After 40 Years Under Israel, Jerusalem Rifts Deepen

[Purveyor]

JERUSALEM, June 3 (Reuters) - On each anniversary of Israel's capture of Arab East Jerusalem 40 years ago, thousands of singing, flag-waving Jewish youths parade through the sacred Old City under heavy police guard.

It's a patriotic spectacle with an often less-than-sympathetic audience -- local Palestinian Muslims and Christians gazing dourly from the sidelines, and apolitical religious Jews who whisk indifferently by to prayer.

The clashing national and religious claims that play on the faces reflect rifts in Jerusalem that have grown ever deeper since its physical unification in 1967, when the Israeli army ejected Jordanian troops from the east of the city two days after what would be called the Six Day War began on June 5.

Israel calls the city its undivided and eternal capital, but this status has never been recognised internationally. That was brought home when foreign ambassadors stayed away from the Israeli government's gala 40th anniversary "Jerusalem Day" celebrations -- marked last month under the Hebrew calendar.

Foreign embassies concentrate in Tel Aviv. Some nations also have consulates dealing with Palestinians in East Jerusalem.

---EOE---

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31234741.htm

[aquart]

1. Wtf does this mean?

"Foreign embassies concentrate in Tel Aviv. Some nations also have consulates dealing with Palestinians in East Jerusalem."

[breakaleg]

2. What don't you understand?

[TheMadMonk]

3. It means that the international community doesn't recognise...

...Israel's sole claim to Jerusalem, and does recognise that Palestinians have a legitimate right to exist as a sovereign people, and that they have a legitimate claim to sharing the governance of Jerusalem.