June 28, 1967

Israeli annexation of East Jerusalem

Israel applies its law to East Jerusalem and enlarges Jerusalem's municipal boundaries

In one set of orders Jerusalem's paper boundaries nearly tripled — from 38,100 dunams to 110,000 — and the word "annexation" appears nowhere in them.

Two orders, 28 June 1967

On 28 June 1967, using authority the Knesset had enacted the previous day, Levi Eshkol's government issued an order applying Israeli law, jurisdiction and administration to a defined area encompassing Jordanian East Jerusalem, the Old City and surrounding West Bank territory.

The interior minister issued a parallel order enlarging the Jerusalem municipality to include the designated territory. The Knesset's own figures put the municipal area at 38,100 dunams before and 110,000 after.

The 27th and the 28th are routinely conflated: the enabling laws were passed on 27 June, and the territorial orders were issued on the 28th.

What the map took in

The designated area included the Old City, Sur Baher, Sheikh Jarrah, Kalandia airport, Mount Scopus and its vicinity, and Shuafat. Most of the addition was surrounding West Bank land that had never been inside the Jordanian municipality.

The UN representative in Jerusalem reported roughly 70,000 people in the designated area, about 28,000 of them in the Old City.

They came under Israeli civil and municipal administration without becoming citizens: East Jerusalem residents were classified as permanent residents, able to vote in municipal but not Knesset elections.

Whose word for it

Israel described the measures as legal and municipal integration, and the orders avoided the word annexation. The United Nations, the International Court of Justice and most states have treated their effect as annexation of occupied territory.

"Reunification" is Israel's official characterization; "occupation" and "annexation" are the terms used by the UN and the ICJ. One week later the General Assembly adopted Resolution 2253 by 99–0 with 20 abstentions, calling on Israel to rescind measures altering Jerusalem's status.

The 1980 Basic Law did not begin Israeli legal and municipal control there; it proclaimed complete and united Jerusalem as Israel's capital, thirteen years after the control was imposed.

Sources

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What the sources leave uncertain

The date of the orders is well documented. The disputed issue is terminology and legal effect: Israel did not label the act annexation, while the UN and International Court of Justice treat East Jerusalem as occupied territory and the application of Israeli law and permanent control as annexation.
June 27 and June 28 are frequently conflated. The Knesset passed enabling legislation on June 27; the government and interior minister issued the territorial orders on June 28.
Published area figures vary slightly because some sources describe the total enlarged municipality and others only the occupied territory added to it.