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 the “study” could be endorsed by UNESCO which recently declared that Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem was a Muslim holy site and not Jewish one.
The project was prepared by al-Mutawakel Taha, a senior official with the PA Ministry on Information. He is also a prominent Palestinian poet and writer.
Taha’s “study” concluded that the Western Wall was never a Jewish site, but had always belonged to Muslims. He wrote that the Western Wall, known to Muslims as Al-Buraq Wall, is actually the western of the Al-Aksa Mosque.
Gershon Baskin, the joint CEO of the Israel/Palestinian Center for Research and Information, sent a letter to the Palestinian leadership in the wake of the Post article, calling the findings “a serious mistake” and “a stain on the Palestinian Authority.”
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