‘The Western Wall is Not Occupied,’ Netanyahu Says of UN Resolution. ‘We Were Here Much Earlier’

by Patrick Goodenough, CNSnews:

rime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Sunday night put the U.N. Security Council resolution – which effectively declares Israel’s presence in the Old City of Jerusalem to be illegal – into historical context, pointing to the longstanding Jewish heritage there.

Speaking against the backdrop of the Western Wall, Netanyahu lit a candle for the second night of Hanukkah, the holiday that marks the rededication of the Temple after a Jewish revolt against a pagan kingdom almost 2,200 years ago.

“According to the U.N. resolution, the Maccabees did not liberate Jerusalem, they occupied Palestinian territory,” Netanyahu said. “According to the U.N. resolution, the villages that they started out from in the Modi’in area [north-west of Jerusalem], those villages and that area were occupied Palestinian territory.”

Of course the Palestinians arrived much later,” he declared. “We were here much earlier.”

Netanyahu challenged U.N. member states that have wished Israel “Happy Hanukkah” but then also voted in favor of Friday’s resolution – which passed after the Obama administration controversially chose to abstain rather than use its veto.

“I ask those same countries that wish us a Happy Hanukkah how they could vote for a U.N. resolution which says that this place, in which we are now celebrating Hanukkah, is occupied territory?” he said.

“The Western Wall is not occupied,” he said. “The Jewish Quarter is not occupied.”

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