Israeli legislators have approved a bill that will now make it more difficult to divide Jerusalem. Israel Today reported that, in the pre-dawn hours Tuesday, and “following a succession of impassioned speeches both for and against,” the Knesset voted on and passed the United Jerusalem Bill, an amendment to the Jerusalem Law passed in 1980 when Israel officially declared the entirety of Jerusalem to be its undivided capital. This new legislation,
Israel Today reports, now “requires a two-thirds majority or 80 Knesset members (MKs) or more, to alter the status of Jerusalem or surrender portions of the Holy City as part of a future peace agreement.” Obtaining a two-thirds majority to pass any bill in the Israel Knesset is a difficult task. For this bill, 64 MKs voted in favor of the bill, 51 voted against with one abstention. “Just now we ensured that Jerusalem will be united forever,” the bill’s author, Israeli Education Minister Nafatali, told Israel Today. READ MORE
