In
June 1967, during the Six Days War, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) take East
Jerusalem along with the rest of the West Bank area (and the Syrian Golan
Heights and the Egyptian-held Gaza Strip and Sinai peninunsula) which, since
1949, had been under the control of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. For the
first time since antiquity, Jerusalem is now in its entirety under the control
of a Jewish state. For the first time ever, Christian and Muslim holy places
are thus also under the control of a Jewish state.
One of the conquering Israeli generals, Moshe Dayan, declares on June 7, 1967, that Israel will never relinquish control of Jerusalem.
On the same day, June 7, 1967, Prime Minister Levi Eshkol issues a declaration, condemning the Jordanian attacks on Western Jerusalem and clarifying the authority over the Holy Places in Jerusalem now that Israel has taken control of the entire city. This declaration is later augmented by a Law of the Protection of Holy Places. These documents are later referred to in the letter of Foreign Minister Abba Eban to UN Secretary General U-Thant of November 15, 1971. Here Eban sketches the development of Jerusalem since 1967 in comparison to Jordanian rule (1948-67) and argues that, in light of the improvement of services, infra-structure, and political enfranchisement of the entire citizenry, the UN demand of a return to the status-quo-ante makes no sense for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, including its Muslim and Christian populations.
On July 4, 1967, on the initiative of Pakistan, the UN General Assembly adopts a resolution calling on Israel to desist from any changes in the status of Jerusalem.(Resolution 2253.)
Thalmann Report (Sept. 1967): UN Secretary General sent Dr. Ernesto Thalmann on a fact finding mission to Jerusalem to determine the nature and scope of changes in the administration of the parts of the city hitherto governed by Jordan. With the exception of the Vatican, everyone with whom Thalmann spoke during his visit in Jerusalem seemed to welcome the manner in which the Israeli administration was beginning to integrate the city.
UN Security Council Resolution 242 (Nov. 2, 1967) calls for the return of all areas occupied by Israel during the June 1967. This resolution has been widely regarded as the basis for any lasting peace in the Middle East.
Contacts (1969-1973) between the Israeli government and the Holy See (the Vatican in Rome) indicate that Rome is beginning to accept Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem, including the Christian holy places. Until then, the Vatican had insisted on the internationalized status of Jerusalem stipulatedby the UN partition plan of 1947.
In March of 1974, just after the Yom Kippur War of 1973, the Israeli goverment declares in a statement of the principles of its policies, that it intends to accelerate its transformation of Jerusalem through building, settling, and modernizing the city, cementing its claim on Jerualem as the Eternal Capital of Israel.
In 1977, the Israeli electorate votes Menahem Begin's Likud party into office. This ends the power of the Labour coalition that had ruled the State of Israel since it gained independence in 1948.
In Sept 1978, the President of Egypt, Muhammad Anwar al-Sadat, and Prime Minister Begin of Israel sign a historic peace agreement at Camp David, brokered and withnessed by US President Jimmy Carter, that includes the declaration of a time frame for the settlement of the entire question of Palestine, including the withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza and the installation of a Palestinian self-government. The only part of the agreement that was implemented was the Israeli withdrawal from the Sinai peninsula. Although the Camp David agreement of 1978 prominently mentions the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as a partner in all future negotiations, it was not until 1994 that Jordan and Israel officially declared the history of bloodshed and belligerence between their two nations as a matter of the past. (See the Washington Declaration of July 25th, 1994.)
Twentyfive years later, President Jimmy Carter assesses the current situation in the Middle East by looking back at the achievements of the Camp David Accords of 1978.