Chuck Schumer: “Mr. Speaker, just 30 years ago, Jerusalem was a city divided, divided by barbed wire, divided by faith and divided by…”

“Mr. Speaker, just 30 years ago, Jerusalem was a city divided, divided by barbed wire, divided by faith and divided by violence. In 1948, Jews, who have looked to Jerusalem for 3 millennia as their holy place, were systematically expelled from their holy city. The houses of worship were destroyed, the cemeteries were desecrated. Gravestones served as roads for construction in the city. The most holy of religious sites, the Western Wall, was used ignominiously as a garbage dump. Jews from around the world were unable to worship at their holiest of holy sites. At the time, the free world rightly declared this heinous act of war illegal but did nothing, absolutely nothing, to change it. Thirty years ago all that changed. Jerusalem was liberated. Jews from around the world could once again pray in Jerusalem. Today Jerusalem is a city reunited, united in geography, united in respect for faith and united in search for peace. Since 1967, Jerusalem has been the united sovereign capital of Israel, which no Israeli Government, Labor or Likud, would ever agree to divide.”