.e. west] Jerusalem was largely created in the last seventy years.5 Jerusalem’s Jewish Quarter Before and After Jordanian Takeover in 1948













































In 1967 Jordan initiated hostilities against Israel, which engaged in self-defensive battles. By the end of the fighting, Israel had regained control of its traditional capital and holy sites in east Jerusalem. Jews began to move back there, and the eastern part of Jerusalem again became home to Jews, as well as Arabs. The Israeli government annexed east Jerusalem, vowing never to re-divide Jerusalem again and allowing freedom of worship at the holy sites. *For more, read CAMERA’s “Backgrounder: History of Jerusalem“ 1 Ben Arieh, Yehoshua; Jerusalem in the 19th Century: The Old City; Palgrave MacMillan (1985)

2 Gilbert, Martin; Jerusalem: Rebirth of a City ; Viking Adult (1985)

3 Prittie, Terence; Whose Jerusalem? Frederick Muller Ltd (1981)

4 British historian Tudor Parfitt as mentioned in this blog post.

5 Dana Adams Schmidt, New York Times, May 30, 1948

Journalists routinely convey this as fact. EXAMPLES: “This means the plan for Givat Hamatos, a large tract of open land with a temporary cluster of prefabs housing a small group of Ethiopian Jews, is not only illegal in international law but also a ‘provocative action’…” (The Independent, Nov. 13, 2011) “Under international law all of the settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem are illegal.” (BBC, May 16, 2013) “Har Homa [Israeli neighborhood in east Jerusalem] is considered an illegal settlement under international law…” (The International Herald Tribune, July 1, 2013) “Israel to build 1,500 illegal settler homes [in East Jerusalem]” (Al Jazeera headline, Oct. 30, 2013) But they are mistaken. International law firmly establishes the right of Israelis to settle and reside anywhere between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, an area which includes eastern Jerusalem.1,2 This international legal right is vested in political and legal agreements drawn up in the post-World War I years between 1919 and 1923. A Mandates System established in Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations,3 was contained in the Treaty of Versailles and other peace treaties made with the Central Powers. The Supreme Council of the Principal Allied Powers officially recognized Palestine as a mandated state for the Jewish people at the 1920 San Remo Conference. The San Remo Resolution of April 25, 1920 served as the basis for the future administration of Palestine which would henceforth be recognized as the Jewish National Home, as envisioned by the Balfour Declaration. The resulting 1922 Palestine Mandate,4 which incorporated the resolution into its preamble, confirmed Jewish historical and national rights and converted the Balfour Declaration from a statement of British foreign policy to binding international law.5













According to Article 6 of the Mandate, “close settlement by Jews on the land, including State lands not required for public use” was to be encouraged. Article 80 of the U.N. Charter preserved this Jewish right to settlement by specifying that nothing in the U.N. Charter’s chapter on the administration of Mandate territory shall be construed ” to alter in any manner” the rights of people and the terms of “existing international instruments” (for example, the Mandate). Eugene Rostow, a legal scholar who served as U.S. under-secretary of state under the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, explained that “the Jewish right of settlement in the area is equivalent in every way to the right of the existing Palestinian population to live there.” 6 1 Jacques Paul Gauthier, Sovereignty Over the Old City of Jerusalem: A Study of the Historical, Religious, Political and Legal Aspects of the Question of the Old City, Institut universitaire de hautes études internationales (2007)

2 Cynthia Wallace, Foundations of the International Legal Rights of the Jewish People and the State of Israel: Implications for a New Palestinian State, Charisma Media (2012)

3 The Covenant of the League of Nations, Article 22

4 The Palestine Mandate

5 Howard Grief, “Legal Rights and Title of Sovereignty of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel and Palestine under International Law,” Nativ Online, Vol. 2, 2004

6 Eugene Rostow, “Historical Approach to the Issue of Legality of Jewish Settlement Activity” The New Republic, April 23,1990



These allegations are routinely promoted both in the media and by such anti-Israel groups as the “Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions” (ICAHD), which receives its funding from the EU, opposes the existence of a Jewish state and promotes boycotts against Israel. 1 EXAMPLES: Host Bob Simon: “The army is evicting Arabs from their homes in East Jerusalem, which Palestinians hoped to make their capital. Outraged, Arabs tried to save their homes, but the Israelis have the guns. Israel demolished more than 100 Arab homes in the past year, ruling they’d been illegally built. Arabs say this is just another tactic to drive them out.” (CBS 60 Minutes, “Is Peace Out of Reach?” Jan. 25, 2009) Host Jeremy Vine (introduction to television program): “Palestinians are being thrown out of their homes, Israelis

Jane Corbin: “…I’m in the middle of a battlefield. The weapons are bulldozers and riot police. The Israeli authorities are demolishing Palestinian homes…”

Jane Corbin: “…there’s another 40 [demolitions] to go before the end of the year. That’s because the municipal government has a budget that it has to use up for demolitions.”

Jane Corbin: “Jawad Siyam is a local Palestinian activist, documenting what Israel is doing…”

Palestinian activist Jawad Siyam: “It’s ethnic cleansing for Silwan, for east Jerusalem…” (BBC Panorama, “A Walk in the Park,” Jan. 18, 2010) “Ahmed Rweidi, a Palestinian Authority official speaking on Palestinian radio, accused Mr. Barkat this week of a plan for ”ethnic cleansing” because he wants to demolish houses in Al Bustan….

