Map: Israel, Palestinian territories, Golan Heights, etc

Map: Israel, the Palestinian territories (West Bank and Gaza Strip), the Golan Heights, portions of neighbouring countries, and also United Nations deployment areas in countries adjoining Israel or Israeli-held territory, as of January 2004. This is a heavily modified map by/at source.
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According to Wikipedia, in the area known before the 1967 war as East Jerusalem, a census conducted by the Israeli authorities in 1967 and it registered 66,000 Palestinian residents (44,000 residing and 22,000 in the West Bank area annexed to Jerusalem after the war). Only a few hundred Jews were living in East Jerusalem at that time. By June 1993, a Jewish majority was established in East Jerusalem: 155,000 Jews were officially registered residents, housed in 17 Israeli settlements, as compared to 150,000 Palestinians.

As of 2006, the population of East Jerusalem was 428,304, comprising 59.5% of Jerusalem's residents. Of these, 181,457 (42%) are Jews, (comprising 39% of the Jewish population of Jerusalem as a whole), 229,004 (53%) are Muslim (comprising 99% of the Muslim population of Jerusalem) and 13,638 (3%) are Christian (comprising 92% of the Christian population of Jerusalem). The size of the Palestinian population living in East Jerusalem is controversial because of political implications. In 2008, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics reported the number of Palestinians living in East Jerusalem was 208,000 according to a recently completed census.

As of 2005, East Jerusalem's main Arab neighborhoods include Shuafat (34,700), Beit Hanina (24,745), a-Sawana (22,127), Jabal Mukaber (16,030), Ras al-Amud (14,841) and the lower part of Abu Tor (14,614). East Jerusalem's main Jewish neighborhoods include Pisgat Ze'ev (41,208), Gilo (27,258), Ramot Alon (22,460), Neve Yaakov (20,156), and East Talpiyot (12,158). The Old City has an Arab population of 32,635 and a Jewish population of 3,942.

Source: Wikipedia. Go to Wikipedia for more correct and updated info on Israel, Palestinian territories, Golan Heights, East Jerusalem, etc.

Palestinian's anger spills over East Jerusalem streets

Palestinian protesters flooded into East Jerusalem and other parts of the West Bank to show their anger over the restoration of a historic synagogue. They claim that Israel's action is endangering the al-Aqsa mosque, one of their most important sites. Israel's annexing of two other holy sites last month is part of their plans to build more Jewish settlement homes and it has further angered Palestinians, Sherine Tadros reports from occupied East Jerusalem.

US Israel ties worst in 35 years

Photo: Jerusalem with the Dome of the rock in the background the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, taken on 10 November 2008.

Israel's Ambassador to the US Michael Oren has recently said that ties between the two counties are at their lowest in 35 years, the Israeli media reported following announcement for building 1,600 new homes in occupied Jerusalem. The US is waiting for a formal response from Israel, a strategic ally of the US, to its concerns, as the Palestinian leaders feel that talks with Israel are now doubtful, though Israel's PM said Jewish settlements did not hurt Arabs in East Jerusalem.

"No government in the past 40 years has limited construction in neighborhoods of Jerusalem;" he said, and continued, "Building these Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem does not hurt the Arabs of East Jerusalem or come at their expense."

The two countries’ relations were in tough terrain in 1975, because of a demand from the then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger that Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin withdraw Israeli troops partially from the Sinai Peninsula where they had been stationed since the Six-Day War of 1967.

The status of Jerusalem is one of the main disputes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and Israel's occupation of East Jerusalem has been criticized by the United Nations and other international bodies. The Palestinians demand East Jerusalem as they want it as the capital of their state.

After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War Jerusalem was divided into two parts. The western portion populated mainly by Jews came under Israeli rule, while the eastern portion populated mainly by Arabs came under Jordanian rule.

East Jerusalem refers to parts of Jerusalem captured by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War, and it includes Jerusalem's Old City and some of the holiest sites of Judaism, Christianity and Islam; such as the Temple Mount, Western Wall, Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.