By using the people of 704,900 (when of December 31, 2004 [http://www.cbs.gov.il/population/new_2004/tab_3.pdf]), it is the richly heterogeneous city, representing a wide range of national, religious, & socioeconomic groups. A subdivision known as a "Old City" is surrounded by walls and consists of four quarters: Jewish, Christian, Armenian, and Muslim.

A status of the city is heatedly disputed. A 1949 cease-fire line between Israel and Jordan, also referred to as a Green Line, cuts through the city. Since its triumph in the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel has controlled the entire city & claims sovereignty above it. Based on datthe from a Basic Law of Israel enacted in 1980 (a Jerusalem Law) Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, and is the center of Jerusalem District; it serves as a united states's seat of government & otherwise functions as a capital. A UN Security Council Resolution 478 condemned the Jerusalem Law as "a violation of international law".

Around 2000 the Palestinian Authority passed the law designating Jerusalem as a capital of a new Palestinian state; inside 2002 this law was ratified.[http://english.people.com.cn/200210/06/eng20021006_104530.shtml]

Name
View as well names of Jerusalem.

A origin of the title of the city is uncertain. These are conceivable to read a title (Hebrew Yerushalayim) as either "Heritage of Salem" or even "Heritage of Peace" - the contraction of "heritage" (yerusha) & Salem (Shalem literally "whole" or even "in harmony") or even "peace" (shalom). (Watch a Biblical commentator a Ramban for explanation.) "Shalem" is the original name utilized around Genesis 14:18 for the city. Likewise a Amarna Letters call the city Uru Salim around Akkadian, a cognate of the Hebrew Ir Shalem ("city of Salem"). a bit of assume a connection between the title & Shalim -- a god personifying gloaming known from either Ugaritic myths and offering lists. A ending -ayim or even -im has a appearance of the Hebrew dual or even plural postfix severally. It has been argued that these are a dual form representing a fact that a city lies around 2 hills nonetheless a coarse of action of the ending as a postfix makes the rest of the title incomprehensible in Hebrew. The Midrashic interpretation comes from Genesis Rabba, which explains that Abraham came to "Shalem" fallowing rescuing Lot. Upon arrival, he asked the king & high priest Melkhizedek to bless him, & Melkhizedek did thus in the title of the Supreme God (indicating that he, such as Abraham, was a monotheist). Based on data from exegetes, God immortalizes this encounter between Melkhizedek & Abraham by renaming a city around honor of a babies: the title "Yeru" (from either "Yireh", a title Abraham gives to Mount Moriah when unbinding Isaac, & explained inside Genesis when meaning that God is revealed there) is situated ahead of "Shalem". A plural ending implies a community of completely believers in the 1 God world health organization testify to the city's sanctitude.

History
Antiquity (prehistory - 6 CE)

This city has known several wars, & various periods of occupation. Based on data from 1 Jewish tradition, it was founded by Abraham's forefathers Shem and Eber. Based on data from Genesis 14:18, "Salem" was ruled by Melchizedek, a priest of God -- inside a few traditions, monovular by using Shem. Late it was controlled per Jebusites. Fallowing this it come under Israelite control. A Bible records that King David defeated a Jebusites inside war & captured the city forgoing destroying it. David so expanded a city south, & declared it a capital city of the united Kingdom of Israel.

Late, based on data from a Bible, a First Jewish Temple was built in Jerusalem by King Solomon. the Temple became a major ethnical center in the vicinity, at length overcoming more ritual centers like Shilo & Bethel. Touching a prevent of a reign of King Solomon, a northern tenner tribes split bump off to form the Kingdom of Israel with its capital at Samaria. Jerusalem so became a capital of a southern kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah.

Per prevent of the "First Temple Period," Jerusalem was the resole acting religious shrine in the kingdom & a center of regular pilgrim's journey. Although recent archeologic finds can click a date however earliest (look at Tel Dan Stele), clear historical records begin to corroborate occasionally of a Biblical history from either as much as the 9th century BCE, a kings of Judah get historically identifiable, & a significance the Temple got within Jewish religious life is clear.

Jerusalem was a capital of the Kingdom of Judah for some 400 years. It experienced survived (or even, when a few historiographer claim, averted) an Assyrian siege in 701 BCE by Sennacherib -- unlike Samaria, the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, that had fallen a bit of twenty years antecedently. But, a city was overcome per Babylonians in 586 BCE, who so took a immature king Jehoiachin into Babylonian captivity, together with virtually all of the aristocracy. A united states rebelled once again under Zedekiah, prompting the city's recurrent conquest & destruction by Nebuchadnezzar. A temple was burnt, & a city's bulwarks were ruined, so giving what remained of the city unprotected.

When many decades of captivity and the Persian conquest of Babylonia, Cyrus II of Persia allowed a Jews to link to to Judah & rebuild the city's bulwarks & a Temple. It continued to become a capital of Judah & center of Jewish worship, as a province under a Persians, Greek & Romans, by having a comparatively short period of independence under the Hasmonean Kingdom. A Temple complex was upgraded & a Temple itself rebuilt under Herod the Great, a Jewish client-king under Roman rule, around Nineteen BCE. That structure is referred to as a Second Temple, and was a first of the numerous improvements Herod processed to the city. Fallowing Herod's demise, a province & city come under directly Roman rule out Captain hicks CE.

Roman rule (6 CE - 638)

Fallowing the brief period of Roman rule, the city was ruined while a civil war, accompanied per Great Jewish Revolt against Rome in Judea, led to the city's sack yet over again, at a paws of Titus in 70 CE. A Second Temple was burnt and 100% that remained was a part of an external (retaining) wall that became called the Western Wall.

When a prevent of this foremost uprising, Jews continued to sleep within Jerusalem in important amounts, & were allowed to practice their religion. In a 2nd century, the Roman Emperor Hadrian began to rebuild Jerusalem as a pagan city when restricting occasionally Jewish practices. Angry at this insult, a Judeans once more revolted, led by Simon Bar Kokhba. Hadrian responded with overwhelming inflict, putting down a revolution, killing when several as a half million Jews, & resettling the city as a pagan polis under the title Aelia Capitolina. Jews were forbidden to enter a city however for one day of the season, Tisha B'Av, (the Ninth of Av, see Hebrew calendar), when they could weep for the destruction of their city at the Temple's only remaining wall.