…The threat of demolitions in Al Bustan is part of a larger issue drawing international concern — Palestinians being driven from East Jerusalem and replaced by Jews.” (The New York Times, Feb. 26, 2010) “Despite claims that Palestinian houses, reservoirs and other buildings are ‘illegal,’ demolition is merely another face of ethnic cleansing, since the Jerusalem municipality, the Ministry of Interior and the Civil Administration of the West Bank all deny Palestinians the right to build homes on their own property.” (ICAHD website, July 15, 2010) The claims, however, are simply false. Far from being ethnically cleansed, the Arab population of Jerusalem has grown more rapidly under Israeli rule than at any other time during the 20th century. Since 1967, when Israel gained control of east Jerusalem, the increase in Jerusalem’s Arab population outpaced the growth of the Jewish population. The proportion of Arabs in the city’s population has been steadily rising – from 26% in 1967 to 28% in 1980 to 35% in 2007, and to just over 36% in 2011.2. 3 Israel Kimhi of Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies is a former city planner whose area of expertise is Jerusalem housing. He notes that Arabs built about 19,000 apartments in the city in the last 15 or so years – an increase of 83%. While much of that construction was done with legal permits, a lot was also done illegally.4 Demolition by Jerusalem authorities of structures that are built illegally take place both in the Jewish and Arab sectors. But demolitions in the Arab sector by Jerusalem authorities are frequently depicted as examples of Israel’s attempt to push the Arabs out and take their place. In fact, these demolitions are determined by the number of illegally constructed buildings erected by residents without the appropriate permits. The illegal structures are demolished because they threaten delivery of public services, provision of green spaces, and preservation of archeological, architectural and historical heritage.5 Jerusalem municipal authorities consider these demolitions no less justified than demolitions by governments all over the world of structures that violate zoning laws or housing codes, do not meet planning standards, or stand in the way of urban renewal. The Jerusalem municipality cracks down on illegally built structures, regardless of whether they are built by Jews or Arabs. 1 NGO Monitor: Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD)

2 Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Jerusalem: Facts and Trends 2007/2008: Population

3 Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies, Statistical Yearbook 2013 Edition, Table III/I – Population of Israel and Jerusalem, by Population Group, 1922 – 2011

4 Israel Kimhi, personal communication

5 Ricki Hollander, Gilead Ini, “BBC Panorama Distorts the Facts About Jerusalem,’ CAMERA website



This claim is similarly promoted in the media and by ICAHD. EXAMPLES:

“It is almost impossible to get an Israeli permit to build a home in East Jerusalem…” (Washington Post, Nov. 10, 2008) Jane Corbin: “Last year, only 133 permits were granted to Palestinians in the whole of east Jerusalem. Nearly 10 times more were given to Israelis in west Jerusalem.

(To Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat): They [the Palestinians] can’t expand naturally. They’re just not given the permission to build. They have to often build illegally.” (BBC Panorama, “A Walk in the Park,” Jan. 18, 2010) “[ICAHD’s] report “No Home, No Homeland” accuses Israel of making it almost impossible for Palestinians to obtain building permits, with the Jerusalem city council granting just 18 for a population of 300,000 last year….” (AFP, Nov. 1, 2011) But this claim, too, misrepresents the truth. Jerusalem’s Arab community receives building permits for more square meters of residential construction than does the demographically similar [in terms of population and family size] Jewish ultra-Orthodox community. According to the most recent Jerusalem municipality records, the overall proportion of requested permits granted in the Jewish and in the Arab sectors are similar. While “nearly 10 times more [permits] were given to Israelis in west Jerusalem” than to Arabs in east Jerusalem in 2009, as mentioned in the above-quoted BBC documentary, there were also nearly 10 times as many requests in the Jewish sector than in the Arab sector.1 In other words, the percentage of fulfilled requests in east Jerusalem in 2009 was 55% in east Jerusalem vs. 63% in west Jerusalem. The proportion of granted requests for permits was similar, as well, in other years, as well. In 2008, for example, 46% of building permits requested were granted in east Jerusalem vs. 47% of permit requests granted in west Jerusalem. In 2010 , 80% of building permit requests for Arab-majority neighborhoods in Jerusalem were approved vs. 89% in Jewish-majority neighborhoods.2 Human rights lawyer Justus Reid Weiner, a scholar-in-residence at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs who focused on illegal building in Jerusalem explains why it is such a popular phenomena among Arab residents. According to Weiner, “The Palestinian Authority and Arab governments have spent hundreds of millions of dollars in an intentional campaign to subsidize and encourage massive illegal construction in the Arab sector [of Jerusalem], seeing this as part of their ‘demographic war’ against Israel.” He notes that the “frantic pace of illegal construction continues despite the fact that the city has authorized more than 36,000 permits for new housing units in the Arab sector, more than enough to meet the needs of Arab residents through legal construction until 2020.” 3 1 Ricki Hollander, Gilead Ini, “BBC Panorama Distorts the Facts About Jerusalem,” CAMERA website

2 Former Jerusalem municipality spokesman Stephan Miller, personal communication

3 Justus Weiner, Illegal Construction in Jerusalem, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (2003)

