A top Palestinian Authority (PA) official said that the PA wants control of all the areas in Jerusalem that were won by Israel during the 1967 Six-Day War, including the Western Wall.
Minister of Holy Places for the PA Mahmoud al-Habbash told Israel’s Channel 10 network that “there will be no peace until the end of the Israeli occupation that began in 1967. Every piece of land that Israel conquered then belongs to the Palestinians.” That includes Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the Western Wall, al-Habbash said.
Al-Habbash added that if the Western Wall was under PA control, Jews would be welcome to pray freely at the site. “There will be no limitations on freedom of religion and worship. Religious ceremonies are one thing, and politics are another,” he said.
Currently, Jews already facing obstacles when they want to visit religious sites such as the Tomb of Joseph in Shechem and the Tomb of Joshua in Kifl Hares.
Abu-Ala—the PA’s Jerusalem minister—also spoke to the Israeli news channel, saying, “Given the intensity with which the Americans are approaching [the Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations they are currently brokering], there will probably be undesirable consequences if the talks fail.”
