Western Wall to become part of every foreign official’s visit to Israel

Hotovely said that, upon taking up her current portfolio, she was shocked to find out that the Foreign Ministry did not require foreign dignitaries to visit the Western Wall as part of protocol until now, even though it lies in the “center of the Israeli consensus.”

 

“In my eyes, the fact that the Western Wall will become part of every VIP’s official visit, is tantamount to a statement of intention which strengthens Jerusalem’s position as the capital of Israel,” Hotovely said.

 

“The visit will take the dignitary from the ethos of Yad Vashem, which deals with the catastrophic past of the Holocaust, to the new and more positive ethos which speaks to the roots of the city. It expands the Zionist scope of the trip from 100 years to 3,000 years.”

 

Although the option of visiting the Western Wall would usually come up in talks preceding visits, Israeli never officially required a visit to be included in foreign dignitaries’ visits.

 

According to estimates, about half of all officials coming to Israel included a trip to the Western Wall, while others politely refused due to the controversial nature of the site which lies on territory the Palestinians claim as part of the capital of a future State of Palestine.

 

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