No one can deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem. Israel’s capital is and forever will be the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is also a city within whose borders – unilaterally expanded by Israel in 1967 to include large areas populated by Palestinians – one-third of the population is Palestinian; additional large Palestinian urban areas lie just beyond these borders. Jerusalem has deep political, historical, economic and cultural significance to Palestinians – who consider it the only possible capital of a future Palestinian state.

Jerusalem also has a deep religious meaning not only for Jews, but for Christians and Muslims everywhere. These attachments are neither recent nor flimsy: for generations, long before the birth of the modern state of Israel, Christians and Muslims throughout the world have revered Jerusalem and its holy sites.

Peaceful coexistence in Jerusalem will be achieved only when all sides respect each other's beliefs and traditions. Similarly, Palestinian-Israeli peace will only be achieved when there is a negotiated solution to conflicting claims to Jerusalem – a solution that takes into account the sensitivities and needs of all stakeholders.

While some Israelis and American Jews strongly reject any notion of dividing Jerusalem, the fact is that today, Jerusalem is an "undivided" city only in slogans. On the ground, it is a divided city in virtually every sense but the legal one. Israeli policy since 1967 has differentiated between Jewish and Palestinian residents in almost every aspect of their lives; as a result, patterns of life there reflect two distinct populations living separate and rarely overlapping existences. Indeed, Israel’s security barrier, which is virtually invisible to most Israelis in Jerusalem, runs through the heart of some Palestinian neighborhoods, dividing families and communities, cutting Palestinian Jerusalemites off from the city’s West Bank hinterland, and in the process, destroying the generations-old fabric of life in East Jerusalem.

A solution for Jerusalem, based on the principle of sharing or politically dividing the city, is entirely possible. Most proposed solutions for Jerusalem's future would put Arab neighborhoods under Palestinian control, Jewish neighborhoods under Israeli control, and the Old City under special arrangements agreed on by both Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

APN supports a negotiated solution to competing claims in Jerusalem. We believe that whatever the arrangements, the emergence of a Palestinian capital in Arab areas of Jerusalem would not undermine Israel's claim to Jerusalem as its capital. Rather, it could clear the way – at long last – for international recognition of Jewish Jerusalem as Israel's capital. It would make Israel's capital a more Jewish city, solidify Israel’s sovereignty over it, and allow Israel to shed the burden of ruling over hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who are not and do not desire to be Israeli.