Jerusalem

"Bayt al-Maqdis" and "Al-Quds" redirect here. For other uses, see Jerusalem (disambiguation), Al-Quds (disambiguation), and Bayt al-Maqdis (disambiguation).

Jerusalem
  • יְרוּשָׁלַיִם‎ (Hebrew)
  • القُدس‎ (Arabic)
Metropolis
Old City from the Mount of Olives with Al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount
Tower of David
Zion Square
Chords Bridge
Mamilla Mall
Western Wall
Shrine of the Book
Holy Sepulchre
Nicknames: 
  • Ir ha-Kodesh (The Holy City)
  • Bayt al-Maqdis (House of the Holiness)
Location of Jerusalem
Location of Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Location of Jerusalem
Location of Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Location of Jerusalem
Location of Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Location of Jerusalem
Location of Jerusalem
Jerusalem
Coordinates: 31°46′44″N 35°13′32″E / 31.77889°N 35.22556°E / 31.77889; 35.22556
Administered byIsrael
Claimed byIsrael and Palestine[note 1]
Israeli districtJerusalem
Palestinian governorateQuds
Gihon Spring settlement3000–2800 BCE
City of Davidc. 1000 BCE
Present Old City walls built1541
East-West Jerusalem division1948
Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem1967
Jerusalem Law1980
Government
 • TypeMayor–council
 • BodyJerusalem Municipality
 • MayorMoshe Lion (Likud)
Area
 • Metropolis
125,156 dunams (125.156 km2 or 48.323 sq mi)
 • Metro
652,000 dunams (652 km2 or 252 sq mi)
Elevation
754 m (2,474 ft)
Population
 (2022)
 • Metropolis
981,711
 • Density7,800/km2 (20,000/sq mi)
 • Metro
1,253,900
Demonyms
Time zoneUTC+02:00 (IST, PST)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+03:00 (IDT, PDT)
Postal code
9XXXXXX
Area code+972-2
Websitejerusalem.muni.il
Official nameOld City of Jerusalem and its Walls
TypeCultural
Criteriaii, iii, vi
Designated1981
Reference no.148
RegionArab States
Endangered1982–present
Part of a series on
Jerusalem
City of David 1000 BCE
Second Temple Period 538 BCE–70 CE
Aelia Capitolina 130–325 CE
Byzantine 325–638 CE
Early Muslim 638–1099
Crusader 1099–1187
Late Medieval 1187–1517
Ottoman 1517–1917
British Mandate 1917–1948
Modern period
  • (Jordanian and Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem)
    		•  1948-
    Sieges
    Before Common Era
    Common Era
    Places
  • Mayor
  • Chief Rabbi
  • Grand Mufti
  • Greek Orthodox Patriarch
  • Crusader kings
    		•
    Political status
    Other topics

    Jerusalem[note 2] is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the oldest cities in the world, and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Both the State of Israel and the State of Palestine claim Jerusalem as their capital city. Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there, and the State of Palestine ultimately foresees it as its seat of power. Neither claim is widely recognized internationally.[note 3][8]

    Throughout its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times.[9] The part of Jerusalem called the City of David shows first signs of settlement in the 4th millennium BCE, in the shape of encampments of nomadic shepherds.[10] During the Canaanite period (14th century BCE), Jerusalem was named as Urusalim on ancient Egyptian tablets, probably meaning "City of Shalem" after a Canaanite deity. During the Israelite period, significant construction activity in Jerusalem began in the 10th century BCE (Iron Age II), and by the 9th century BCE, the city had developed into the religious and administrative center of the Kingdom of Judah.[11] In 1538, the city walls were rebuilt for a last time around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent of the Ottoman Empire. Today those walls define the Old City, which since the 19th century has been divided into four quarters – the Armenian, Christian, Jewish, and Muslim quarters.[12][13] The Old City became a World Heritage Site in 1981, and is on the List of World Heritage in Danger.[14] Since 1860, Jerusalem has grown far beyond the Old City's boundaries. In 2022, Jerusalem had a population of some 971,800 residents, of which almost 60% were Jews and almost 40% Palestinians.[15][note 4] In 2020, the population was 951,100, of which Jews comprised 570,100 (59.9%), Muslims 353,800 (37.2%), Christians 16,300 (1.7%), and 10,800 unclassified (1.1%).[17]

