What is the real capital of Israel?

Answer 1

Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.

The Debate

The Israeli government proclaimed the capital of Israel as Jerusalem in 1950 (although at that time it was only West Jerusalem de facto). However, the issue that a lot of international groups have with the Israeli Declaration that Jerusalem is its capital is that the city defined by the Israelis as Jerusalem contains both de jure Israeli territory (West Jerusalem) and the de jure non-Israeli territory (East Jerusalem) which is owed, theoretically, to a Palestinian State. The UN Security Resolution 478 crystallized the International Stance on this issue. If Israel, like East Germany, claimed that half of a city was its operating capital (i.e. West Jerusalem - but East Berlin in the German case), many international observers would have fewer objections to recognizing it as the capital of Israel. However, as the official Israeli capital contains territory that is not technically Israeli, many organizations and countries prefer to designate Tel Aviv, a city that is unequivocally Israeli and the site of David Ben Gurion's Declaration of Independence, as the capital. Therefore, all embassies in Israel are in Tel Aviv.