For the next 150 years, the city remained a comparatively unimportant Roman town. A Byzantine Emperor Constantine, however, rebuilt Jerusalem as a Christian center of worship, building a Church of the Holy Sepulcher in 335. Jews were however banned from either either the city, except when you took a brief period of Persian rule from 614-629.

Arab Caliphates, Christian Crusaders, and early Ottoman rule (638-1800s)

Although a Qur'an does not mention the name "Jerusalem", the hadith specify that it was from Jerusalem that Muhammad ascended to heaven in the Night Journey, or Isra and Miraj. A city was one of a Arab Caliphate's first conquests around 638 CE; according to Arab historiographer of a instance, the Caliph Umar ibn al-Khattab personally went to a city to receive its submission, cleaning out & praying at the Temple Mount in the process. the bit of Muslim & non-Muslim sources add that he built a mosque there. Sixty years late, a Dome of the Rock was built, a structure in which there lies a stone where Muhammad is said to keep around tethered his mount Buraq during the Isra. This is as well reputed to become a place in which Abraham attend sacrifice his boy (Isaac in the Jewish tradition, Ishmael in the Muslim one.) Note that a octangular & gold-sheeted Dome is non a equivalent tool when a Al-Aqsa Mosque beside it, which was built more than 3 centuries late. Umar ibn al-Khattab too allowed a Jews entry into a city & to the full freedom to survive & worship fallowing 400 hundred years. Jews were allowed to withdraw into their homes.

Under a early centuries of Muslim rule, especially in a period of the Umayyad (650-750) and Abbasid (750-969) dynasties, a city prospered; the geographers Ibn Hawqal and al-Istakhri (10th century) describe it as "the most fertile province of Palestine", while its native boy a geographer al-Muqaddasi (born 946) devoted many web sites to its praises around his best known act, A Right Divisions in the Noesis of the Climate.

A early Arab cycle was besides one of religious tolerance. Nonetheless, in the early 11th century, the Egyptian Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah ordered the destruction of 100% churches & tabernacle around Jerusalem, the policy reversed by his successors. Reports of this were a single drive of the First Crusade, which marched off from either Europe to the front yard, &, in July 15, 1099, Christian soldiers took Jerusalem after the hard one month siege. It so proceeded to slaughter virtually all of the city's Muslim & Jewish indweller. Raymond d'Aguiliers, chaplain to Raymond de Saint-Gilles, Count of Toulouse, wrote:

Jerusalem became a capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, a feudalistic state, of which a King of Jerusalem was the chief. A Kingdom of Jerusalem lasted until 1291; however, Jerusalem itself was recaptured by Saladin in 1187, who permitted worship of everthing religions (look at Siege of Jerusalem (1187).

Around 1173 Benjamin of Tudela visited Jerusalem. He described it as a little city good of Jacobites, Armenians, Greeks, and Georgians. Both hundred Jews dwelt in a corner of the city under the Tower of David.

Within 1219 the walls of the city were taken down by sequentially of the Sultan of Damascus; in 1229, by treaty by owning Egypt, Jerusalem came into a paws of Frederick II of Germany. Within 1239 he began to rebuild the bulwarks; however it were once more demolished by Da'ud, the emir of Kerak. Inside 1243 Jerusalem came once again into a power of a Christians, & the bulwarks were repaired. A Kharezmian Tatars took the city within 1244; and it successively were caused out per Egyptians inside 1247. Within 1260 the Tatars under Hulaku Khan overran a whole l&, and the Jews that were within Jerusalem got to flee to the neighboring villages. Inside 1244, Sultan Malik al-Muattam razed the city walls, rendering it once more defenceless & treating the heavily blow to the city's status. In the midst of the 13th century, Jerusalem was captured by the Egyptian Mameluks. Around 1517, it was taken over per Ottoman Empire & enjoyed a period of renewal and peace under Suleiman the Magnificent - including a rebuilding of glorious bulwarks of what is currently referred to as the Old City (notwithstanding, a few of the wall foundations come remains of echt antique bulwarks). A rule of Suleiman & a charted Ottoman Sultans brought an age of "religious peace"; Jew, Christian & Muslim enjoyed the freedom of religion the Ottomans granted the babies & it was imaginable to locate the tabernacle, a church & a mosque in the equivalent street. A city remained open to completely religions, although a empire's faulty management when Suleiman intended slow economic stagnation.

Inside 1482, the camping Dominican priest Felix Fabri described Jerusalem as the dwelling place of diverse nations of the globe, & is, so to speak, a collection of 100% manner of abominations. When abominations he utilized Saracens, Greeks, Syrians, Jacobites, Abyssianians, Nestorians, Armenians, Gregorians, Maronites, Turcomans, Bedouins, Assassins, a sect even Druze, Mamelukes, and a virtually a lot maledict of all, Jews. Exclusively a Latin Christians yearn using completely their hearts for Christian princes to are & subject all the united states to the authority of the Church of Rome. (The. Stewart, Palestine Pilgrims Text Society, Vol 9-10, p. 384-391)

Revival of Jerusalem (1800s-1917)
A modern history of Jerusalem began in the mid-nineteenth century, with a decline of the Ottoman Empire. At that instance, the city was the backwater, by having a people that did non exceed 8,000. Still, it was, possibly so, an extremely heterogeneous city because of its significance to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. A people was divided into quaternion major communities--Jewish, Christian, Muslim, & Armenian--and a number one 3 one can be farther divided into multitudinous subgroups, according to accurate religious affiliation or even united states of origin. An lesson of this would become a Church of the Holy Sepulchre, which was meticulously partitioned between the Greek Orthodox, Catholic, Armenian, Coptic, and Ethiopian churches. Tensions between the groups ran therefore deep that a keys to the shrine were saved by owning a 'neutral' Muslim personal for keeping.

At that period, a communities were placed chiefly as much as their primary shrines. A Muslim community surrounded the Haram ash-Sharif or Temple Mount (northeast), a Christians lived chiefly in a neighborhood of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre (north-west), the Jews lived mostly on the slope above the Western Wall (southeast), and a Armenians lived touching a Zion Gate (southwest). Nohow was this section scoop, nonetheless, it did form a basis of a quaternion quarters when you took the British Mandate period of time (1917-1948).

