The Palestinian Authority on Tuesday officially endorsed a "study" that claims that
Jews have no claims to the Western Wall.
The PA's Ministry of Information posted the findings of the "study" on its official Web site and the findings of the "study" were first published in
The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.
RELATED:PA slams NIS 85 million Kotel development projectKotel Plaza renovations plan gets initial okayPM’s associates: He’ll never give up Western WallPrime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's spokesman Mark Regev called on the Palestinian leadership to publicly disassociate itself from the PA "study," saying "this is not the sort of statement to be expected from a partner in peace."
"Denying the Jewish connection to the Western Wall is to deny reality. If you deny the Jewish connection to the Western Wall you are in fact denying the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and the land of Israel itself," Regev said. "When they deny the Jewish connection, they are unfortunately raising very serious questions as to their true commitment to reconciliation."
Regev said this type of statement was to be expected from "Ahmadinejad's
Iran, Hizbullah or Hamas, but to deny the Jewish connection to the
Western Wall is something that we wouldn't expect from a partner in
peace, and I call upon the Palestinian leadership, President Mahmoud
Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, to publicly disassociate
themselves from it."
Likud MK Tzipi Hotovely said the government
must fight to prevent the world from adopting the libels spread by the
PA against the Jewish people. She warned that Taha's study could be
endorsed by UNESCO, which recently declared that Rachel's Tomb in
Bethlehem was a Muslim holy site and not a Jewish one.
"We must
declare war on the culture of lies circulated by the Palestinians before
the world starts believing them," she said. "One can only hope that the
more the Palestinians talk about the lack of a connection between the
Jewish people to their land, the less people will take seriously
whatever claims they make."