    According to the Hebrew Bible, King David conquered the city from the Jebusites and established it as the capital of the United Kingdom of Israel, and his son, King Solomon, commissioned the building of the First Temple.[note 5] Modern scholars argue that Israelites branched out of the Canaanite peoples and culture through the development of a distinct monolatrous—and later monotheistic—religion centered on El/Yahweh.[19][20] These foundational events, straddling the dawn of the 1st millennium BCE, assumed central symbolic importance for the Jewish people.[21][22] The sobriquet of holy city (Hebrew: עיר הקודש, romanized: 'Ir ha-Qodesh) was probably attached to Jerusalem in post-exilic times.[23][24][25] The holiness of Jerusalem in Christianity, conserved in the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible,[26] which Christians adopted as the Old Testament,[27] was reinforced by the New Testament account of Jesus's crucifixion and resurrection there. Meanwhile, in Islam, Jerusalem is the third-holiest city, after Mecca and Medina.[28][29] The city was the first standard direction for Muslim prayers,[30] and in Islamic tradition, Muhammad made his Night Journey there in 621, ascending to heaven where he spoke to God, per the Quran.[31][32] As a result, despite having an area of only 0.9 km2 (3⁄8 sq mi),[33] the Old City is home to many sites of seminal religious importance, among them the Temple Mount with its Western Wall, Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

    At present, the status of Jerusalem remains one of the core issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. During the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, West Jerusalem was among the areas incorporated into Israel, while East Jerusalem, including the Old City, was occupied and annexed by Jordan. Israel occupied East Jerusalem from Jordan during the 1967 Six-Day War and subsequently annexed it into the city's municipality, together with additional surrounding territory.[note 6] One of Israel's Basic Laws, the 1980 Jerusalem Law, refers to Jerusalem as the country's undivided capital. All branches of the Israeli government are located in Jerusalem, including the Knesset (Israel's parliament), the residences of the Prime Minister and President, and the Supreme Court. The international community rejects the annexation as illegal and regards East Jerusalem as Palestinian territory occupied by Israel.[37][38][39][40]

