The US has officially moved its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and in

doing so, President Trump

has reversed decades of consensus about the city's status.

While Israeli leaders celebrated,

Palestinians denounced the move,

deepening divides between two sides of a conflict that is 70 years old.

“We're hearing live fire…”

“Rising death toll…”

“Quite a juxtaposition…”

Here are 5 things to know about Jerusalem and why it's so contentious.

Israel has controlled West Jerusalem since 1949.

During the Six Day War, Israel captured East Jerusalem and annexed that half of the city.

But the international community considers East Jerusalem occupied territory, whose fate

needs to be part of a negotiated deal between Israel and the Palestinians.

In 1980, after Israel passed a law declaring a united Jerusalem the capital,

the United Nations condemned the annexation.

Palestinians want to divide the city and make East Jerusalem the capital of a future

Palestinian state,

while Israelis want a unified Jerusalem to be their capital.

During peace process negotiations for the Oslo Accords,

the issue of Jerusalem was initially

set aside to avoid derailing the talks.

Any successful peace initiative in the future would likely need to resolve the conflicting

claims to the land.

Control of Jerusalem has been a trigger for violence many times in the past.

The contested area of East Jerusalem is home to some of the holiest sites in the world

for Jews and Muslims.

It is the site where Judaism's two sacred temples once stood.

And the site where the prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven.

The trouble is that the sites for Muslims and Jews exist on the same land.

There's a precarious power share in place.

Israeli officials control who has access to the complex.

But Muslims have religious control inside.

Jews can enter but aren't allowed to pray.

Instead, they use the Western Wall.

The second intifada began in 2000,

when then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount

to assert Israel's right to the complex.

Palestinians protested and were met with tear gas and rubber bullets.

The violence lasted five years and killed more than 3,000 Palestinians

and nearly 1,000 Israelis,

with thousands more wounded.

In the early 70's, 16 countries had embassies in Jerusalem, including the Netherlands and

Colombia.

But after the UN Security Council condemned the annexation of East Jerusalem in 1980.

member states left.

Then, Trump signaled a change in policy,

and Guatemala and Paraguay also announced they

are moving their embassies to Jerusalem

And it's possible that more countries will follow America's lead.

Though Congress passed a law to relocate

the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem more than 20 years ago,

the law includes a loophole that allows the president to delay the relocation for the

sake of national security.

Every sitting president --

Clinton, Bush, Obama --

has used this power and signed the

waiver every 6 months.

President Trump signed the waiver in June 2017,

and again in December 2017,

but also

signaled he would begin the process of moving the embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

And in May of 2018, he carried out his pledge.

The embassy move came at an already a tense time.

Tens of thousands of Palestinians have spent the past few weeks holding protests on the

border between Gaza and Israel,

that weren't tied to the embassy move.

Dozens of Palestinians had been killed even before the embassy opened.

While President Trump was careful not to call Jerusalem an “undivided” capital.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said just that at the US embassy opening.

“God Bless Jerusalem, the eternal undivided capital of Israel.”

But opposition to Trump's declarations and the embassy move has been growing.

And as lines are drawn and the fight for Jerusalem intensifies, the future of Israeli-Palestinian

stability is once again at risk.