Jerusalem is the capital Israel declares and the seat of its government. Its status is contested: the State of Palestine claims East Jerusalem as its capital, and most states keep their embassies in or near Tel Aviv.
This site records what the dataset records and takes no position on the sovereignty of Jerusalem. The note below appears on every page of this site where the relation is shown, word for word.
Jerusalem's status is contested: Israel declares it its capital, the State of Palestine claims East Jerusalem as its capital, and most embassies are in Tel Aviv. The seat relation is recorded as GeoNames records it, without taking a position.
Israel's national institutions are in the western part of the city: the Knesset, the Supreme Court, the president's residence, the prime minister's office and the government ministries. Israel declared Jerusalem its capital in 1950 and passed the Basic Law: Jerusalem in 1980.
East Jerusalem was captured in 1967 and its annexation has not been recognised by the United Nations. The State of Palestine claims East Jerusalem as its capital, and its seat of government today is Ramallah. Most states maintain their embassies to Israel in or near Tel Aviv; a small number have moved theirs to Jerusalem since 2018.
Under the policy on disputed territories, a contested place keeps its neutral note above every answer, the note is reproduced from the data and never paraphrased, and the page avoids any phrasing that would imply a position on sovereignty. The roles used are the ordinary ones used everywhere on the site: there is no "proclaimed" role, so a claimed capital is shown as the official one and the note says whose claim it is.
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The places above come from GeoNames, reconciled against Wikidata. Last checked 21 September 2026. How we know · Suggest a correction