Many changes occurred in a mid-nineteenth century, which got long-long-lived results on the city: their implications may be felt in todays world & lie at the root of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict over Jerusalem. a number one one was a dribble of Jewish immigrants from either a Middle East & Eastern Europe which shifted a balance of people and then that Jews formed the big religious class action in the city per 1844 nosecount. A number 1 such immigrants were Orthodox Jews: some were older people, world health organization come to die within Jerusalem & become buried on a Mount of Olives; others were students, world health organization come by owning their families to await the coming of the Messiah, and adding freshly life to the local people. At a equivalent instance, European compound powers besides began looking for toeholds in a city, hoping to expand their influence pending the close at hand collapse of the Ottoman Empire. This was as well an age of Christian religious revival, & numerous churches sent missionaries to proselytize among a Muslim & especially a Jewish populations, believing that this would speed the 2nd Coming of Christ. Eventually, the combination of European colonialism & religious zeal was expressed within a freshly scientific interest in the biblical lands in the main & Jerusalem particularly. Archeologic & other expeditions manufactured occasionally outstanding finds, which increased interest inside Jerusalem potentially more. Per 1860s, the city, using an metropolitan area of just Unity square kilometre, was already overcrowded. So began a construction of a Future City, the a share of Jerusalem outside of the city bulwarks. Looking freshly areas to stake their claims, a Russian Orthodox Church began constructing a complex, today called the Russian Compound, two or three one c meters from either Jaffa Gate. a foremost attempt at residential cash settlement outside a bulwarks of Jerusalem was begun by Jews, world health organization built a little complex on the hill overlooking Zion Gate, through the Valley of Hinnom. This cash settlement, called Mishkenot Sha’ananim, eventually flourished & placed a precedent for more fresh communities to grow to a west & n of the Old City. Eventually, when a communities grew & attached geographically, this became called a Future City.

British Mandate (1917-1948)
A British were victorious over a Turks around the Middle East and using triumph in Palestine, General Sir Edmund Allenby, commander-in-chief of the Egyptian Expeditionary Click entered Jerusalem in foot, away from respect for the Heavenly city, in December 11th, 1917.

Per instance General Allenby took Jerusalem from the Ottomans within 1917, the freshly city was a patchwork of neighborhoods & communities, apiece by owning a distinct ethnic character. This continued under British rule, when a Up to date City of Jerusalem grew outside a old city bulwarks & a Old City of Jerusalem step by step emerged when little to a higher degree an impoverished older front yard. One of the British legacy to the city was a town planning order requiring new buildings in the city to become faced by owning sandstone and thus preserving some of the overall look of the city, just as it grew. In a period of a Thirties, 2 significant fresh institutions, the Hadassah Medical Center and Hebrew University were founded in Jerusalem's Mount Scopus.

. A level of violence continued to escalate throughout a Thirties & Forties.

In November 29, 1947, the United Nations General Assembly approved a plan which partitioned the British Mandate of Palestine into deuce states: a single Jewish & of these Arab. Apiece state would exist as composed of troika major sections, linked by exterritorial crossing, + an Arab enclave at Jaffa. A Greater Jerusalem front yard would fall into international control. When partition, a fight for Jerusalem escalated, by owning heavily casualties among each fighters & civilians on the British, Jewish, & Arab sides. Per prevent of March, 1948, good prior to a British withdrawal, & by having a British progressively reluctant to intervene, a roads to Jerusalem were severed by Arab irregulars, placing a Jewish people of the city under beleaguering. A beleaguering was at length broken, though mass murder of civilians occurred in each sides, prior to a 1948 Arab-Israeli War began with a prevent of the British Mandate inside Might of 1948.

Jerusalem and the Arab-Israeli conflict (1948-)
As a consequence a 1948 Arab-Israeli War, Jerusalem was divided. A American half of a Up to date City became a share of a fresh state of Israel, when the eastern half, along by owning the Old City, was annexed by Jordan. Jordan did non allow Jewish access to the Western Wall (also known to non-Jews when a Wailing Wall) & Temple Mount, Judaism's holiest sites, in a Old City, though it experienced agreed to under the prevent fire agreement.

A United Nations proposed, in its 1947 project for the partition of Palestine, for Jerusalem to be the city under international administration. Nonetheless, in January 23, 1950 the Knesset passed a guide that declared Jerusalem was a capital of Israel. A city recovered from either a Arab seige of 1948 & became a 2nd big city in the united states, fallowing Tel Aviv. Incubatiaround was limited in this a city was surrounded on threesome sides by hostile Arabs, & a major main road linking a city to a rest of the united states savage into Arab paws in 1948 & a little, freshly built roadway was nowadays the sole way to email the city.

East Jerusalem was captured by Israel Defense Force following the Six Day War in 1967. Virtually all Jews celebrated the event as a liberation of the city; a newly Israeli holiday was created, Jerusalem Day (Yom Yerushalayim), and a virtually all popular laic Hebrew song, "Jerusalem of Gold" (Yerushalayim shel zahav), became popular in celebration. Resulting this a mediaeval Moroccan Quarter was demolished, and a immense public plaza was built inside its place adjoining a American Wall, to accommodate the inflow of Jewish worshippers to their holy places.

Numerous big state gatherings of the State of Israel take place there now, including a official swearing-within of different Israel army officers units, national ceremonies like memorial services for fallen Israeli soldiers in Yom Hazikaron, huge celebrations in Israel Independence Day (''Yom Ha'atzmaut''), huge gatherings of tens of hundreds to thousands in Jewish religious holidays, and on-going day-after-day prayers by regular attendees. These are likewise the major high-point for holidaymaker camping Jerusalem.

Under Israeli control, members of virtually all religions come largely granted access to their holy web sites. A major exceptions existence a limitations positioned in Palestinian Muslims & Christians from either a West Bank and Gaza Strip from either accessing holy sites due to their inadmissibility to Jerusalem, also when limitations in Jews from camping a Temple Mount due to both politically-motivated restrictions (around which it is allowed to hike in a Mount in microscopic groups, however come forbidden to pray or even learn patch there) & religious edicts that forbid Jews from either trespassing on what can be the places of the Sanctum of the Sanctum. Concerns develop been raised just about attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, a previous of which was the good fire around 1969 (incendiarism by an Australian tourer), & tunnels opened touching the Mount, found around 1981, 1988 & 1996. A status of East Jerusalem remains a extremely controversial issue.

Current status
Israeli law designates Jerusalem when a capital of Israel; just two or three countries recognize this designation. View Status as Israel's capital.

