What? ...and I thought you were smart and knew your Israeli/Palestine history.
I know the history pretty well, but smart? LOL
How can that be if the Israelis control the Temple Mount which is located in Jerusalem? As you admitted, Israel maintains its primary governmental institutions there. Following the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel extended its jurisdiction and administration over East Jerusalem, establishing new municipal borders.
And all of that and everything since is a war crime. Building institutions on other's land, furthermore, gives no legal title to the land.
"The armistice line drawn at the end of the 1948 war divided Jerusalem into two. Israel controlled the Western part of Jerusalem, while Jordan took the Eastern part, including the old walled city containing important Jewish, Muslim and Christian religious sites.
All that was never legally implemented. It is a zionist talking point. The land was taken in war. The zionist argument only works from neanderthal times through WWII. After that war, civilization appeared to wake and international law has been clear ever since. Read the Nuremberg principles.
In 2010, Israel approved legislation giving Jerusalem the highest national priority status in Israel. The law prioritized construction throughout the city, and offered grants and tax benefits to residents to make housing, infrastructure, education, employment, business, tourism, and cultural events more affordable.
Again, totally illegally as it must be. Look at what a dangerous and moronic precedent that would be set.
So, there it is. Expansion. Typical Jewish action against the Arabs. Again, nothing learned from Nazi Germany in WWII. Also, not giving 'two-shits' to what Americans think or want, but still taking $3 billion dollars in American aid every year. That is a great way to not be liked by many, and some wonder where the hate comes from.
It was illegal expansion and needs to rectified if we will ever find peace. And let's be clear, "The settlements" are a PC way of saying ''racial colonies.'
To understand this more fully, where else in any civilized nation (let alone in on someone else's land) are communities set up solely for one race? Hitler tried and failed; why would it wok in Palestine?
Where else are the native people's homes being demolished to accomplish this end?
“Any humanitarian looking at the sheer number of innocent civilians who have lost their homes can only condemn Israel’s house demolition policy as a hugely disproportionate military response by an occupation army... It is a policy that creates only hardship and bitterness, and in the end can only undermine hope for future reconciliation and peace.”
– Peter Hansen, Commissioner General of UNRWA
To really understand the flagrant disregard for human rights that are going on to build these racial colonies, since 1967, over 48,000 Palestinian homes have been demolished by Israel and the Palestinians have not even demolished one Israeli home in that same time period.