The Obama administration on Tuesday strongly condemned a Palestinian official’s claim that the Western Wall in the Old City of Jerusalem has no religious significance for Jews and is actually Muslim property. 

The State Department said the US rejects the claim as “factually incorrect, insensitive and highly provocative.” Spokesman P.J. Crowley said statements of that kind damage US efforts to revive stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and could incite violence. 

“We have repeatedly raised with the Palestinian Authority leadership the need to consistently combat all forms of de-legitimization of Israel, including denying historic Jewish connections to the land,” he told reporters. 

“As the United States has long maintained, the status of Jerusalem must be resolved in final status negotiations between the parties,” Crowley said. “We recognize that Jerusalem is a deeply important issue to Israelis and Palestinians, to Jews, to Muslims and to Christians everywhere.” 

Crowley stressed that neither side should do anything to prejudice the negotiations, including unilateral acts in Jerusalem. When pressed, he noted that the United States had also frequently expressed its concerns to Israel about the construction of Jewish housing in traditionally Arab east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as their future capital. 

“They both have responsibilities here,” he said. “Both have to take the responsibility to create conditions for negotiations to resume.” 

While I welcome this statement, I do have a number of questions: 

• When Crowley says “statements of that kind..could incite violence,” from which side does he believe the violence may come?
• If the US has “repeatedly raised with the Palestinian Authority leadership the need to consistently combat all forms of de-legitimization of Israel,” how come all we hear about is the huge impediment that “settlement” building represents?

You can view Crowley’s statement here (from 04:10): 

You can also read the full transcript here. 

Notice what one of the reporters says to Crowley regarding the lack of “equivalence” between the PA’s denial of Jewish history and “settlement” construction: 

Well, you’re right. There’s absolutely no equivalence between some guy mouthing off and giving his opinion, whether you agree with it or not, and actual bricks and mortar going up in an area that’s disputed. I mean, the equivalent – you come out and denounce this statement, which is mere – simply words, and it took a question from a reporter to get you to say anything about the actual, physical, on-the-ground construction there. So I don’t understand the equivalence that you’re – your idea of equivalence here. One seems to be much more serious than another. 

Updates (Israel time; most recent at top) 

6:45PM: Head Hamashole Ismail Haniyeh says Hamas would accept the agreement of a Palestinian referendum on peace with Israel; has used car he wants to sell.

6:35PM: Weird site of the day (hat tip: Guillermo).

2:22PM: The PA has removed from its website the report claiming that Jerusalem’s Western Wall isn’t holy to Jews.

1:58PM: A Jordanian restaurant owner has kicked out of her restaurant a group of tourists.

For the crime of being Israeli (hat tip: Jason)

A Jordanian woman gained tremendous fame after refusing to receive a group of Israeli tourists at her restaurant in protest of the crimes of the Jewish state against the Palestinian people. 

Several professional associations and rights organizations praised the action taken by Salwa al-Barghouti when she decided to kick Israeli tourists out of her restaurant in the coastal city of al-Aqaba, 370 kilometers off the capital Amman.

Jordanian restaurant owner Salwa al-Barghouti Barghouti represents all the Jordanian people in their rejection of the Zionist state, said Maysara Malas, head of the Higher Executive Committee for Anti-Normalization.

“Many Jordanians take similar actions, yet nobody knows about them because the media doesn’t know what they do,” he added.

News of Barghouti’s stance spread all over Jordan and shortly after, she made headlines and several media outlets vied for posting her statements.

“I heard customers entering the restaurants speak Hebrew,” she told the press. “I felt extremely angry and remembered all the crimes Israel is committing against Palestinians, so I asked them to leave.”

Barghouti said she does not approve of the strong attention that was given to her action by the media.

“I am against dealing with Zionists in any possible way and I see this as very normal.”

The Israeli tourists who were kicked out, Barghouti added, filed a complaint against her and she was summoned by state security.

“They asked me to sign a document pledging not to mistreat tourists or kick them out of my restaurant again, but I refused.”

Barghouti insisted on her stance and stressed that she will act in the same way if a similar situation takes places.

“My position will never change and I will never allow Israelis into my restaurant,” she concluded.

Could you imagine the uproar if this happened in Israel to a group of Arabs?

Of course, it wouldn’t happen here, and if it did, the restaurant owner would feel the full brunt of the law.

12:05PM: Oh, to have been a fly on the wall. 

Who’s the boss? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad received a slap in the face from Revolutionary Guards Commander, General Mohammad Ali Jafari, during a national security council meeting in Tehran, an Azerbaijani source told American diplomats. 

According to a document published by WikiLeaks, Jafari began arguing with Ahmadinjead over his “support for freedom of the press.”  Jafari, who was infuriated by Ahmadinejad’s stance, confronted the president and slapped him in the face, the report claimed.  

10:04AM: Photo of the day: 

Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas (L) stands with Germany's President Christian Wulff (2nd R) as he looks at a model of a German financed police stationto be built in the West Bank, during their meeting in the West Bank town of Bethlehem. The Palestinians will explore alternative ways to gain international recognition if US efforts to advance peace talks with Israel fail, Abbas said (AFP/POOL/Darren Whiteside)