Based on data from a 1947 UN Partition Plan, Jerusalem was supposed to be an international city, non a share of either a projected Jewish or even Arab state. Below a 1948 Arab-Israeli War, West Jerusalem was occupied by Israel, while East Jerusalem (including a Old City) was occupied by Jordan, along with a West Bank. A Jordanian annexation of the West Bank (including East Jerusalem) was non internationally recognized, except per United Kingdom and Pakistan.

In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel captured East Jerusalem, and began ingesting steps to unify a city under Israeli control. It annexed Sestet.Quatern km² of Jordanian Jerusalem & 64 km² of the nearby West Bank. (understand [http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/static/in_depth/world/2001/israel_and_palestinians/key_maps/3.stm Maps of Jerusalem pre- and post-1967]). Residents of the annexed territory were offered Israeli citizenship in trouble it renounce their Jordanian citizenship, which virtually all of the children refused to run.

Inside 1988, Jordan withdrew all its claims to the West Bank (including Jerusalem) in favour of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

A status of Palestinians around East Jerusalem is too controversial. A Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem have a 'lasting resident' status, which allows the babies to move in Israel proper. Nevertheless should it move away from Israel proper (e.g. into a Palestinian territories), this status is misplaced & it might non become breathe to go to. Since numbers of stand extended families in the West Bank, just miles away, this typically implies tremendous hassles. By Israel's Citizenship Law, it is entitled to Israeli citizenship, which it might receive automatically or even nearly automatically, provided that it don't use any more citizenship. So, several Palestinians world health organization would rather to hang on to their Jordanian passports use to locate a status of lasting residents. A bit of Palestinians decline to assume citizenship since it assume it same to accepting Israel's annexation.

An additional issue is a status of personal members non recorded in the nosecount preceding the Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem. It must use for entry into East Jerusalem for personal reunion using a Ministry of the Interior. Palestinians complawithin that such applications use been indiscriminately denied for purposes of limiting a Palestinian people in East Jerusalem, when Israeli authorities claim it address Palestinians fairly. These & more aspects use at times been the source of criticism from either Palestinians & Israeli human rights organizations, such as B'Tselem.

Status as Israel's capital

Inside 1980, the Israeli Knesset confirmed Jerusalem's status as a united states's "eternal and indivisible capital", by passing a Basic Law: Jerusalem — Capital of Israel.

All the branches of Israeli government (Presidential, Legislative, Judicial, & Administrative) come seated around Jerusalem. A Knesset building is easily known inside Jerusalem.

When of 2004, single deuce states, Costa Rica and El Salvador, have their embassies around Jerusalem (since 1984). More foreign consulaltes like Consulate General of Greece as well as victims of the United Kingdom and the United States are based there & primarily help a Palestinian people in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Consul-Generals of victims countries don't submit their letters of credintials to the Israeli President or even foreign ministry, however to the administrative governor of the city. Additionally, Bolivia and Paraguay have their embassies in Mevasseret Zion, a suburban area of Jerusalem. A Netherlands hold an office within Jerusalem that serves just about alone Israelis.

Palestinian aspirations
Palestinian groups claim either everthing of Jerusalem (Al-Quds) or even East Jerusalem when the capital of a new Palestinian state.

UN position
A position of a United Nations on the wonder of Jerusalem is contained in the main Assembly guide 181(Eleven) & subsequent results of the General Assembly & the Security Council on this wonder.

A UN Security Council, in UN Resolution 478, declared that the 1980 Jerusalem Law declaring Jerusalem as Israel's "eternal and indivisible" capital was "null and void and must be rescinded forthwith" (14-0-One, using United States abstaining). A guide instructed member states to withdraw their diplomatic representation from either a city as a punitory measure.

Prior to this guide, xiii countries maintained their embassies around Jerusalem: Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, the Netherlands, Panama, Uruguay, Venezuela. Below a UN guide, everthing xiii moved their embassies to Tel Aviv. Costa Rica & El Salvador moved theirs back to Jerusalem within 1984.

United States position
A United States Jerusalem Embassy Act, passed by Congress in 1995, states that "Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel; and the United States Embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem no later than May 31, 1999". Since so, a relocation of the embassy from either Tel Aviv is existence suspended per President semi-annually, both period stating that "[the] Administration remains committed to beginning the process of moving our embassy to Jerusalem". Following of the Embassy Work, official U.S. documents & website refer to Jerusalem when a capital of Israel.

Subdivision 214 of the Foreign Relations Authorization Act, 2003 states:

Nevertheless, President Bush has argued that this section is merely "advisory", stating that it "impermissibly interferes with the President's constitutional authority". [http://www.state.gov/m/rm/rls/rm/2002/13888.htm] The U.S. Constitution reserves the conduct of foreign policy to the President and acts of Congress which make foreign policy are arguably invalid for that reason. A U.S. Congress, notwithstanding, has a "power of the purse," & may prohibit a president from either expending any funds in any embassy that is placed outside Jerusalem. It has non done sol.

United Kingdom position
UK government statement [http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1076522475865]

It should exist as noted that when the United Kingdom maintains a Consulate-General within Jerusalem, this is non accredited to Israel. It administers a UK's relations using a Palestinian Authority & looks fallowing a interests of British citizens in the occupied territories & Jerusalem. Israelis & British citizens inside Israel proper must treat by owning a UK's embassy around Tel Aviv.

Arguments for and against internationalization
a proposal that Jerusalem should exist as a city under international administration is however mass produced at days by Christians, whose people in the city is like little than the Muslim & Jewish populations. (Internationalisation is the guide favorite per Holy See.) However, virtually all negotiations on a new status of Jerusalem keep close at h& been according to partition; for instance, of these scheme would develop Israel keep a Jewish quarter and a Western Wall (the "Wailing Wall"), using the rest of a Old City & the Temple Mount existence transferred to a newly Palestinian state. A bit of Israelis come opposed to any section of Jerusalem, according to ethnical, historic, & religious evidence. Others imagine that areas like a Old City which are then sacred to Judaism, Christianity, & Islam should exist as under international or even many-sided control. Palestinians keep close at hand argued for an open city, though its feasibleness has been challenged given a being of reciprocal distrust.

