Corpus separatum

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Corpus separatum is Latin for "separated body". The 1947 UN Partition Plan used this term to refer to a proposed internationally administered zone to include Jerusalem and some nearby towns such as Bethlehem and Ein Karim, that was, "in view of its association with three world religions" to be "accorded special and separate treatment from the rest of Palestine and should be placed under effective United Nations control".

United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194, 11 December 1948 established a United Nations Conciliation Commission and reaffirmed this statement. United Nations General Assembly Resolution 303 confirmed the decision to place Jerusalem under a permanent international regime according to the provisions of General Assembly Resolution 181(II).

The plan was not implemented; instead, Israel and Transjordan each took control of part of the area. Two decades later Israel gained control of East Jerusalem and the entire West Bank in the Six-Day War, and immediately annexed East Jerusalem to be part of Israel and of a united Jerusalem municipality, which however does not have boundaries identical with those of the proposed corpus separatum and does not include Bethlehem.

The Holy See has previously expressed support for the status of Corpus separatum. Pope Pius XII was the among the first to make such a proposal in the 1949 encyclical Redemptoris Nostri Cruciatus. This idea was later re-proposed during the papacies of John XXIII, Paul VI and John Paul II.

[edit] Later status of Jerusalem

The Israeli Knesset passed a Jerusalem Law declaring united Jerusalem to be Israel's capital in 1980, although the clause "the integrity and unity of greater Jerusalem (Yerushalayim rabati) in its boundaries after the Six-Day War shall not be violated" was dropped from the original bill. United Nations Security Council Resolution 478 condemned this and no countries today have located their embassies in Jerusalem; however, Bolivia and Paraguay have their embassies in Mevaseret Zion, a suburb 10km west of Jerusalem.

On October 23, 1995, the United States Congress passed the advisory Jerusalem Embassy Act saying that "Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel; and the United States Embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem no later than May 31, 1999". Since 1995, the relocation of the embassy from Tel Aviv has been suspended by the President semi-annually, each time stating that "[the] Administration remains committed to beginning the process of moving our embassy to Jerusalem". As a result of the Embassy Act, official U.S. documents and web sites refer to Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

[edit] External links

• Official map of the Jerusalem corpus separatum
• IMEU: Maps: 2.7 - Jerusalem and the Corpus Separatum proposed in 1947. Map from Institute for Middle East Understanding.

[edit] See also

• Positions on Jerusalem
• UN General Assembly Resolution 194, (1948)
• United Nations Conciliation Commission, (1949)