The New York Times has a report on the latest controversy ahead of US President Donald Trump’s visit to Israel: the supposed statement by an “American official” that the Western Wall is not in Israeli territory.
But it is the Time’s own statement near the end of the report that betrays blatant bias – or ignorance (hat tip: JBNoles).
Israel claims Jerusalem as its undivided capital. Israeli troops seized the area around the Western Wall in 1967 during the Six-Day War, and it has become both a sacred site for Jews and a highly visible symbol of the disputed nature of Jerusalem, which Palestinians also claim as their capital. The wall lies underneath the Al Aqsa Mosque, or Temple Mount, which is one of the holiest sites in Islam.
Update: They since corrected it – screenshot of previous version here:
The suggestion that the Western Wall became a holy site for Jews only after we retook the area in 1967 is preposterous. And if the journalist Mark Landler doesn’t believe me, he can read past editions of the paper for which he works, which as early as 1859 (almost 90 years before the modern state of Israel was established) made clear the holiness of this area to Jews.
