Jerusalem belongs to Israel

Being one of the oldest cities on Earth, Jerusalem has a long history around it. It was originally built as part of humanity's first forays into farming and civilization, mainly because of its placement in the Fertile Crescent and its choice location for protection from invading forces. It is worth noting that it was not founded, at least at first, by Jews. It was constructed as an outlying colony of Mesopotamia. It was named for a Canaanite deity, being written in cuneiform as "the City of Shalem". Since then, it has been attacked 52 times, with 44 of those resulting in a successful capture of the city. The Jewish claim to the city begins in the 9th century BCE, with the name "City of David". As a side note, "Shalem" was adopted into Hebrew to mean a place of peace. After that, it was taken over by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Macedonians, and the Romans. The Romans evicted the Jewish people from Jerusalem, and all of what is now called Israel, after two unsuccessful uprisings. This led to the creation of the Jewish diaspora, something that continues to this day. It became the holiest site in Christianity after the creation of Christianity, having been the mythical home to many people in the Old Testament. This is also why it was holy to the Jews: both Christianity and Judaism follow the Old Testament/Torah. For the rest of the debate I will refer to it as the Old Testament to reflect the presence of the New Testament, but I digress. When Western Rome fell in the 600s, yielding briefly to the Byzantine Empire before it fell to first the Persians (again), Byzantines (again) and then to the Muslim Caliphate of Rashidun, before existing under Muslim (another people who found the city holy) rule for several centuries, falling briefly to two European Crusades, and then being forcibly given to the Jewish people by the British Empire after World War II. This is, in short, to say that Jerusalem cannot truly belong to any one people. All three of the largest monotheistic world religions- Christianity, Islam, and Judaism- believe that Jerusalem is a holy site. Therefore, it would be foolish to say that it "belongs" to any one people. It should not belong to Israel- it should instead be freely lived in and accessed by people of any religion, looked over as a non-governmental area by an international organization such as the United Nations. This would not be nearly so much of an issue, except that Israel has systematically blocked access to holy sites such as the West Wall (site of a few Biblical events, notably Jesus' entrance to Jerusalem) to non Jews and especially Muslims. This discrimination has shown that no nation is really capable of holding this power, especially one that does not practice the separation church and state. Therefore it should not. On a more practical note, and more directly responding to a more literal interpretation of the resolution, Jerusalem does not, in the status quo, belong to Israel. As laid out in the Camp David Accords in 1998, it belongs not wholly to Israel, and not wholly to Palestine, both of whom claim it. Instead they share it (the "two state" solution) and both should have access. By definition, Israel does not technically own Jerusalem. In terms of whether or not it should, we have a much more interesting debate. Thanks for bringing up the topic! This is a really interesting topic and I'm looking forward to the rest of the debate.