What if you visit? Your passport might get you in trouble. If you fly into Ben Gurion Airport (which is in Israel), you get an entry card, not a stamp. Why? Because if they stamped “Israel” and you later tried to enter a country that bans Israeli stamps, you’d be stuck. It’s spy-level bureaucratic gymnastics.
Israel says the city is its “eternal and indivisible capital.” Palestine says, “Not so fast, buddy.” The United Nations says it’s a “corpus separatum”—a separate body. That’s Latin for “we give up, figure it out yourselves.”
Bizarre Facts That Will Make You Sound Smart at Parties
Jerusalem is the only city in the world that is claimed as a capital by two different countries at the same time. That’s like two people trying to marry the same person. Awkward.
The Western Wall, the Dome of the Rock, and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre are all within a half-mile radius. It’s the world’s most intense holy real estate cluster. You could throw a rock from a synagogue and hit a mosque or a church. Please don’t try.
Jerusalem — Tourist Guide | Planet of Hotels
There is a “Status Quo” agreement from 1852 that dictates who cleans which part of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Two Muslim families have held the key to the church’s front door for centuries. Why? Because the Christian denominations couldn’t agree on who should hold it. So they gave it to the other guys. That’s some next-level pettiness.
