Natan Sharansky and Sharansky was appointed Minister of Jerusalem Affairs. From March 2003 – May 2005, he was Israel's Minister without Portfolio, responsible for Jerusalem, social and Jewish diaspora affairs. Under this position Sharansky chaired a secret committee that approved the confiscation of East Jerusalem property of West Bank Palestinians. This decision was reversed after an outcry from the Israeli left and the international community. Previously he served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, Minister of Housing and Construction since March 2001, Interior Minister of Israel (July 1999 – resigned in July 2000), Minister of Industry and Trade (1996–1999). He resigned
Day of Prayer for the Peace of Jerusalem is endorsed by chief rabbi Yona Metzger, former USSR Prisoner of Zion and Knesset Member Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus (KCAC), Yuri Shtern, and the Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem, Yigal Amedi and the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus. Other participants are Christian evangelists, authors and performers such as Joyce Meyer, The Newsboys , Bishop TD Jakes, Michael W. Smith, and Kenneth Copeland. The first globally publicized "link of prayer" for peace from Jerusalem was in June, 1993 organized by Dan Mazar's Jerusalem Christian Review, a Jerusalem-based archaeological journal. As opposed to the more exclusively Evangelical Christian event,