Members of the National Union faction, which included Jewish Home Knesset members, toured the Old City of Jerusalem on Thursday night, after the dedication of a new residential building for Jews in the Muslim Quarter.
Among the participants in the events were Jewish Home MK and Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich and deputy mayor of Jerusalem, Dov Kalmanovich.
“The same voice that protects the Shiloh Valley mandates a Jewish building freeze in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel,” observed Jewish Home MK Bezalel Smotrich in remarks at the ceremony. “This is a demographic threat to Jerusalem, one that is absurd and not to be tolerated.
Kalmanovich noted that the evening included a “unique Selichot Tour of the Muslim and Christian Quarters, within which there is also a Jewish presence, albeit not yet large enough, but one which must continue to grow as a daily statement of the Jewish reality here.
Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel categorically rejected this week’s U.S. condemnation of Israeli construction in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, saying, ‘They condemn, and we build.
“This dedication of a building where Jews are coming to live in the Muslim Quarter is the best answer to the condemnation and hypocrisy of the international community,” he said.