Wiesenthal Center Calls Trump Staffer Claim that Western Wall is not Israel’s Territory, “Utterly Preposterous”

May 15, 2017

Center Founder says, “The Kotel is to Jews what the Vatican is to Catholics and Jerusalem is the eternal and undivided capital of Israel.”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is responding to multiple reports in the Times Of Israel, the Jerusalem Post and other publications, that a member of President Trump’s diplomatic staff preparing for next week’s visit, told his Israeli counterparts that the Kotel (Western Wall) is “not your territory. It’s part of the West Bank.”

“If these reports are true, to say the Kotel is not your territory is utterly preposterous,” said Rabbi Marvin Hier, Founder and Dean of the Wiesenthal Center and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the Center's Associate Dean, adding, “The Kotel is to Jews what the Vatican is to Catholics and Jerusalem is the eternal and undivided capital of Israel.”


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The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).