Core issues/Jerusalem
Core issue · Permanent status

Jerusalem

The hardest permanent-status question — sovereignty, the holy sites, and a shared city that has to work for two peoples.

Jerusalem is where the conflict is at its most symbolic — and its most practical.

Every permanent-status framework has foundered on the same question: how to share a city that both peoples claim as a capital, while keeping its holy sites stable and its residents' daily lives functional.

ECF's approach separates the symbolic from the administrable. We document how the city actually works — municipal services, residency, access — and we model arrangements under which two capitals could coexist without partitioning daily life into dysfunction.

Nowhere is our commitment to measurement clearer than at the holy sites. Our Temple Mount Status Quo Monitor turns the most charged question of all into a transparent, continuously updated evidence base — open to everyone.

~360k
Palestinian residents of East Jerusalem whose status is unresolved
1967
the lines at the heart of every permanent-status proposal for the city
2
capitals envisaged by a negotiated two-state outcome

Indicative planning figures compiled by ECF from public sources, 2026. Provided for orientation; consult primary data before citation.

Where we focus

A city, made administrable.

Our Jerusalem work concentrates on turning the most symbolic file into workable arrangements.

01

The holy sites & the status quo

Independent, trilingual measurement of conditions at the holy sites — anchored by the Status Quo Monitor.

02

Two capitals

Modelling sovereignty and administrative arrangements under which two capitals could function in one city.

03

Residency & daily life

Documenting services, access and residency so any settlement protects the city's everyday functioning.

Featured toolFully public

The Temple Mount Status Quo Monitor

The clearest taste of how we work on Jerusalem: a continuously updated, trilingual index that turns a charged debate into a transparent evidence base.

Open the Monitor
Visitor access · monthlyLive
Days of restricted access14
Documented status-quo deviations9
Reporting periodQ2 2026
Who works on this

The team on Jerusalem.

Name Surname

Senior Fellow

Leads ECF's Jerusalem file and the status-quo question.

Name Surname

Fellow

Specialist in municipal administration and residency.

Name Surname

Research Lead

Maintains the Temple Mount Status Quo Monitor.

If the Jerusalem file is relevant to yours, let's talk.

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