    1. ^ a b 2003 Amended Basic Law Archived 11 February 2016 at the Wayback Machine. Basic Law of Palestine. Retrieved 9 December 2012.
    2. ^ "Jerusalem Non-Paper" (PDF). PLO-NAD. June 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 6 February 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
    3. ^ "Statements and Speeches". nad-plo.org. p. 2. Archived from the original on 18 April 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2014. This paper is for discussion purposes only. Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed. Palestinian vision for Jerusalem...Pursuant to our vision, East Jerusalem, as defined by its pre-1967 occupation municipal borders, shall be the capital of Palestine, and West Jerusalem shall be the capital of Israel, with each state enjoying full sovereignty over its respective part of the city.
    4. ^ "East Jerusalem today – Palestine's Capital: The 1967 border in Jerusalem and Israel's illegal policies on the ground" (PDF). PLO-Negotiations Affairs Department (NAD). August 2013. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
    5. ^ A-Z Guide to the Qur'an: A Must-have Reference to Understanding the Contents of the Islamic Holy Book by Mokhtar Stork (1999): "JERUSALEM: Referred to in Arabic as Baitul Muqaddas (The Holy House) or Baitul Maqdis (The House of the Sanctuary)".
    6. ^ Pan-Islamism in India & Bengal by Mohammad Shah (2002), p. 63: "... protector of Mecca, Medina and Baitul Muqaddas, the sacred places of pilgrimage of the Muslim world"
    7. ^ Cite error: The named reference Elihay2011 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    8. ^ Smith, William (6 December 2017). "Donald Trump confirms US will recognise Jerusalem as capital of Israel". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 5 October 2023. Retrieved 13 May 2017.
    9. ^ "Do We Divide the Holiest Holy City?". Moment Magazine. Archived from the original on 3 June 2008. Retrieved 5 March 2008. According to Eric H. Cline's tally in Jerusalem Besieged.
    10. ^ Greenberg, Raphael; Mizrachi, Yonathan (10 September 2013). "From Shiloah to Silwan – A Visitor's Guide". Emek Shaveh. Archived from the original on 15 August 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2018.
    11. ^ Sergi, Omer (2023). The Two Houses of Israel: State Formation and the Origins of Pan-Israelite Identity. SBL Press. p. 197. ISBN 978-1-62837-345-5. Archived from the original on 24 October 2023. Retrieved 23 October 2023.
    12. ^ Ben-Arieh, Yehoshua (1984). Jerusalem in the 19th Century, The Old City. Yad Izhak Ben Zvi & St. Martin's Press. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-312-44187-6.
    13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Teller was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    14. ^ "Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls". UNESCO World Heritage Convention. Archived from the original on 4 August 2017. Retrieved 11 September 2010.
    15. ^ "Selected Data on the Occasion of Jerusalem Day, 2022". cbs.gov.il. 26 May 2022. Archived from the original on 28 May 2023. Retrieved 30 March 2023.
    16. ^ Cite error: The named reference laub2006 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
    17. ^ "Table III/9 – Population in Israel and in Jerusalem, by Religion, 1988 – 2020" (PDF). jerusaleminstitute.org.il. 2022. Archived (PDF) from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 27 December 2022.
    18. ^ Pellegrino, Charles R. (1995). Return to Sodom & Gomorrah (Second revised ed.). Harper Paperbacks. p. 271. ISBN 978-0-380-72633-2. [see footnote]
    19. ^ Tubb (1998), pp. 13–14.
    20. ^ Mark Smith in "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" states "Despite the long regnant model that the Canaanites and Israelites were people of fundamentally different culture, archaeological data now casts doubt on this view. The material culture of the region exhibits numerous common points between Israelites and Canaanites in the Iron I period (c. 1200–1000 BCE). The record would suggest that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from Canaanite culture... In short, Israelite culture was largely Canaanite in nature. Given the information available, one cannot maintain a radical cultural separation between Canaanites and Israelites for the Iron I period." (pp. 6–7). Smith, Mark (2002) "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" (Eerdman's)
    21. ^ Since the 10th century BCE:
      • "Israel was first forged into a unified nation from Jerusalem some 3,000 years ago, when King David seized the crown and united the twelve tribes from this city... For a thousand years Jerusalem was the seat of Jewish sovereignty, the household site of kings, the location of its legislative councils and courts. In exile, the Jewish nation came to be identified with the city that had been the site of its ancient capital. Jews, wherever they were, prayed for its restoration." Roger Friedland, Richard D. Hecht. To Rule Jerusalem, University of California Press, 2000, p. 8. ISBN 978-0-520-22092-8
      • "The centrality of Jerusalem to Judaism is so strong that even secular Jews express their devotion and attachment to the city, and cannot conceive of a modern State of Israel without it.... For Jews Jerusalem is sacred simply because it exists... Though Jerusalem's sacred character goes back three millennia...". Leslie J. Hoppe. The Holy City: Jerusalem in the theology of the Old Testament, Liturgical Press, 2000, p. 6. ISBN 978-0-8146-5081-3
      • "Ever since King David made Jerusalem the capital of Israel 3,000 years ago, the city has played a central role in Jewish existence." Mitchell Geoffrey Bard, The Complete Idiot's Guide to the Middle East Conflict, Alpha Books, 2002, p. 330. ISBN 978-0-02-864410-3
      • "Jerusalem became the center of the Jewish people some 3,000 years ago" Moshe Maoz, Sari Nusseibeh, Jerusalem: Points of Friction – And Beyond, Brill Academic Publishers, 2000, p. 1. ISBN 978-90-411-8843-4
