Jerusalem GovernorateJerusalem Governorate lies in the central part of the West Bank; it has an area of 353.679 Km2 and is home to 407,459 Palestinian Jerusalemites (PCBS, 2006). Jerusalem city is the capital and heart of the Palestinian state and the focal point of the three monotheistic religions (Christianity, Islam and Judaism); as it hosts hundreds of the most sacred religious and spiritual sites such as the church of the Holy Sepulcher, Via Delarosa, Al Aqsa mosque, the Dome of the Rock and many others. For this reason, Jerusalem and its religious sites became the focal points for pilgrimage from all over the world.
On June 28, 1967, the Israeli government illegaly and unilaterlly annnexed Jerusalem to the Israeli state and declared â??Unified Jerusalemâ?? as the the eternal capital of Israel. When the Israeli government illegally redrew the municipal boundaries of the West Bank it included as much uninhabited land to Jerusalem and excluded the highly populated Palestinian neighborhoods. From that point on; Israel aimed to manipulate the demographic and geographic realities to its favor to emphasize its sovereignty over the city. To achieve this goal, the consecutive Israeli governments improvised several laws to increase the number of Jews, and reduce the number of Palestinians, living in the city, to â??Israelizeâ?? the city; erase its Arabic culture and history and evacuate the city from its Palestinian inhabitants. Soon after the occupation of the city in 1967, the Israeli government expanded East Jerusalem municipal boundary, increasing its municipal area from 6.5 Km2 to 71 Km2 to include areas from 28 surrounding Palestinian villages.
Prepared by
The Applied Research Institute – Jerusalem
ARIJ
