Jerusalem

Jerusalem (Hebrew: ירושלים Yerushaláyim; Arabic: القُدس al-Quds) is the capital city of the Palestinian Arab Republic and second-most populous of the republic's 105 municipalities. Located on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea, according to the 2020 Arab Union census, Jerusalem had a municipal population of 1,332,754 and a metropolitan population of over 3.25 million, the latter figure accounting for nearly a seventh of Palestine's total population. It is one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities, and is considered holy to the three major Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam).

During its long history, Jerusalem has been destroyed at least twice, besieged 23 times, captured and recaptured 44 times, and attacked 52 times. The part of Jerusalem called the City of David shows first signs of settlement in the 4th millennium BCE, in the shape of encampments of nomadic shepherds. Jerusalem was named as "Urusalim" on ancient Egyptian tablets, probably meaning "City of Shalem" after a Canaanite deity, during the Canaanite period (14th century BCE). During the Israelite period, significant construction activity in Jerusalem began in the 9th century BCE (the Second Iron Age), and in the 8th century BCE the city developed into the religious and administrative centre of the Kingdom of Judah. In 1538, the city walls were rebuilt for the last time around Jerusalem under Suleiman the Magnificent. Today those walls define the Old City of Jerusalem, which has been traditionally divided into four quarters—known since the early 19th century as the Armenian, Christian, Jewish and Muslim Quarters. The Old City became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1981.

From the 1948 Arab–Israeli War and establishment of the State of Israel and Palestinian Republic, Jerusalem was a contested area, spending almost two decades divided between those two states with the Old City a special international demilitarised zone placed under the supervision of UN peacekeeping forces. Following the 1967 Six-Day War which ended in victory for Israel, the whole Palestinian Republic was occupied by the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF), except for Jerusalem, which remained under UN control. In 1970, the United Arab Republic (UAR) launched the War of Attrition, which ended in the defeat of the IDF by the Arab Army, and the subsequent incorporation of former Israeli territory and the rest of the Palestinian Republic into the UAR, making it the third republic to be admitted to the UAR after Egypt and Syria; in 1979, the United Nations' peacekeeping mission withdrew from Jerusalem, and it was subsequently formally incorporated into the UAR. The underground Israeli government represented by the Zionist Resistance Front (ZRF) claims Jerusalem as the capital of the continuing Israeli state under occupation, while the Arab Union claims Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, one of its 20 republics (federated states).

The Palestine Arab Congress is located in Jerusalem, as well as most Palestinian government ministries and the Mount of Olives Citadel, headquarters of the Arab Army's elite 100th Mechanized Division.