The Jerusalem Law is a common name of Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel

Israel

The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

passed by the Knesset

Knesset

The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem.-Role in Israeli Government :The legislative branch of the Israeli government, the Knesset passes all laws, elects the President and Prime Minister , approves the cabinet, and supervises the work of the government...

 on July 30, 1980 (17th Av, 5740).

It began as a private member's bill

Private Member's Bill

A member of parliament’s legislative motion, called a private member's bill or a member's bill in some parliaments, is a proposed law introduced by a member of a legislature. In most countries with a parliamentary system, most bills are proposed by the government, not by individual members of the...

 proposed by Geula Cohen

Geula Cohen

Geulah Cohen is an Israeli former Irgun and Lehi member, politician, and journalist.-Biography:Geulah Cohen was born in Tel Aviv during the British Mandate of Palestine...

, whose original text stated that "the integrity and unity of greater Jerusalem

Greater Jerusalem

Greater Jerusalem is a term used generally to describe the area encompassing the approximately one hundred square miles surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem...

 (Yerushalayim rabati) in its boundaries after the Six-Day War

Six-Day War

The Six-Day War , also known as the June War, 1967 Arab-Israeli War, or Third Arab-Israeli War, was fought between June 5 and 10, 1967, by Israel and the neighboring states of Egypt , Jordan, and Syria...

 shall not be violated." However, this clause was dropped after the first reading in the Knesset. As the Knesset thus declined to specify boundaries and did not use the words "annexation

Annexation

Annexation is the de jure incorporation of some territory into another geo-political entity . Usually, it is implied that the territory and population being annexed is the smaller, more peripheral, and weaker of the two merging entities, barring physical size...

" or "sovereignty

Sovereignty

Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...

", Ian Lustick

Ian Lustick

Ian Steven Lustick is an American political scientist and specialist on the modern history and politics of the Middle East.Lustick completed his Ph.D...

 writes that "The consensus of legal scholars is that this action added nothing to the legal or administrative circumstance of the city, although, especially at the time, its passage was considered to have political importance and sparked a vigorous protest reaction from the world community." For example, UN Security Council Resolution 478, adopted by 14 votes to none, with 1 abstention (United States of America), declared soon after that the law was "null and void" and "must be rescinded". This resolution called upon member states to withdraw their diplomatic missions from the city.

External links

• Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel More information at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs