US refused to allow Netanyahu accompany Donald Trump to Western Wall
US President Donald Trump’s administration has reportedly refused to allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to accompany him to to one of the holiest Jewish sites in the region during a visit next week.
While Mr Trump is set to become the first serving US president to visit Jerusalem’s Western Wall, Mr Netanyahu will not be present, the White House said on Tuesday.
The two leaders will meet for talks and dinner but the US president will visit the place of prayer accompanied by the Western Wall’s rabbi before going to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the Holocaust Museum and the Israel museum, National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster told reporters.
Israel’s Channel 2 news reported Monday that the Israeli authorities had asked whether Mr Netanyahu could accompany the president and whether Israeli news would be allowed to film there, but were rudely told by a member of the US consulate in Jerusalem: “What are you talking about? It’s none of your business. It’s not even part of your responsibility. It’s not your territory. It’s part of the West Bank.”
The Western Wall runs along the perimeter of one side of Jerusalem’s holy Temple Mount, as it is known in Judaism, or Haram al-Sharif, as it is called in Islam.
Source: Independent