Jerusalem's ultimate status and borders should be negotiated and resolved as part of an agreement between official Israeli and Palestinian authorities and endorsed by both peoples.

J Street would support the approach outlined in the Clinton parameters and other models of a two-state solution under which the Jewish neighborhoods of Jerusalem would fall under Israeli sovereignty and the Arab neighborhoods would be under Palestinian sovereignty. Negotiations have produced creative ideas for resolving the hardest issues, including sovereignty and management arrangements for the Old City and the Holy Basin that guarantees all Jews freedom of access and worship at the Wailing Wall, as well as freedom of access and worship to for all peoples to their respective holy sites.

J Street does believe that Israel's capital is in Jerusalem and will be internationally recognized as such in the context of an agreed two-state solution. We believe that the surest way to achieve that international recognition for the Israeli capital in Jerusalem is through a negotiated and viable two-state solution whereby Jewish areas of Jerusalem are secured as the capital of Israel and Palestinian areas of East Jerusalem become the capital of the future Palestinian state. 

In advance of negotiations, all sides should refrain from unilateral actions – including new construction of Jewish housing in the eastern part of the city, evictions, demolitions and mass revocations of Palestinians’ residency status– that will make the ultimate resolution of this issue even more difficult. J Street is therefore deeply concerned by increasing tensions in Jerusalem and recent provocative actions being taken by the Israeli government and settler groups there, including approval of new Israeli housing construction in occupied East Jerusalem, the eviction of Palestinian families from their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood, and reports that Israel stripped a record 4,577 Palestinians of their Jerusalem residency status in 2008— more than half the number that lost their residency for the entire period between 1967 and the end of 2007.

American elected officials should respect the need for the permanent status of Jerusalem to be determined in the context of a negotiated two-state solution, and refrain from steps, rhetorical or practical, that inflame an already tense situation – for instance, calling for the immediate relocation of the American Embassy to Jerusalem.

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Additional Resources

J Street's Open Letter to the Conference of Presidents, May 13, 2010.
J Street Education Fund Full-Page Ad on Jerusalem, April 26, 2010.
"J Street Joins VP Biden in Condemning New East Jerusalem Construction," March 9, 2010.
"J Street Responds to Sheikh Jarrah Arrests," January 22, 2010. 
"J Street Statement on New Israeli Construction in East Jerusalem," December 28, 2009.
"J Street Calls for Stronger American Engagement to Stop Provocative Actions in Jerusalem," December 4, 2009.
"J Street Statement on Approval of New Gilo Construction," November 17, 2009.
"Statement by Jewish American Organizations on Issues Raised Regarding Construction in Jerusalem," July 29, 2009.

Click here for J Street's archived press statements on Jerusalem. 

"Why Palestinians Can't Buy Land," by Reena Ninan. Fox News, July 12, 2010.
"An Open City?" by Larry Derfner. The Jerusalem Post, July 2, 2010.