What is the status of Jerusalem in international law ?

Both the Security Council and the General Assembly have strongly condemned throughout the years Israel’s unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem and the legal validity of the normative steps that Israel has adopted to apply its sovereignty over East Jerusalem. In a long series of pointed decisions, these international institutions have repeatedly stressed that the practical and normative steps adopted by Israel in its annexation of East Jerusalem are in contravention to the rules of international law. In Resolution 252 (1968) the Security Council declared that “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which tend to change the legal status of Jerusalem are invalid and cannot change that status”.
The stance, according to which the unilateral annexation of East Jerusalem by Israel is not valid under international law, was affirmed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its 2004 Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. The ICJ mentioned, in particular, Resolution 478 (1980), stating that the enactment of the Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel constituted a violation of international law.
The Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem and the application of Israeli law to the annexed territory are illegal. This assertion is well anchored in international humanitarian law, as well as the fundamental notion that sovereignty lies with the people of territory and not in its governing force. It is also a logical conclusion derived from the general prohibition on the use of force. In light of this, the international community’s response to the Israeli annexation, in its staunch refusal to recognise the annexation, was an obvious and inevitable outcome.
However, Israeli violations of international humanitarian law have not stopped with the act of the annexation. Over the years Israel has adopted a policy aiming to strengthen its grasp of East Jerusalem by facilitating Israeli settlements in the annexed territory, limiting Palestinian expansion and even implementing displacement-causing practices. Thus, Israel has used several tools, made possible by illegally-applied Israeli law, to expropriate Palestinian land for the purpose of building settlements, to takeover of Palestinian private property and to severely limit Palestinian planning and building.All of these practices are in violation of international humanitarian law.
Quick facts about the legal status of Jerusalem:
  • Under international law, East Jerusalem (including the Old City and its holy sites) are not legally part of Israel.
  • Prior to the Trump administration’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in November 2017, US policy on the city was in line with the international community’s refusal to recognize any country’s sovereignty over any part of the city in the absence of a permanent Arab-Israeli peace agreement. Trump also broke with seven decades of US policy and international law by moving the US embassy to Israel to Jerusalem.​
  • During the June 1967 War, Israel militarily occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, which had been under Jordanian control since 1948. Israel subsequently annexed East Jerusalem after massively expanding the city’s boundaries into the West Bank in a move that has been repeatedly condemned as illegal by the UN and international community.
  • There are approximately 330,000 Palestinians living in East Jerusalem. They can travel inside Israel and vote in municipal elections but endure systematic discrimination from Israeli authorities and face the constant threat of losing their right to live in the city if they travel abroad to study or work.
  • There are approximately 300,000 Jewish settlers living in the expanded boundaries of East Jerusalem in violation of international law and nearly 50 years of official US policy. While Palestinian residents of Jerusalem face discrimination from Israeli authorities in nearly every facet of life, including making it nearly impossible for them to build homes and other structures, Jewish settlers enjoy all the rights and privileges of Israeli citizenship and are encouraged by the government to steal Palestinian land and push Palestinians out of their homes.
  • In an attempt to separate and isolate East Jerusalem from the rest of the occupied West Bank, Israel has built a ring of settlements around its outskirts. This ring has been reinforced by the wall Israel is constructing, which has been ruled illegal by the International Court of Justice because most of it is built on occupied Palestinian land inside the West Bank and not along Israel’s internationally recognized pre-1967 borders.
  • Since 1993 and the signing of the Oslo Accords, Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza have been forbidden by Israel to enter East Jerusalem without a difficult to obtain permit. As a result, millions of Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza are prevented from entering the city to worship at their holy sites, visit family, conduct business, study, or receive medical care.
The Dome of the Rock (background) and Alburaq wall/Western Wall. Old City, occupied East Jerusalem. (Photo: Chris Hazou)