On October 24, 1979, church president Spencer W. Kimball visited Jerusalem to dedicate the Orson Hyde Memorial Gardens, located on the Mount of Olives. The church had donated money to beautify the Jerusalem area, and officials of the Jerusalem government were present at the occasion. It was at this dedication that Kimball announced the church's intent to build a center for BYU students in the city. Negotiations between the church and the Israeli government stretched from 1980-1984. The land the church wanted for the center, located at the northwestern margin of Mount Olivet, right next to the valley which separates it from Mount Scopus, had been occupied by Israel since the Six-Day War of 1967 and could not be sold under Israeli law. The church decided to obtain a lease on the land instead. Leasing the land also prevented the politically controversial problem of the church owning a piece of Jerusalem land. Israeli officials saw the building of the center on the land as a way of solidifying control over land whose ownership was ambiguous under international law. By August 1984, the church had the land on a 49-year lease, building permits had been obtained, and construction on the building began.