Religious significance
Jerusalem plays an crucial role around trine major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Jerusalem, Jews and Judaism

Jerusalem in Torah and Tanakh
Jerusalem has yearn been embedded into a religious consciousness of the Jewish humans. Jews have universally exposed & personal a struggle by King David to capture Jerusalem and his want to build a Jewish temple there, as described in the Book of Samuel and the Book of Psalms. Numbers of of King David's longing all about Jerusalem keep close at h& been adapted into popular prayers and songs.

Jerusalem and the Jewish religious calendar
Both major Jewish festivals found by virtually all Jews conclude with a words: "Next Year in Jerusalem" ("''l'shanah haba'ah birushalayim") or even "Next Year in the Rebuilt Jerusalem" ("l'shanah haba'ah birushalayim hab'nuyah"):

At a guide of the Passover Seder on each nighttime, participants break out into joyous, repetitive singing of "Next Year in Jerusalem". The religious holiday on the Jewish calendar, Yom Kippur, also concludes a synagogue service with a exclamation & singing of "Next Year in Jerusalem".

Every one times has an associated holy text, a Hagada for Pesach (Passover) and a Machzor for Yom Kippur'' (Day of Atonement), which stresses the want to link to to Jerusalem.

In todays world, using all over the quarter million Jews practicing Orthodox Judaism living in Jerusalem, a Jewish festivals are to life in the Old & Up to date Cities. A Western Wall, when well as temple throughout a city, carrier tens of hundreds to thousands of fervent worshippers & celebrants.

A saddest day on the Jewish religious calendar is the Ninth of Av, when Jews traditionally spend a day mourning above a loss of their 2 Holy place Temples & a destruction of Jerusalem. Inside accordance by using Jewish bereft custom, hundreds of humans are to the Western Wall, site of a previous Temples, throughout a nighttime & day of this Two dozen-hour convenient to sit on the ground & cry above the destruction.

Besides a Ninth of Av, 2 fry, dawn to dusk fast days as well commemorate aspects of the destruction of Jerusalem. On the Tenth of Tevet, Jews mourn the period once Babylonia laid siege to the First Temple. On the Seventeenth of Tammuz, a mourning recalls a day that the army of Rome broke through the outer walls of the Second Temple.

A words utilized once Jews console any lamenter in a period of the customary Seven Days of Mourning are: Jerusalem and prayer
a day-to-day prayers, recited by religious Jews threefold a day on top the endure 2 thous& years, mention Jerusalem and its functions multiple days. Occasionally examples from either a siddur and the amidah are: In addition once partaking of a day-after-day meal by owning bread, the as a consequence is section of the mandatory "Grace After Meals" which must exist as recited: Fallowing partaking of a lightly meal, the thanksgiving blessing states: Once a Jews were exiled, foremost per Babylonian Empire about 2,500 years ago and then per Roman Empire 2,000 years ago, the swell rabbis and scholars of the mishnah and Talmud instituted the policy that for each one synagogue should replicate the original Jewish temple. Furthermore, it should become constructed inside such how else that 100% prayers in the siddur (prayer book) would become recited when facing Jerusalem, when that was in which a ancient temple stood & that location was a lone allowable place for the sacrificial offerings.

So temple within Europe face south, synagogues inside North America face east, synagogues within countries to the south of Israel, such as Yemen or South Africa, face north, & tabernacle within countries to the east of Israel, like India or Thailand, face west. Possibly whilst the Jew prays privately, he faces Jerusalem, when mandated by Jewish law compiled per rabbis in the Shulchan Aruch. Within Jerusalem itself, he should face a counsel of a American Wall in a Old City, & while he is standing at the American Wall, he turns slightly to the left to face the location of the Holy of Holies (which is presently covered per Dome of the Rock.

Customs in remembrance of Jerusalem
Within a select few circles, the lilliputian total of ash is touched to the forehead of a Jewish groom prior to he attend could have below the bridal canopy. This symbolically reminds him does'nt to allow his have rejoicing to become "greater" than a on-going want to recall Jerusalem's destruction. a easily-known custom of a groom breaking a glass by owning the heel of his shoe when the wedding is besides related the subject of mourning for Jerusalem. A groom recites a phrase from either Psalms, "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning." (Psalms 137:5). A translation given is from either a KJV, the italicized words are non present in the Hebrew. Wholly traditional Jewish commentators, nevertheless, agree by owning this translation; it was park around Biblical Hebrew to non explicitly express any imaginable blackball effect.

An additional ancient custom is to leave a patch of interior wall opposite the door to 1's residence unpainted, as a remembrance of the destruction (zecher lechurban), of the Temples & city of Jerusalem.

Western Wall in Jerusalem
A Western Wall, in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem, is generally considered to become a sole remains of the Second Temple from the era of the Roman conquests. There are said to become esoteric texts inside Midrash that mention God's promise to keep this one remnant of the outer temple wall standing as a memorial & reminder of the past. Hence a significance of the "Western Wall" (''kotel hama'aravi'') - too known as a "Wailing Wall" by non-Jews, attesting to their perception of Jews' propensity to cry anytime it precede it.

Rabbis and Jerusalem
A Talmud records that the rabbinic leader Yohanan ben Zakkai (c. Lxx C.E.) urged a peaceful surrender, sequentially to save Jerusalem from either destruction, however wwhen non heeded as a city was under the control of the Zealots.

An early expression of the Jewish want to "return to Zion" is the journeying of Yehuda Halevi, who died around astir 1140. Jewish legend relates that when he come touching Jerusalem, overpowered per sight of a City of god, he sang his virtually all beautiful lament, the celebrated "Zionide" ''Tzion ha-lo Tish'ali & that at that instant he was ridden down & flushed by an Arab.

He was followed by Nahmanides, the Ramban, world health organization, around 1267 emigrated to the land of Israel, and come for the short stay to sleep in Jerusalem. He wrote that he uncovered barely decade Jews, when it got been desolated per Crusades, nevertheless, together it built the synagogue that is a oldest that still stands to this day, called the "Ramban Synagogue".

Two Elijah ben Solomon (d. 1797) known as a Vilna Gaon, & Israel ben Eliezer (d. 1760) known as a Ba'al Shem Tov instructed & sent little sequent waves of their adherent to settle around Jerusalem so under Turkish Ottoman rule. It created a Jewish religious infrastructure that remains the core of the Haredi Jewish community in Jerusalem to this day.

