Jerusalem Israel

Jerusalem's Mayor Teddy Kollek said Wednesday that President Bush has written to him promising that the United States supports a united Jerusalem. Jerusalem "must never again be a divided city," Bush wrote in the March 13 letter distributed at a news conference here. Last week, Bush made a statement apparently lumping East Jerusalem, which Israel regards as its sovereign territory, with the West Bank, which is under Israeli military occupation.

Re "U.S. 'neutrality' on Jerusalem," Editorial, July 25 What would we think if Spain or any other country decided that Puerto Rico was not really U.S. territory? Suppose it refused to accept U.S. passports issued to residents of San Juan. Wouldn't that be considered an intrusion? So how can our government tell residents of Jerusalem what country they live in? Marshall Giller Northridge ALSO: Letters: Kaiser's premium push Letters: Immigration issue takes off Letters: Sick over DWP's pay policies

The bitter conflict over this holy city has spilled into the place that is supposed to be the happiest on Earth. And nobody's smiling about it. More than a year ago, officials of the Walt Disney Co. invited Israel and 23 other nations to take part in a special millennial celebration at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla. The aim, a Disney spokesman said, was to showcase cultural diversity, not political differences.

WASHINGTON - American citizens born in Jerusalem cannot claim Israel as their place of birth on their passports, a federal appeals court in Washington ruled Tuesday. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously declared unconstitutional a 2002 law that required the State Department to record Israel as the birthplace of Jerusalem-born citizens despite a long-standing position in the executive branch of strict neutrality toward sovereignty of the disputed city.

A once-unthinkable proposal to turn over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City to United Nations authority is being resurrected in an attempt to breathe new life into peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, officials from several nations said Friday. The proposal, which Israel is said to now favor but Palestinians so far oppose, comes as American officials struggle for ways to salvage negotiations and set the Middle East on the road to a definitive peace.

In hope of holding on to this spot as its "eternal and undivided capital," Israel is exploring establishment of an "interfaith administration" for the Old City and other holy places, diplomats said Tuesday. This would give Christians and Muslims a share in control of those parts of the 5,000-year-old city that are sacred to them--and effectively remove the question of Jerusalem's future from the international agenda.

With just weeks to go until a deadline for making peace with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has started to dribble out details of a final treaty. In his most explicit language to date, Barak told his Cabinet this week that Israel will release eastern suburbs of Jerusalem to Palestinian control. Annexing the 50,000 or more Palestinians who live just east of the Old City, he said, is not in Israel's security or social interest.

Police on horseback clashed Saturday with thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews who tried to block a newly opened highway, claiming that traffic will disrupt their Sabbath observances. Ten protesters were detained and four police officers were injured, one requiring hospitalization, city police spokeswoman Anat Granit said. Ultra-Orthodox leaders said five protesters were injured from police blows, Israel Radio reported.

Israel's opposition Likud Party kicked off its underdog election campaign Sunday with a surprise move, accusing Prime Minister Shimon Peres of setting out to divide Jerusalem during final peace negotiations with the Palestinians. Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the right-of-center Likud, called the upcoming national election "a referendum on Jerusalem."

This holy city--always the emotional heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict--has become the setting for a recent, elaborate, high-stakes cat-and-mouse game between Israelis and Palestinians. Palestinian officials are playing the mice, scurrying in and out of Jerusalem, trying to force the Israelis to put discussions of sovereignty on the table. The Israelis are the increasingly frustrated, angry cats.

The Supreme Court this week will take up the case of a 9-year-old boy born in Jerusalem to American parents who want their child's passport to say his birthplace is in Israel. The State Department refused their request in keeping with long-standing American foreign policy against recognizing Israeli sovereignty over Jerusalem. This seemingly narrow dispute over one word on a passport has put before the high court several broad questions that have long divided diplomats and constitutional scholars.

A thunderous blast tore through a Jerusalem bus at morning rush hour today, the start of the Israeli workweek. At least seven people were killed and dozens of others injured, police said. Israeli authorities said they believed the explosion was the work of a suicide bomber. The attack came at a delicate political moment -- on the eve of hearings before the International Court of Justice in The Hague over the legality of a barrier Israel is building in the West Bank.

Subtlety is not Ariel Sharon's strong suit. Flanked by hundreds of police officers in riot gear and with helicopters flying overhead, Sharon led a small knot of right-wing politicians onto the holiest and most bitterly contested site in Jerusalem's Old City early Thursday, sparking riots that left dozens of Palestinians and Israeli troops injured.

A once-unthinkable proposal to turn over the Temple Mount in Jerusalem's Old City to United Nations authority is being resurrected in an attempt to breathe new life into peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians, officials from several nations said Friday. The proposal, which Israel is said to now favor but Palestinians so far oppose, comes as American officials struggle for ways to salvage negotiations and set the Middle East on the road to a definitive peace.

With just weeks to go until a deadline for making peace with the Palestinians, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has started to dribble out details of a final treaty. In his most explicit language to date, Barak told his Cabinet this week that Israel will release eastern suburbs of Jerusalem to Palestinian control. Annexing the 50,000 or more Palestinians who live just east of the Old City, he said, is not in Israel's security or social interest.

The bitter conflict over this holy city has spilled into the place that is supposed to be the happiest on Earth. And nobody's smiling about it. More than a year ago, officials of the Walt Disney Co. invited Israel and 23 other nations to take part in a special millennial celebration at Walt Disney World's Epcot Center in Orlando, Fla. The aim, a Disney spokesman said, was to showcase cultural diversity, not political differences.

Israeli police on Sunday detained eight adults and six children belonging to a Denver-based apocalyptic Christian cult and said the group intended to carry out violent acts here to hasten the second coming of Christ. Israeli officials, who are increasingly concerned that the countdown to 2000 will bring a number of Christian extremists to the Holy Land, identified those in custody as members of an American cult known as Concerned Christians.

Each time there is a knock on their soot-blackened front door, Wafa and Sonya Khoury remove a Post-it from the peephole, peer into the hallway of their apartment building and ask the visitors to identify themselves. Satisfied the callers are not hostile, they unbolt and then unlock the door.

Intense U.S. diplomacy and days of negotiations failed late Monday to defuse a confrontation between the Israeli government and Palestinian politicians over the Palestinians' headquarters in East Jerusalem. Despite warnings that the move could unleash a wave of violence on the eve of national elections, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered three Palestinian offices to shut down within 24 hours after Palestinians rejected demands that they curtail certain activities.

Israeli police on Sunday detained eight adults and six children belonging to a Denver-based apocalyptic Christian cult and said the group intended to carry out violent acts here to hasten the second coming of Christ. Israeli officials, who are increasingly concerned that the countdown to 2000 will bring a number of Christian extremists to the Holy Land, identified those in custody as members of an American cult known as Concerned Christians.