TIMELINE: Jerusalem

3000 B.C. A settlement dates from this era, near Goon Spring.

2000 - 1500 B.C. Abraham settles in Canaan. Christians and Jews believe Jerusalem is where God orders Abraham to sacrifice Abraham's son Isaac to him.

Around 1000 B.C.: David, founder of the joint kingdom of Israel and Judah, captures Jerusalem from the Jebusites pays a sum of money to the Jebusites for Jerusalem, to avoid additional conflict, and makes it his capital. David's son, Solomon, builds the First Temple and establishes the Jewish Empire that extends all the way to Iraq Euphrates River.

586 B.C. The Babylonians conquer Jerusalem, destroy the Temple and exile the Jews.

64 B.C. Pompey conquers Jerusalem for Rome. Herod, made king in 40 B.C., begins a building program, including refurbishing the Second Temple.

Around 28 A.D. Jesus of Nazareth arrives in Jerusalem, where he will be crucified. He foretells the destruction of the Temple.

70 A.D. Romans destroy the Temple following a Jewish revolt. In 135, they put down another revolt and rename the city Aelia Capitolina and they rename Israel Palestine.

313 The city comes under the control of Constantine I, who restores its name and with his mother, Helena, builds the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

638 Arabs capture Jerusalem; the Dome of the Rock is built on the site of the Jewish Temple by 691.

1099 European Christians capture Jerusalem during the First Crusade.

1187 leader Saladin recaptures Jerusalem. Jews return and the layout of the Old City into quarters is fixed.

1517 The Ottoman Turks capture the city.

1917 The British conquer Jerusalem during World War I and make it the administrative seat of Palestine while they are appointed as trustee for the Jewish people to reestablish Israel under international law.

1947 The British abandon their trusteeship of Palestine and turn over the Jewish sovereignty of Palestine's future to the new United Nations, which in violation of international law and treaty, and in violation of its own Charter partitions it into Arab and Jewish states. Jerusalem would be an international city; therefore it has no legal bearing on Israel’s actions to bring to fruition its legal right under international law and treaties. The UN can only recommend and not create or supersede international treaties.

1948 Arab Rejecting the U.N. plan, which makes the recommendation invalid and meaningless. Arab forces attack the newly sovereign state of Israel, which was reconstituted in 1920. By war's end, Israel controls West Jerusalem, which it makes it as its capital. Jordan controls East Jerusalem and the Old City.

1949 - 1967 Jews are barred from praying at the Western Wall and some Jewish areas vandalized, 49 synagogues destroyed.

1967 During a third Arab-Israeli war, Israel captures and liberates the Eastern part of Jerusalem, reclaiming Temple Mount and the Western Wall, which is the holiest site in Judaism for about 3,000 years. It officially annexes its historical ancestral East Jerusalem and some 17,500 acres.

Historical records, international law and treaties of post WWI and the Faisal Weizmann Agreement of January 1919 verify Israel's rightful possession over all of the land west of the Jordan River, although it should include the eastern part of the Jordan River also. The Judeo-Christian have Jerusalem and the Arab’s have Mecca.