A British Mandate of Palestine authorities created the new agents of "Chief Rabbi" around 1921 for both Ashkenazi Jews and Sephardic Jews with central offices inside Jerusalem. Rabbi Abraham Isaac Kook (d. 1935) moved to Jerusalem to set up this professional, associated sustaining a "Religious Zionist" Mafdal group, becoming the number 1 modern Chief Rabbi together by having Sephardic Chief Rabbi Yaakov Meir. A official structure housing a Chief Rabbinate was completed around 1958 and is known as Heichal Shlomo''.

Jerusalem is as well at home to the total of the globe's big yeshivot (Talmudical & Rabbinical schools), & has get a accepted capital of Jewish scholarly, religious and spiritual life for virtually all of globe Jewry.

Jerusalem in the Tanakh and (Old Testament)
Jerusalem is mentioned complete 700 days in the Torah and Tanakh, and Old Testament, a text sacred to each Judaism and Christianity. Within Judaism these are considered a Written Law, the basis for the Oral Law (Mishnah, Talmud and Shulkhan Arukh) studied, expert & treasured by Jews and Judaism for three millennia (list of Jewish prayers and blessings). Around Christianity, these are considered when a account of God's relationship sustaining His chosen population - a original covenant - and a essential prelude to the cases narrated in the New Testament, including both universal commandments (eg a Ten Commandments) and obsolete or even Judaism-specific ones.

E.g., a book of Psalms, which has been frequently recited & memorized by Jews & Christians for centuries, says: (etc.)

"By the rivers of Babylon we sat down and wept when we remembered Zion." (Psalms 137:1) "For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; and they that wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How shall we sing the LORD's song in a strange land? 'If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning '. If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof; O daughter of Babylon, that art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that repayeth thee as thou hast served us." (Psalms 137:3-8) (King James Version, with italics for words non in the original Hebrew) "O God, the nations have entered into your inheritance, they have defiled the sanctuary of your holiness, they have turned Jerusalem into heaps of rubble...they have shed their blood like water round Jerusalem..." (Psalms 79:1-Three); "...O Jerusalem, the built up Jerusalem is like a city that is united together...Pray for the peace of Jerusalem..." (Psalms 122:2-6); "Jerusalem is surrounded by mountains as God surrounds his people forever" (Psalms 125:3); "The builder of Jerusalem is God, the outcast of Israel he will gather in...Praise God O Jerusalem, laud your God O Zion." (Psalms 147:2-12)

Jerusalem in Christianity
For Christians, Jerusalem's place in the life of Jesus gives it great importance, additionally to its place in the Old Testament, the Hebrew Bible, as described above.

Jerusalem is the place in which Jesus was brought as a toddler, to become 'presented' at a Temple (Luke 2:22) and to attend festivals (Luke 2:41). Based on data from a Gospels, Jesus preached and healed around Jerusalem, especially in the Temple courts. There exists likewise an account of Jesus' 'cleansing' of a Temple, chasing various bargainer away from the sacred precincts (Mark 11:15). At a prevent of every of the Gospels, there are accounts of Jesus' Last Supper in an 'upper room' inside Jerusalem, his arrest in Gethsemane, his trial, his crucifixion at Golgotha, his burial nearby and his resurrection and ascension.

Tradition holds that a place of a Endure Supper is the Cenacle, on the 2nd floor of the Mosque of the Prophet David (Musjid an-Nabi Daud), by using the supposed grave of David on the first floor. A place of Jesus' tormented prayer & betrayal, Gethsemane, is probably someplace touching a Church of All Nations on the Mount of Olives. Jesus' test prior to Pontius Pilate may have taken place at a Antonia fort, northerly of the Temple vicinity. Popularly, a exterior pavement in which a test was conducted is below a Convent of the Sisters of Zion. More Christians suppose that Pilate tried Jesus at Herod's Palace in Mount Zion.

A Via Dolorosa, or way of suffering, is a traditional route to Golgotha, the place of crucifixion, & is an crucial pilgrim's journey. A route terminates at a Church of the Holy Sepulchre (perhaps a virtually all holy for Christians). A Holy Sepulchre is traditionally believed to exist as a location of Golgotha & Jesus' nearby grave. A original church was built around 336 by Constantine I. A Garden Tomb is a popular pilgrimage places touching a Damascus Gate. It was suggested by Charles George Gordon that this site, like than a Holy Sepulchre, is trueness place of Golgotha.

A Acts of the Apostles and Pauline Epistles show James the Just, the brother of Jesus, when leader of the early Jerusalem church. He & his successors were a focus for Jewish Christians until the destruction of the city by Emperor Hadrian in 135. A exclusion of Jews from either a recently city of Aelia intended that gentile bishops were appointed under a authority of the Metropolitans of Caesarea and, ultimately, a Patriarchs of Antioch. Emperor Constantine I & his mother, Helena, endowed Jerusalem with churches and shrines, getting it the title first centre of Christian pilgrim's journey. A Council of Chalcedon in 451 raised the bishop of Jerusalem to the rank of patriarch, fifth in rank behind Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch. But, Byzantine politics intended that Jerusalem only passed from either a Syrian jurisdiction of Antioch to the Greek authorities within Constantinople. For centuries, Greek clergy dominated a Jerusalem church.

Inside 638, Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem, handed over a keys of the city to Calif Umar's Muslim forces. A relation between a Christian world & a Muslim authorities in a city come out to keep around been serious (using the of these exception of Calif al-Hakim's execution of a patriarch & destruction of the Holy Sepulchre), and Christian craftsman were utilized to build the Dome of the Rock.

In 15 July 1099, the army of the First Crusade captured Jerusalem and brutalised its habitant. A crusaders showed match, whenever does'nt greater, bad blood towards Eastern Christians to that showed against Muslims. Jerusalem became the capital of a 'Latin Kingdom' sustaining a Latin church & the Latin Patriarch, whole under the authority of the Pope. Around 1187, when Saladin captured a city, the Holy Sepulchre & numbers of more churches were returned to the care of Eastern Christians.

From either a 17th to the 19th century, various Catholic European nations petitioned the Ottoman Empire for Catholic control of the 'holy places'. A Franciscans are the traditional Catholic steward of the sanctum. Control swung back & forth between a american & eastern churches throughout this time. Grand turk Abd-ul-Mejid I (1839-1861), perhaps away from despair, published the firman that laid call at detail a precise rights & responsibility of both community at a Holy Sepulchre. This page became called a Status Quo, & is however a basis for the complex protocol of the shrine. A Status Quo was upheld per British Mandate & Jordan. Fallowing a 1967 Arab-Israeli War, and a passing of a Old City into Israeli paws, the Knesset passed a law protecting the holy pages. 5 Christian communities presently develop rights in a Holy Sepulchre: the Greek Patriarchate, Latins (American Rite Roman Catholics), Armenians, Copts and Syriac Orthodox.

