Jerusalem is a divided city with a long and bloody history of conflict, NPR's Greg Myre and Mark Katkov write:
"Deadly riots targeting Jewish communities erupted in 1929 over the city's most contentious holy site, known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims. Recognizing the religious sensitivities, the United Nations proposed a partition plan in 1947 that created two separate states, but called for Jerusalem to be under international control.
"The plan was approved, but fighting following Israel's declaration of independence left the city divided. Jordan occupied the east; Israel the west. It remained this way until the 1967 war, when Israel captured the eastern part of the city as well and claimed all of it as its capital. Amid peace negotiations in 2000, Ariel Sharon, then the Israeli opposition leader, visited the Temple Mount / Noble Sanctuary. Palestinians rioted the next day and it turned into a five-year uprising, the Second Intifada. ...
"Palestinian Arabs make up nearly 40 percent of Jerusalem's population and live almost exclusively in the east. They are legal residents, but not citizens of Israel.
"Following Israel's capture of East Jerusalem in 1967, the city's borders were redrawn, tripling its size. Some 200,000 Jewish Israelis have moved to the eastern side of the city and a small number of Jewish nationalists have established residence within traditionally Arab neighborhoods.
"Arab residents of East Jerusalem typically do not participate in municipal elections, so as not to recognize Israel's sovereignty over the city. The two communities have little social interaction."