ABSTRACT
Jerusalem is one of the Israeli-Palestinian core issues not only in fighting but also in seeking for a political settlement. The emerging Jewish state and the Emirate of Transjordan had already begun discussing Jerusalem before the 1948 war. The terms of the Washington Declaration suggest that Israel has relinquished any claim to actualize sovereignty over the Islamic Holy Places in Jerusalem and has surrendered the Temple Mount as a religious site. Only East Jerusalem, which Israel occupied in 1967, was on the negotiation table, not the west city that came under her sovereignty following the 1948 war. Israel’s proposals about the Old City were part of its concept of the Holy Basin which includes the Old City and its adjacent historical and religious sites such as Silwan and the Mount of Olives. The Israeli-Jordanian peace talks culminated in the Washington Declaration, signed by Prime Minister Rabin and King Hussein on July 25, 1994.
