The Western Wall and Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The time has come for the international community to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, the Jewish state’s UN envoy said in a letter to the president of the Security Council.

“Since King David made Jerusalem the capital of the Kingdom of Israel 3,000 years ago, the Jews have always lived in, built and defended the Holy City,” Ambassador Danny Danon wrote. “Even after the Jews lost their sovereignty in the Land of Israel to the Roman sword, they still maintained a presence in Jerusalem, generation after generation.”

“When the Arabs rejected UN resolution 181 in 1947, the local Arab population attacked the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and expelled its Jewish population,” he continued. “For nineteen years, Jerusalem’s Old City was separated from its western neighborhoods by mines and barbed wire. It was not until 1967, when Israel overcame yet another Arab attempt to destroy the Jewish state, that Israel succeeded in reuniting and liberating Jerusalem.”

“For the last 52 years, Jerusalem has been a city that champions and protects religious freedom and the right of all worshipers to pray in peace,” Danon noted. “This reality, unique in our region, exists only in the Jewish and democratic Israel.”

Danon’s missive came in response to a complaint against Israel filed with the Security Council by Palestinian Ambassador Riyad Mansour, who called for the establishment of a Palestinian state, with a capital in East Jerusalem, “before we have reached a point of no return.”