East Jerusalem
In the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)'s Palestinian Declaration of Independence of 1988, Jerusalem is stated to be the capital of the State of Palestine. In 2000, the Palestinian Authority passed a law proclaiming Jerusalem as its capital, and in October 2002, this law was approved by chairman Yasser Arafat. Since that time Israel has shut down all offices and NGO organisations connected to the PLO in East Jerusalem, saying that the Oslo Accords do not permit the Palestinian National Authority to operate in Jerusalem. The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) recognised East Jerusalem as capital of the State of Palestine on 13 December 2017.
United States recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel
The Jerusalem announcement inspired activist Ahmed Abu Artema to write a Facebook proposing the outlines of the Great March of Return protests. Multiple camps of Palestinians engaged in protest along the fenceline of the Gaza Strip as part of this effort in late March 2018, demanding the right of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to their former homes in Israel, and an end to the blockade of the Gaza Strip, as well as rejecting recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. The opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem on May 14 coincided with a major escalation of the protests, resulting in the death of 64 protesters on that day.