Summary
Israel’s Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel, passed by the Knesset on 30 July 1980, in its original sections 1-4 declares Jerusalem, complete and united, the capital of Israel and the seat of the President, the Knesset, the Government and the Supreme Court, protects the Holy Places and freedom of access to them, and requires the Government to fund Jerusalem’s development, including a special annual Capital City Grant, and to give Jerusalem special priority; Amendment no. 1 (passed 27 November 2000) added sections 5-7, which fix Jerusalem’s jurisdiction to include the area in the appendix of the 28 June 1967 proclamation expanding municipal Jerusalem’s borders, bar any transfer of authority stipulated in Israeli or Jerusalem Municipality law to a foreign body, permanently or for a period, and entrench sections 5 and 6 so they may be modified only by a Basic Law passed by a majority of the members of the Knesset (Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel (1980), lines 175-264).
What the file is
The unofficial English translation of the Basic Law as presented on WIPO Lex (jurisdiction Israel, IL095), in one HTML page whose text copy runs lines 1-264: WIPO site navigation at lines 1-174, then the Law at lines 175-264 — two headings giving different amendment dates, the title, sections 1-7 with marginal headings, the signatories, the 1980 passage footnote and the Amendment no. 1 footnote. The Law portion is about 881 words as supplied. The text copy was checked against the original HTML on the whole Law portion and reads the same, including the slips and conflicts recorded below. No Hebrew text, table or figure appears in the file. Sections 5, 6 and 7 are each headed “(Amendment no. 1)”; sections 1-4 carry no such mark, so the file presents 1-4 as the 1980 text and 5-7 as the 2000 addition.
Section by section
- Section 1, Jerusalem, Capital of Israel (lines 186-188). “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.”
- Section 2, Seat of the President, the Knesset, the Government and the Supreme Court (lines 190-198). Jerusalem is the seat of the President of the State, the Knesset, the Government and the Supreme Court.
- Section 3, Protection of Holy Places (lines 200-208). The Holy Places shall be protected from desecration and any other violation and from anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings towards those places.
- Section 4, Development of Jerusalem (lines 210-224). (a) The Government shall provide for the development and prosperity of Jerusalem and the well-being of its inhabitants by allocating special funds, including a special annual grant to the Municipality of Jerusalem (Capital City Grant) with the approval of the Finance Committee of the Knesset. (b) Jerusalem shall be given special priority in the activities of the authorities of the State so as to further its development in economic and other matters. (c) The Government shall set up a special body or special bodies for the implementation of this section.
- Section 5, Area of the jurisdiction of Jerusalem (Amendment no. 1) (lines 226-236). The jurisdiction of Jerusalem includes, as pertaining to this basic law, among others, all of the area described in the appendix of the proclamation expanding the borders of municipal Jerusalem beginning the 20th of Sivan 5727 (June 28, 1967), as was given according to the Cities’ Ordinance.
- Section 6, Prohibition of the transfer of authority (Amendment no. 1) (lines 238-246). No authority stipulated in the law of the State of Israel or of the Jerusalem Municipality may be “transfered” (as printed) either permanently or for an allotted period of time to a foreign body, whether political, governmental or to any other similar type of foreign body.
- Section 7, Entrenchment (Amendment no. 1) (lines 248-251). Clauses 5 and 6 shall not be modified except by a Basic Law passed by a majority of the members of the Knesset.
- Signatories and footnotes (lines 253-264). Signed by Menahem Begin, Prime Minister, and Yitzchak Navon, President of the State. Passed by the Knesset on the 17th Av, 5740 (30th July, 1980) and published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 980 of the 23rd Av, 5740 (5th August, 1980), p. 186; the Bill and an Explanatory Note were published in Hatza’ot Chok No. 1464 of 5740, p. 287. Amendment no. 1 was passed by the Knesset on the 29th Heshvan 5761 (27th November 2000) and published in Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 5762, p. 28, as printed.
Key passages
- “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel” (section 1, lines 186-188)
- “Clauses 5 and 6 shall not be modified except by a Basic Law passed by a majority of the members of the Knesset” (section 7, lines 248-251)
Evidence the work relies on
A Basic Law, not an evidentiary work. It cites no evidence. Section 5 incorporates by reference the appendix of the proclamation expanding the borders of municipal Jerusalem beginning 28 June 1967, given according to the Cities’ Ordinance; that proclamation and its appendix are not reproduced in the file, so the area is defined only by that reference. Its footnotes cite only its own Bill and Explanatory Note and its Sefer Ha-Chukkim publication.
Analysis
The Law is declaratory and institutional in sections 1-4: it states a capital, seats the four named organs in it, protects the Holy Places in general terms without naming any place or enforcement mechanism, and imposes funding and priority duties on the Government without amounts. Amendment no. 1 changes its character: section 5 ties the Basic Law’s Jerusalem to the municipal area as expanded on 28 June 1967, section 6 bars transfer of any stipulated authority to a foreign body, and section 7 entrenches sections 5 and 6 — the only entrenchment in the Law — requiring a Basic Law passed by a majority of the members of the Knesset, not merely of those voting. Sections 1-4 are not entrenched in the text as presented.
People, organizations, places and events
Basic Law: Jerusalem, Capital of Israel, Basic Laws, Knesset, City of Jerusalem, Menachem Begin, Israeli Supreme Court
Concepts
How it relates to other sources
This is the primary text of the “basic law” on Jerusalem that Resolution 478 (1980) censures in the strongest terms, determines null and void and decides not to recognize. Resolution 478, adopted 20 August 1980, does not name the Law by its Israeli title or give its 30 July 1980 passage date; this file supplies both, and its section 1 wording, “complete and united”, is the proclaimed change in character and status to which 478 and, before it, Resolution 476 (1980) respond. The Law is listed for 1980 in the Basic Laws table from Dowty. Its section 3 protection undertaking is broader in addressee than the Declaration of Independence undertaking to safeguard the Holy Places of all religions recorded on the Holy Places page: section 3 also protects freedom of access and members’ feelings towards the places. Its section 5 incorporation of the 28 June 1967 municipal expansion is the domestic-law counterpart to the measures Resolutions 252, 476 and 478 hold invalid or null and void; those resolutions are not mentioned in the file.
Open questions
- The file’s two headings give different amendment dates — “as amended on December 7, 2000” (line 175) and “as amended on November 20, 2000” (line 179) — and neither matches Amendment no. 1’s passage date in its own footnote, 27th November 2000. All three dates are kept as printed; the file does not explain the difference.
- The Amendment no. 1 footnote gives its publication as “Sefer Ha-Chukkim No. 5762, p. 28”, as printed, where 5762 is in the form of a Hebrew year rather than the sequential issue number used for the 1980 law (No. 980).
- Section 6 spells “transfered” with one r, as printed in both the text copy and the original HTML, byte-verified.
- The 28 June 1967 proclamation and its appendix, incorporated by section 5, are not in the file, so the exact area section 5 covers cannot be read from this source.
- The file does not state whether sections 1-4 are reproduced exactly as passed in 1980 or as affected by any later amendment other than Amendment no. 1.
Coverage
lines 1-265 of 265, read in full.