The Palestinian Authority on Sunday condemned Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s visit to the Western Wall in Jerusalem, calling it an “invasion” and a “provocative step” that offended the feelings of the Palestinian people.
According to the P.A.’s Jerusalem Governorate, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee joined Rubio for “Talmudic ceremonies” at the site.
The statement claimed the visit amounted to “collusion with the [Israeli] occupation’s policy and dangerous willful blindness to the daily crimes committed against the holy city, its residents and its holy places.”
It stressed that Judaism’s second-holiest site is “an inseparable part of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” which is located on the Temple Mount.
Warning that the “escalation” could have “consequences” for the situation in Israel’s capital, the P.A. called on the international community to stop U.S. involvement in “Judaization projects.”
The governorate also stressed that the Palestinians “would not agree to any harm to the Arab identity of Jerusalem or its Islamic and Christian holy places,” and would “resist all attempts to impose the occupation’s sovereignty over the land and the people.”
The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and the U.S. State Department did not respond to a JNS request for comment by time of publication on Tuesday.
At the Western Wall on Sunday, Netanyahu and Rubio offered a prayer for the safety of hostages held by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza, as well as a special prayer in honor of U.S. President Donald Trump, “a true friend of the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” according to Netanyahu’s office.
Afterward, the two placed notes between the ancient stones of the Western Wall and toured the tunnel complex under the holy site.
Last month, the P.A. condemned attempts by Jewish activist groups to sound the shofar on the Temple Mount, calling the ram’s horn a “dangerous tool” used by Israel to assert sovereignty.
The P.A. warned that the Jewish tradition of sounding the shofar in the Hebrew month of Elul is “no longer a passing religious ritual, but has become one of the most dangerous tools of the occupation.”
The statement denounced attempts to sound the shofar on the Temple Mount as a “direct assault” on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and said it held Israel’s government “fully responsible for repercussions.”
The Jerusalem Governorate concluded its statement by urging the U.N. to take immediate steps to “halt these attacks and provide international protection for Islamic and Christian holy sites” in Judaism’s holiest city.
