Netanyahu: Western Wall ‘will be ours forever’
By JTA
12/16/2012 21:56
At weekly Cabinet meeting, PM says "we have been here in Jerusalem for 3,000 years, the wall has been ours for 3,000 years."
Prime Minister lights the Hanukkiyah Photo: GPO
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu reiterated his
claim from a Western Wall candle-lighting ceremony that the site "will be ours
forever." Netanyahu made the claim Sunday at the weekly Cabinet meeting the
morning after making the same assertion the night before during a ceremony at
the Wall on the eighth and final night of Hanukka.
At the meeting, the
prime minister said that Hamas at rallies and demonstrations in the West Bank to
mark the 25th anniversary of the terrorist group's founding called for the
destruction of Israel and the expulsion of Jews from Jerusalem and every area in
the State of Israel. He added that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
allowed the West Bank demonstrations.
Netanyahu responded, "We have been
here in Jerusalem not for 25 years; we have been here in Jerusalem for 3,000
years," he said.
"We have been in the Land of Israel for close to 4,000 years.
We have a strong and steadfast national will, the continuous historical
consciousness and strength of soul of a people that has struggled for its
homeland and knows how to maintain its state."
At the Wall, Netanyahu said, "In
recent days, I have heard that the Palestinians are saying that the Western Wall
is occupied territory. I want to tell them from the closest possible place to
the miracle of the jar of oil: The Western Wall has been ours for 3,000 years,
and it and the State of Israel will be ours forever."