A 'Future Jerusalem' is a focus of the vision at the prevent of the Book of Revelation. These are a hone city in which God dwells among his humans.

Jerusalem in Islam
Muslims traditionally regard Jerusalem when getting the favorite religious status, partially because of its hyperlink by having population take to be Prophets of Islam - particularly David, Solomon, and Jesus - and partly because it was a number 1 qibla (direction of prayer) within Islam prior to a kabah in Makka, but as well because a "furthest Mosque" (al-masjid al-Aqsa) in verse (17:1) of the Qur'an is traditionally interpreted by Muslims as referring to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, on which the mosque of that name now stands:

Thereon nighttime, a nighttime of the Isra and Mi'raj (Rajab 27), Muhammad is believed to have been taken by the flying steed Buraq to visit Jerusalem, where he prayed, and thence heaven, in a single night. Numerous Muslims celebrate its day of remembrance sustaining gatherings & banqueting, although Wahhabis and many more groups choose a position that there is no regular festivals come allowable except them Eids.

Based on data from healthy hadith (sayings of Muhammad) transmitted by Bukhari & others, Jerusalem was a places of the 2nd mosque build upon globe, xl years fallowing Mecca, & is one of the cities to which pilgrim's journey is allowable, along sustaining Mecca and Medina, and, for Shia Muslims, Najaf, Karbala, and Mashhad. A bit of hadith, whose authenticity is non considered when certain, when well specify Jerusalem (Bayt al-Maqdis) as a place in which completely humanity is gathered on the Day of Judgement.

A earliest dated stone inscriptions containing verses from either a Qur'an appear to be Abd al-Malik's in the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, from 72 AH.

When a conquest of Jerusalem per armies of the 2nd Caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, parts of the city presently took in the Muslim character. Based in data from Muslim historiographer, a city insisted on surrendering to the Caliph directly rather than to any general, & he signed a treaty using its Christian habitant, the Covenant of Umar. He was horrified to call for a Temple Mount - known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, the Lord Sanctuary - existence utilized as a rubbish deposit, & ordered that it become filtered higher & prayed there. Nonetheless, after a Bishop invited him to pray in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, he refused, lest he produce the precedent for its have as a mosque. He visited a church, however once his companions were overcome by emotion & wished to pray he instead ordered a babies to recite the fatihah, a opening chapter of the Qur'an. Based on datthe from a few Muslim historiographer, he besides built a unprocessed mosque on the Temple Mount, which was late replaced by Abd al-Malik. A Byzantine chronicler Theophanes Confessor (751-818) gives a somewhat different picture of this event, claiming that Umar "began to restore the Temple at Jerusalem" sustaining encouragement from either local Jews.

Inside 688 the Caliph Abd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock on the Haram al-Sharif; in 728 a cupola over the Al-Aqsa Mosque was erected, the equivalent existence restored inside 758-775 by Al-Mahdi. Around 831 Al-Ma'mun restored the Dome of the Rock and built the octagonal wall. Around 1016 the Dome was partly destroyed by earthquakes; but it was repaired around 1022.

In the context of proposals to radically reinterpret early Islamic history, certain Orientalists, such as John Wansbrough, have proposed that Muhammad's nighttime journey to Jerusalem - a Isra and Miraj, one of the main foundations of Jerusalem's sanctitude around Islam - was the later on invention meant to account for an otherwise obscure verse. Others, like Patricia Crone, have proposed that Jerusalem was in point of fact the original Islamic heavenly city, & that a holiness of Mecca & Medina was a late innovation. Neither one controversial theories enjoys wide acceptance, least of a lot among Muslims.

Jerusalem in Mandaeanism
Inside Mandaeanism, a microscopic, ancient Gnostic sect still witnessed inside southern Iran and Iraq, Jerusalem is considered a city of wickedness, dedicated to the god of Judaism, whom they call for Adunay (Adonai) or Yurba & assume to become an evil spirit; based on data from Sidra d-Yahia 54, Jerusalem is "the stronghold that Adunay built ... [he] brought to it falsehood in plenty, and it meant persecution against my tarmidia (Manda d-Hiia's disciples)." In the Ginza Rba (15.Eleven), these are said to keep around inherit existence following of the incestuous union of the heptad planets with their evil mother Ruha d-Qudsha, who "left lewdness, perversion, and fornication in it. They said: 'Whoever lives in the city of Jerusalem will not mention the name of God.'" (Elsewhere, notwithstanding, it further unimaginatively says a city was built by Solomon.) However, Yahya (John the Baptist), an important figure in the religion, is said to keep around been natural there.

After, in the times of Pontius Pilate, it states that the practiced spirit Anush Utra went there, healed the infected & worked miracles, & mass produced converts, confronting Jesus (whom they assume a treacherously prophet) & refuting his arguments; however its habitant opposed him & persecuted the converts, 365 of whom were flushed (GR 15.Xi) or even forced out (GR Two.Ace.) Miriai, a Jewish or Chaldean princess, was converted, & fled to the shores of the Euphrates. This angered Anush Utra, world health organization received permission from either God to kill Jerusalem & a temple, smash a "seven columns," & slay a Jews world health organization lived there, fallowing bringing out a left "believers." Elsewhere, a Ginza Rba (Xviii) prophesises that Jerusalem "must flourish for a thousand years, remain a thousand years destroyed, and then the entire Tibil (material world) will be destroyed."

In the Abahatan Qadmaiia prayer, repeated in the period of baptism of a dead, the Mandaeans invoke blessings upon the 365 world health organization it think were flushed or even forced away from Jerusalem:

Geography and demography
Geography
Jerusalem is placed inside , upon a southern spur of a tableland the eastern side of which slopes from either 2,460 foot. above sea-level northward of the Temple area to 2,13Foot. at a southeastern extremity. A american hill is just about 2,500 foot. high & slopes southeast from either a Judean tableland.

