East Jerusalem: Captured in 1967, Annexed by Israel, Claimed by Palestinians

East Jerusalem is the portion of Jerusalem lying east of The Green Line: Israel's Pre-1967 Armistice Frontier, the 1949 armistice boundary. It includes the walled Old City and sites sacred to Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. From 1948 to 1967 the area was held by Jordan; Israel captured it during The Six-Day War (1967) and the Territories It Reshaped. Shortly after the 1967 war Israel extended its municipal and administrative law over roughly 70 km² of East Jerusalem and surrounding West Bank land, and in 1980 the Knesset's Jerusalem Law declared a "complete and united" Jerusalem to be Israel's capital. The international community has not recognized these measures. UN Security Council Resolution 242 (1967) called for withdrawal from territories occupied in the conflict, and Resolution 478 (1980) declared the Jerusalem Law "null and void." Most states therefore regard East Jerusalem as part of the occupied Palestinian territory. Israel disputes this characterization, describing its steps as administrative rather than belligerent annexation. Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state; the 1988 Palestinian Declaration of Independence names Jerusalem as its capital. The status of the city is one of the most contested issues in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, left for "final-status" negotiations under the Oslo framework. Demographically, East Jerusalem had an estimated population around 595,000 by 2020, roughly 61% Palestinian and 39% Jewish Israeli. Since 1967 Israel has built Israeli Settlement: Definition, Types, and the Outpost Distinction such as Gilo, Ramot, and Pisgat Ze'ev housing an Israeli Settler: Definition, Geography, and Legal Status population of about 230,000 by 2023. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention: Protecting Civilians Under Occupation, the transfer of an occupying power's civilians into occupied land is widely held to be unlawful. In a July 2024 advisory opinion, the International Court of Justice found Israel's continued presence in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, to be unlawful and its settlement activity in breach of international law. Israel rejects the opinion's conclusions.