Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • When President Trump announced his plans to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, "

  • It is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel."

  • He reversed decades of consensus about the status of Jerusalem.

  • The announcement sparked massive protests among Palestinians and throughout the Muslim world.

  • Here are five things to know about Jerusalem and why it's so contentious.

  • Israel has controlled West Jerusalem since 1949.

  • During the Six-Day War Israel captured East Jerusalem and annexed that half of the city,

  • but the international community considers East Jerusalem occupied territory.

  • In 1980 after Israel passed a law declaring a united Jerusalem their capital,

  • the United Nations condemned the annexation. Palestinians want to divide the city and

  • make East Jerusalem the capital of a future Palestinian state,

  • while Israel iswant a unified Jerusalem to be their capital.

  • During peace process negotiations for the Oslo Accords, the issue of Jerusalem was initially set aside to avoid derailing the talks.

  • In 2000, during a new round of negotiations, talks were upended

  • when the leaders of Palestine and Israel disputed who would control the maze of tunnels under Jerusalem.

  • Control of Jerusalem has been a trigger for violence many times in the past.

  • The contested area of East Jerusalem is home to some of the holiest sites in the world for Jews and Muslims.

  • It is the site where Judaism's two sacred temples once stood and the site

  • where the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven.

  • The trouble is that the sites for Muslims and Jews exist on the same land.

  • There's a precarious power share in place:

  • Israeli officials control who has access to the complex, but Muslims have religious control inside.

  • Jews can enter but, aren't allowed to pray. Instead, they use the Western Wall.

  • The Second Intifada began in 2000 when then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon

  • visited the Temple Mount, to assert Israel's right to the complex.

  • Palestinians protested and were met with tear gas and rubber bullets.

  • The violence lasted five years and killed over 3,000 Palestinians and

  • nearly 1,000 Israelis, with thousands more wounded.

  • More recently, Israel set up metal detectors to enter the complex,

  • which Palestinians say restricted access to the holy site, sparking a new round of protests and violence.

  • In the early '70s sixteen countries had embassies including the Netherlands, Costa Rica, Colombia,

  • but after the UN Security Council condemned the annexation of East Jerusalem in 1980,

  • member states left. Now Jerusalem only has consulates -

  • the U.S. would be the first country to have an embassy back in the city.

  • Though Congress passed a law to relocate the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem more than 20 years ago,

  • the law includes a loophole that allows the president to delay the relocation for the sake of national security.

  • Every sitting president, Clinton, Bush, Obama,

  • has used this power and signed the waiver every six months.

  • President Trump signed the waiver in June 2017 and again in December 2017,

  • but also signaled he would begin the process of moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

  • President Trump was careful not to call Jerusalem the undivided capital of Israel,

  • but opposition to Trump's declarations and the proposed embassy move grows.

  • Muslim countries worldwide urge the recognition of East Jerusalem

  • as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

  • In Jerusalem, tensions are higher than usual.

  • Palestinian militant group Hamas has started launching rockets into

  • Israel from Gaza and calling for a third Intifada.

  • Israel has arrested Palestinians and is clamping down on protests and

  • as lines are drawn and the fight for Jerusalem intensifies,

  • the future of israeli-palestinian stability is once again at risk.

When President Trump announced his plans to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, "

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it