According to the Old Testament, David, king of the two partial kingdoms of Judah and Israel, won Jerusalem from the Jebusites around 1000 BC. He moved his seat of government to Jerusalem, making it the capital and religious center of his kingdom. The Bible says David's son Solomon built the first temple for Yahweh, the God of Israel. Jerusalem became the center of Judaism.

The Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II (3rd from the left) conquered Jerusalem in 597 and again in 586 BC, as the Bible says. He took King Jehoiakim (5th from the right) and the Jewish upper class into captivity, sent them to Babylon and destroyed the temple. After Persian king Cyrus the Great seized Babylon, he allowed the exiled Jews to return home to Jerusalem and to rebuild their temple.

The Roman Empire ruled Jerusalem from the year 63 AD. Resistance movements rapidly formed among the population, so that in 66 AD, the First Jewish–Roman War broke out. The war ended 4 years later, with a Roman victory and another destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. The Romans and Byzantines ruled Palestine for approximately 600 years.

Over the course of the Islamic conquest of Greater Syria, Muslim armies also reached Palestine. By order of the Caliph Umar (in the picture), Jerusalem was besieged and captured in the year 637 AD. In the following era of Muslim rule, various, mutually hostile and religiously divided rulers presided over the city. Jerusalem was often besieged and changed hands several times.

From 1070 AD onward, the Muslim Seljuk rulers increasingly threatened the Christian world. Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade, which took Jerusalem in 1099 AD. Over a period of 200 years a total of nine crusades set out to conquer the city as it changed hands between Muslim and Christian rule. In 1244 AD the crusaders finally lost control of the city and it once again became Muslim.

After the conquest of Egypt and Arabia by the Ottomans, Jerusalem became the seat of an Ottoman administrative district in 1535 AD. In its first decades of Ottoman rule, the city saw a clear revival. With a British victory over Ottoman troops in 1917 AD, Palestine fell under British rule. Jerusalem went to the British without a fight.

After World War II, the British gave up their Palestinian Mandate. The UN voted for a division of the country in order to create a home for the survivors of the Holocaust. Some Arab states then went to war against Israel and conquered part of Jerusalem. Until 1967, the city was divided into an Israeli west and a Jordanian east.

In 1967, Israel waged the Six-Day War against Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Israel took control of the Sinai, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem. Israeli paratroopers gained access to the Old City and stood at the Wailing Wall for the first time since 1949. East Jerusalem is not officially annexed, but rather integrated into the administration.

Israel has not denied Muslims access to its holy places. The Temple Mount is under an autonomous Muslim administration; Muslims can enter, visit the Dome of the Rock and the adjacent Al-Aqsa mosque and pray there.

Jerusalem remains to this day an obstacle to peace between Israel and Palestine. In 1980, Israel declared the whole city its "eternal and indivisible capital." After Jordan gave up its claim to the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1988, the state of Palestine was proclaimed. Palestine also declares, in theory, Jerusalem as its capital.

Back in 1995, the US Congress passed the so-called Jerusalem Embassy Act, declaring that Jerusalem "should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel." The act, however, also allowed the sitting president to delay the move by signing a waiver every six months. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama all reissued the waiver throughout their presidencies, citing security concerns.

During the 2016 US presidential campaign, Republican candidate Donald Trump promised that, if elected, he would relocate the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, describing the holy city as "the eternal capital of the Jewish people." Trump's declaration attracted a great deal of fervor within Israel and won over scores of Jewish and Evangelical voters in the US.

In May 2017, Trump became the first sitting US president to visit the Western Wall. The site is located in Jerusalem's Old City, which Israel forces captured during the 1967 Six-Day War. According to reports, Trump considered fulfilling his Jerusalem pledge during the visit, but was advised against such a move by foreign policy officials who feared it would only stoke regional tensions.

During a speech at the White House on December 6, 2017, Trump said he had "determined it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel," adding that the move was a "recognition of reality." Trump cited the Jerusalem Embassy Act as one of the reasons behind his decision. "While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver," he said.

Following Trump's announcement, thousands of Muslims worldwide participated in demonstrations protesting his controversial decision. Protesters marched in the streets, burned flags and shouted anti-Israel slogans in countries including Iraq, Turkey, Egypt, Malaysia, Indonesia and Indian-controlled Kashmir.

The protests soon reached Europe. In Germany, on December 8, 2017, mostly Muslim demonstrators attended a rally near the US embassy at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, waving Palestinian flags. The German government was among those warning against Trump's move.

On December 21, 2017, an emergency session of the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution condemning US President Donald Trump's decision to name Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. A total of 128 countries voted in favor of the measure, while nine voted against it and 35 countries abstained. The vote came after the US vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Jerusalem.

On February 23, the US State Department said it would hasten the relocation of the embassy to Jerusalem. "The opening will coincide with Israel's 70th anniversary," State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. The anniversary falls on May 14. During a visit to Jerusalem in January, US Vice President Mike Pence had said he did not expect the move to be complete before the end of 2019.

On May 7, Israeli authorities put up the first road signs pointing to the US embassy in Jerusalem. The signs were put up on the southern side of the city by the US consulate. Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat hung the first sign. In a statement, he said: "This is not a dream, it's reality. Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people, and the world is beginning to recognize this fact."