Regarding “YU Prof. Signs B’Tselem-Linked Letter Protesting Jerusalem as Capital of Israel,” (December 28, 2017): First of all, the president didn’t “declare” Jerusalem as the capital; Jerusalem is the capital city of Israel. Representing the U.S., Trump “officially” recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Second, no part of Israel is an “occupied territory.” We must drop that mentality and not give credence to the misuse of the term by others. The term “occupation” has been inappropriately used by the U.N. and other countries in the ongoing propaganda campaign to express denial of what really happened. Israel was attacked. Israel defended itself against unprovoked attack, and in the process recovered or won land areas in the process.

Everywhere else in the world, when such an event occurs the winner gains the rightful jurisdiction over land areas acquired. No one refers to this as occupation; it is simply annexed to the country that won it. Further, and in this case, there was also no previous governance of the land area referenced other than the British “occupation” prior to 1948. There was never a “Palestinian people” with a functioning government and citizens’ rights or responsibilities. No military, no schools, no municipality. Let’s stop using “their” terms to describe our land, our country!

Ellie Wolf