"This 52-year, illegal occupation has caused immense suffering and misery for the Palestinian people," Mansour then called on the members of the council saying that, "We implore the international community to act before we have reached a point of no return."
In response to the letter, Israel's ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon wrote his own to the Kuwaiti Ambassador to the United Nations, Mansour Al-Otaibi, who currently holds the presidency of the council for the month of June - within the letter he explained the connection the Jewish people have to Jerusalem and the Land of Israel.
"Since King David made Jerusalem the capital of the Kingdom of Israel 3,000 years ago, the Jews have always lived in, built and defended the Holy City. Even after the Jews lost their sovereignty in the Land of Israel to the Roman sword, they still maintained a presence in Jerusalem, generation after generation," Danon said. "When the Arabs rejected UN resolution 181 in 1947, the local Arab population attacked the Jewish Quarter of the Old City and expelled its Jewish population. For nineteen years, Jerusalem's Old City was separated from its western neighborhoods by mines and barbed wire. It was not until 1967, when Israel overcame yet another Arab attempt to destroy the Jewish state, that Israel succeeded in reuniting and liberating Jerusalem."
"For the last 52 years, Jerusalem has been a city that champions and protects religious freedom and the right of all worshipers to pray in peace. This reality, unique in our region, exists only in the Jewish and democratic Israel. It is time the international community recognize that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel," Danon concluded.