From Times of Israel:
A top Palestinian official said Saturday that the Palestinians recognize the Western Wall as a Jewish holy site that must remain under Jewish sovereignty.
The comments from Fatah Central Committee member Jibril Rajoub constitute a departure from the formal Palestinian position that brands all of Jerusalem’s Old City as occupied territory which must become part of a Palestinian state, and run counter to the Palestinians’ long-running campaign to deny a Jewish historical connection to Jerusalem.
Speaking to Israel’s Channel 2 TV, Rajoub, who is also head of the Palestinian Football Association, was praising US President Donald Trump’s efforts to reach a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians and commenting on his visit last month to Israel and the West Bank.
“He went to the Western Wall, which we understand is a holy place to the Jews. In the end, it must remain under Jewish sovereignty. We have no argument about that. This is a Jewish holy place,” said Rajoub, who is sometimes touted as a successor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
This was widely reported in Israeli media and AFP had the story as well.
But Rajoub now denies that he meant that Israel should have any control over the Kotel.
In an angry missive on Facebook, he denies the story completely and says that he never said the word “Israel” in his interview as to who should control the area. Presumably he means that under Palestinian rule they would allow Jews to have some sort of access to the site, but not that Israel should have sovereignty. He insults the reports that say otherwise comparing them to barking dogs.
Hamas had strongly protested the original reports that Rajoub was allowing for Israeli control of the Jewish holy site.
It is just another example of Palestinian double-talk, and one would have thought that Israeli reporters would know by now to parse these liars’ words more strictly and not assume that when they say something, they actually mean what they are making it sound like.
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