Jerusalem – Israeli PM Blasts UN At Lighting Of Second Chanukah Candle At The Western Wall

Jerusalem – Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu lit the second Hanukkah candle at the Western Wall Sunday night, accompanied by Rabbi Shmuel Rabbinowitz, the Rabbi of the Western Wall.

“I was not planning on being here tonight.” Netanyahu said. “But in light of the UN resolution I do not believe that there is a better place to light a Hanukkah candle than here, at the Western Wall”

The UN resolution states that all so-called Jewish ‘settlements’ over the 1949 Armistice line are illegal, including the Jewish Quarter of the old city of Jerusalem.

Netanyahu said that according to the UN, the Maccabees did not liberate Jerusalem, but rather “occupied Palestinian territory.”

“According to the UN resolution, the villages that they left in Modiin [to fight the Greeks] and the surrounding areas, the villages and their surroundings, were all ‘occupied Palestinian territories.'” he said.

“Of course, we know that the Arabs came much later. We were in those places [when the Hanukkah story took place, a millenium before the Arabs arrived]. We returned to those places. I ask those nations wishing us a happy Hanukkah – how can they vote for a UN resolution which says that the places where we celebrate Hanukkah [and where the story toook place] are ‘occupied territory?'” Netanyahu asked.

“The Western Wall is not occupied. The Jewish Quarter is not occupied. The other places are also not occupied. Therefore, we do not accept, nor can we accept, this resolution. We are confident in our future because we know our past. I ask to go and light a Hanukkah candle here on behalf of eternal Israel. Happy Hanukkah.”