Foundations
What Is Jerusalem?
Today’s Jerusalem is a city that remains undefined in any official sense that would be considered legitimate by all its residents. Residents must navigate an imposed labyrinthine maze of borders, jurisdictions, and fragmented spaces that is difficult for non-natives to fathom. Understanding these complexities is the starting point for anyone wanting to grasp the realities faced by Jerusalem’s Palestinians.
Featured in This Topic
Where is Jerusalem? The answer is a lot more complex and unclear than you might think.
An interactive map of Jerusalem (East and West) from 1967 until today.
An interactive map of Jerusalem and the region around it as divided among Areas A, B, and C after the Oslo Accords of the mid-1990s
A shining example of genuine community-based restoration work in the fraught political Jerusalem landscape
A look back at Jerusalem’s rulers since ancient times and the city’s population based on more recent censuses
Palestinian Jerusalemites view the history of their city through a different lens. A conversation with Palestinian historian Nazmi Jubeh.
Jerusalem’s historian and defender of academic freedom, who fought to preserve the city’s diversity and plurality
Historian Albert Aghazarian reveals a timeless truth: Jerusalem’s strength lies in its diversity, not domination.
A stunning live performance work created by Douban Professional Dance that shows how Jerusalem has benefited from its diversity, and how diversity shapes Jerusalemites’ identity still.
Young Palestinian Jerusalemite musicians play qanun across Jerusalem landscapes.
A conversation with Adalah’s legal director, Suhad Bishara, about Israel’s plan to relegate the Salah al-Din Street commercial district to irrelevance
Colonial Jerusalem, written by Thomas Abowd in 2014, seems more relevant today than ever. A book review.
Israel is arresting Palestinian bookstore owners.
The Story in Numbers
10
Number of times the official Jerusalem municipal boundaries have changed since 1917 [1]
19.2 sq km
The area of the city of Jerusalem under the British Mandate period, 1917–47 [2]
28
Number of Palestinian localities that Israel unilaterally incorporated into the city upon expanding the municipal boundaries in 1967 to add areas on the (Arab) eastern side of the city that had not previously belonged to it [3]
70 sq km
Newly expanded area of East Jerusalem after Israel unilaterally expanded the boundaries in June, 1967, de facto annexing an additional 64 sq km to East Jerusalem from the original 6 sq km, including many Palestinian villages that had not previously been in the city [4]
126.4 sq km
The total area of the city of Jerusalem today [5]
440 sq km
The area of “Greater Jerusalem,” the expanded, Jewish-majority Jerusalem that Israel envisions and is rapidly developing [6]
0
Number of times the Palestinian residents of Jerusalem have been consulted or given an opportunity to influence where the official municipal boundaries of Jerusalem should be [7]
Notes
1. See Table 1 in Where Is Jerusalem?.
2. See Table 1 in Where Is Jerusalem?.
3. See Table 1 in Where Is Jerusalem?.
4. See Table 1 in Where Is Jerusalem?.
5. See Table 1 in Where Is Jerusalem?.
6. See Israel’s Vision of a Greater [Jewish] Jerusalem
7. See Where Is Jerusalem?.