I saw this question on Quora, and since I think it is a very important question, I decided to answer in a post in Steemit and link my Quora answer to this post.
The grave of Yitzhak and Leah Rabin. Mt. Herzel national cemetery, Jerusalem.
Q: Who owns Jerusalem?
A: The dead
I am not kidding. This is the real answer. Ask any Jew, Christian or Muslim, why is Jerusalem so important to them and they will tell you exactly that.
The dead are most respected, and obviously the greatest population sector in Jerusalem. For more than 3,000 years, people have been dreaming about being buried in Jerusalem because it was considered the gateway to heaven and the place in which the resurrection of the dead will begin. In fact, if you want to blame something for the fact there is so much bloodshed, related to this city, blame the idea of resurrection. Where else will people be willing to go so easily to the land of the dead, if not where they are promised to be the first on the ride back.
( Source of Image: Ynet )
Living in a place which is essentially a huge graveyard is not easy for the living residents of Jerusalem. Every new construction project, every new transportation route, every renovation of a water pipe has to be done with extreme caution so that the rest of the dead will not be interfered. The result may sometimes seem ridiculous, like the burial cave in the picture that stands in the middle of a main road in Jerusalem with the remains of the uniterfered dead inside it. You think its funny? Well the living residents who payed some 2 million NIS for this absurd probably don’t think it is.
But here is a greater absurd: The only living people who are respected when it comes to Jerusalem are those who incite others, to keep worship the dead. Those who tell others, more or less explicitly that they must be willing to sacrifice their lives for the already perished. And this is while the inciters are the only ones who are rewarded for this situation in this life. They are gaining respect, and political and economical power right now while all the others who settle for promises about the end of days are too blinded with faith to see that they are being fooled.
So who owns Jerusalem: The dead and their corrupt living guardians. And there will be no peace in the Middle East until the living will open their eyes.