Hodgkins's study shows that successive Israeli governments have set out with all determination to implement the Jewish vision of Jerusalem as the "eternal, undivided capital of the Jewish state." With the latest Israeli measures in East Jerusalem, the opening of the Hasmonean tunnel, the closing down of Palestinian institutions and the decision to start the construction of a new settlement, the book is more acute than ever. Hodgkins gives a thorough analysis of Israeli politics on Jerusalem, its goals, mechanisms and effects, and supports her arguments with many empirical facts as well as interviews with Israeli and Palestinian officials and activists. Hodgkins first analyzes the evolution of Israeli policy on Jerusalem under the successive Israeli governments from Eshkol to Netanyahu on the national level as well as on the municipal level, where policies on Jerusalem have mainly been developed and enacted. The next chapter deals with the destruction of Jerusalem's geographic identity through the means of land control, land confiscation, the blocking of Palestinian development and settlement construction. The third chapter covers the mechanisms of establishing demographic superiority by encouraging Jewish immigration and attacking Palestinian residency rights, while the fourth chapter is dedicated to the analysis of the purpose and practice of legitimizing Israeli sovereignty over the city. The book includes an appendix with maps, statistics and important documents on the issue.

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