Jerusalem is surrounded upon tons sides by vale, of which people on the northerly come less pronounced than people on the other leash sides. A chief ii vale run northwest of the present city. a 1st diarrhea eastbound by using a rebuff southerly bend (the present Wadi al-Joz), so, deflecting directly south (once referred to as "Kidron Valley," a modern Wadi Sitti Maryam), divides the Mount of Olives from the city. A 2nd diarrhea directly to a south on the american side of the city, turns eastbound at its southeastern extremity, so diarrhea directly east, & joins the foremost vale touching Bir Ayyub ("Job's Well"). It was known as inside olden days a "Valley of Hinnom," and is a modern Wadi al-Rababi, which is does'nt to exist as identified by owning the 1st-mentioned vale.

a third vale, commencing in the northwest in which is today the Damascus Gate, ran south-southeasterly down to the Pool of Siloam, & divided a moo a share into ii hills (a lower berth and a upper cities of Josephus). This is probably a late Tyropoeon ("Cheese-makers'") valley. a 4th vale led from either a american hill (touching the present Jaffa Gate) across to the Temple region: these are represented inside modern Jerusalem by David Street. the fifth cut the eastern hill into the northern & a southern a share. Down the road Jerusalem was so build on quaternion spurs.Now, neighboring towns come Bethlehem and Beit Jala at the southern city border, & Abu Dis to the East.

Neighborhoods, places and monuments
Understand: List of places in Jerusalem Jerusalem has a heavy total of stores of religious & historic significance including the Western Wall, Al-Aqsa Mosque, and Church of the Holy Sepulchre, among many others (View Religious Significance above). These are likewise at home to a total of key Israeli government buildings, including the Kenesset & Israeli Supreme Court, & Israeli institutions, including Hebrew University.

Demographics
Watch a Demographics of Jerusalem

After it 1st appears within historical records, Jerusalem was inhabited by the Canaanite tribe. A Bible specifies a children when the Jebusites, and says it ruled it until its conquest by King David. When take charge of it from either a Canaanites, Jews formed a majority of the people of Jerusalem until its destruction by Rome in the 2nd century. As a result that, a city's historical demographics were uncertain, although it probably became the majority Muslim city per instance of the Crusades, and an official 16th century survey shows that a city was largely Muslim. By 1844 Jews formed the big lone class action in the city, & a majority per late 19th century. Based on data from a todays official nose count when of 2003, Jerusalem's population was 693,200 people, of which 464,500 (67.0%) were Jews & 228,700 (33.0%) were non-Jews (Note that this total is for the expanded municipality of Jerusalem equally claimed by Israel).

Tourism
Museums
A Israel Museum A Rockefeller Museum. A Ticho House.

Jerusalem today
Mayors and government
Understand a List of mayors of Jerusalem A todays city manager of Jerusalem is Uri Lupolianski, member of the local United Torah Judaism faction and a number one Haredi Jew to attain this position in the city. Economy
Heavily industry is discouraged within Jerusalem, when Tel Aviv remains Israel's financial capital, allowing Jerusalem's economy when in the main service-depending. Most half of Jerusalem's residents function inside government, public service, or even touristry, though there has been an increasing total of high-technology run-ups in the city besides.

Transportation
Roads
Commence Boulevard is West Jerusalem's inner city expressway. It goes Northwards to South from either Atarot to Malcha. More major avenue include a Talpiyot-Atarot route, which goes In the south to Northward & crosses East Jerusalem & West Jerusalem altogether. Herzl Boulevard lives west of Run blvd, starts at a enterance of the city (Northerly) & continues South via Mt. Herzl and Yad VaShem memorial. It so blends into extra routes that lead to the Southern quarters. A Golomb-Herzog-Ben-Zvi route is a survive major route that links a southern quarters into the city centre & major entrance. Jaffa Road is a main street crossing Jerusalem from either the american entrance to the city all the way as much as Jaffa Gate and East Jerusalem.

Buses
A Jerusalem Central Bus Station is Jerusalem's intercity bus station for services to Israeli destinations and settlements in the West Bank. Buses to more destinations in a West Bank leave from either either a Sultan Sulaiman Street bus terminal & from outside the Damascus Gate. Inner city public transport is served mostly per Egged cooperative which runs about a hundred bus lines throughout the city & its suburbia.

Railway
Israel Railways operates train service to Southern Jerusalem with Two ends: Jerusalem Malcha near the Malcha Mall and the Biblical Zoo. Super pack trains prevent at a latter prevent. A historical railroad terminal touching a Old City at Remez Square is currently obsolete.

For 2009, the newly high speed train from either Tel Aviv to Jerusalem is planned. This line would terminate at a recently underground station under construction underneath the Jerusalem Central Bus Station. There are extra plans to extend a line from either a Jerusalem Central Bus Station to a todays Jerusalem Malcha Train Station, the terminus of the historic (at present upgraded) railroad.

There are as well plans for the local light rail system, which have eventually to materialize.

Airports
Atarot Airport is Jerusalem's airport however these are presently non around utilize due to the security situation. Or else, Ben Gurion International Airport, 40km northwest of a city, currently serves when the primary air transportation hub for each Jerusalem & Tel Aviv.

Born in Jerusalem
Saint Angelus (Catholic saint) Fathi Arafat (physician) Suha Arafat (public figure) Mili Avital (actress) Yosef Avni (activist) Chaim Joseph David Azulai (author) Elisha Ben Abuyah (heretic) Salvatore Dandalerro (impressionist painter) Saeb Erekat (politician) Yuval Gabay (drummer) Mordechai Gur (general) David Grossman (author) Tzahi Hanegbi (politician) Amira Hass (journalist) Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni (commander) Amin al-Husayni (public figure) Eliahu Inbal (orchestral conductor) Flavius Josephus (historian) Yousef Al-Khalidi (politician) George Khouri (victim) Elias Khouri (lawyer) Isaac Luria (scholar) Raphael Maklouf (sculptor) al-Muqaddasi (geographer) Nathan (son of David) (prince) Yitzhak Navon (president) Sari Nusseibeh (academic) Amos Oz (author) Natalie Portman (actress) ibn Qudamah (Islamic jurist) Yitzhak Rabin (prime-minister) Reuven Rivlin (politician) Edward Said (literary theorist) Adin Steinsaltz (religious scholar) Sirhan Sirhan (murderer) Ayelet Waldman (author) William of Tyre (archbishop) Yigael Yadin (archeologist) A. B. Yehoshua (novelist) Eli Yishai (politician) Munib Younan (bishop) Nissim Zeev (politician) Rehavam Zeevi (politician)