No nation has expressed its bond with its land with as much intensity and consistency as we have. No one wanted it. Mark Twain described it only a hundred years ago as "a desolate country, which sits in sack cloth and ashes, a silent mournful expanse, which not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life". For millennia our people repeated at every occasion the cry of the Psalmist: "If I forget thee, Jerusalem, may my right hand lose its cunning." For millennia we have encouraged each other with the greeting, "next year in Jerusalem." For millennia our prayers, literature, and folklore have expressed powerful longing to return to our land. Only Eretz-Israel, the Land of Israel, is our true homeland, and Jerusalem is our Undivided capital.

From 1948-1967, Jerusalem was cruelly and unnaturally divided, the only such time in the city´s 3,000-year history.  Under the Jordanian occupation, Jews were expelled from, and were not allowed to visit, the eastern half of the city. Jews were thus denied access to their holiest site, the western wall of the ancient Temple´s courtyard. The ancient Jewish Quarter of the city was systematically destroyed, as were its ancient Jewish synagogues. Gravestones from 2,000 year-old Mount of Olives Jewish cemetery were torn up and used to build roads and lavatories. Jews and Christians were barred from their holy sites.

Areas critical to modern Israel, like Hebrew University and Hadassah Medical Center, could only be reached by a road through hostile Jordanian territory where scores of Jews lost their lives. Eastern Jerusalem´s Christian population suffered severe discrimination, and well over half of the community was forced to leave the city.

The reunification of Jerusalem by Israeli troops during the Six Day War in 1967 was a victory for people of all religions who believe in the United open and accessible Jerusalem. The minefields, barbed wire, bullet-ridden walls, and sniper fire were relegated to memory and replaced by an Israeli administration that has been upholding freedom of worship for all, Thanks God.