    22. ^ "Basic Facts you should know: Jerusalem". Anti-Defamation League. 2007. Archived from the original on 4 January 2013. Retrieved 28 March 2007. The Jewish people are inextricably bound to the city of Jerusalem. No other city has played such a dominant role in the history, politics, culture, religion, national life and consciousness of a people as has Jerusalem in the life of Jewry and Judaism. Since King David established the city as the capital of the Jewish state circa 1000 BCE, it has served as the symbol and most profound expression of the Jewish people's identity as a nation."
    23. ^ Reinoud Oosting, The Role of Zion/Jerusalem in Isaiah 40–55: A Corpus-Linguistic Approach, p. 117, at Google Books Brill 2012 pp. 117–18. Isaiah 48:2; 51:1; Nehemiah 11:1, 18; cf. Joel 4:17: Daniel 5:24. The Isaiah section where they occur belong to deutero-Isaiah.
    24. ^ Shalom M. Paul, Isaiah 40–66, p. 306, at Google Books The 'holiness' (qodesh) arises from the temple in its midst, the root q-d-š referring to a sanctuary. The concept is attested in Mesopotamian literature, and the epithet may serve to distinguish Babylon, the city of exiles, from the city of the Temple, to where they are enjoined to return.
    25. ^ Golb, Norman (1997). "Karen Armstrong's Jerusalem – One City, Three Faiths". The Bible and Interpretation. Archived from the original on 11 October 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2013. The available texts of antiquity indicate that the concept was created by one or more personalities among the Jewish spiritual leadership, and that this occurred no later than the 6th century B.C.
    26. ^ Isaiah 52:1 πόλις ἡ ἁγία.
    27. ^ Joseph T. Lienhard, The Bible, the Church, and Authority: The Canon of the Christian Bible in History and Theology, Liturgical Press, 1995 pp. 65–66: 'The Septuagint is a Jewish translation and was also used in the synagogue. But at the end of the first century C.E. many Jews ceased to use the Septuagint because the early Christians had adopted it as their own translation, and it began to be considered a Christian translation.'
    28. ^ Third-holiest city in Islam:
      • Esposito, John L. (2002). What Everyone Needs to Know about Islam. Oxford University Press. p. 157. ISBN 978-0-19-515713-0. The Night Journey made Jerusalem the third holiest city in Islam
      • Brown, Leon Carl (2000). "Setting the Stage: Islam and Muslims". Religion and State: The Muslim Approach to Politics. Columbia University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-231-12038-8. The third holiest city of Islam—Jerusalem—is also very much in the center...
      • Hoppe, Leslie J. (2000). The Holy City: Jerusalem in the Theology of the Old Testament. Michael Glazier Books. p. 14. ISBN 978-0-8146-5081-3. Jerusalem has always enjoyed a prominent place in Islam. Jerusalem is often referred to as the third holiest city in Islam...
    29. ^ Middle East peace plans by Willard A. Beling: "The Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount is the third holiest site in Sunni Islam after Mecca and Medina".
    30. ^ Lewis, Bernard; Holt, P. M.; Lambton, Ann, eds. (1986). Cambridge History of Islam. Cambridge University Press.
    31. ^ Quran 17:1–3
    32. ^ Buchanan, Allen (2004). States, Nations, and Borders: The Ethics of Making Boundaries. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-52575-6. Retrieved 9 June 2008.
    33. ^ Kollek, Teddy (1977). "Afterword". In John Phillips (ed.). A Will to Survive – Israel: the Faces of the Terror 1948-the Faces of Hope Today. Dial Press/James Wade. about 91 hectares (225 acres)
    34. ^ Walid Khalidi (1996) Islam, the West and Jerusalem. Center for Contemporary Arab Studies & Center for Muslim–Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, quotes the breakdown as follows: West Jerusalem in 1948: 16,261 dunums (14%); West Jerusalem added in 1967: 23,000 dunums (20%); East Jerusalem under Jordanian rule: 6,000 dunums (5%); West Bank area annexed and incorporated into East Jerusalem by Israel: 67,000 dunums (61%)
    35. ^ Aronson, Geoffrey (1995). "Settlement Monitor: Quarterly Update on Developments". Journal of Palestine Studies. 25 (1). University of California Press, Institute for Palestine Studies: 131–40. doi:10.2307/2538120. ISSN 0377-919X. JSTOR 2538120. West Jerusalem: 35%; East Jerusalem under Jordanian rule: 4%; West Bank area annexed and incorporated into East Jerusalem by Israel: 59%
    36. ^ Benvenisti, Meron (1976). Jerusalem, the Torn City. Books on Demand. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-7837-2978-7. East Jerusalem under Jordanian rule: 6,000 dunums; West Bank area annexed and incorporated into East Jerusalem by Israel: 67,000
    37. ^ "Resolution 298 September 25, 1971". United Nations. 25 September 1971. Archived from the original on 19 August 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2018. Recalling its resolutions... concerning measures and actions by Israel designed to change the status of the Israeli-occupied section of Jerusalem,...
    38. ^ "The status of Jerusalem" (PDF). The Question of Palestine & the United Nations. United Nations Department of Public Information. 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on 8 August 2019. East Jerusalem has been considered, by both the General Assembly and the Security Council, as part of the occupied Palestinian territory.
    39. ^ "Israeli authorities back 600 new East Jerusalem homes". BBC News. 26 February 2010. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 18 September 2013.
    40. ^ "Israel plans 1,300 East Jerusalem Jewish settler homes". BBC News. 9 November 2010. Archived from the original on 19 November 2018. Retrieved 20 June 2018. East Jerusalem is regarded as occupied Palestinian territory by the international community, but Israel says it is part of its territory.


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