Posted on 05/10/21
Following is an excerpt from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's remarks this morning (Monday, 10 May 2021), at Mt. Herzl in Jerusalem, at the state memorial ceremony for Ethiopian Jews who perished while on their way to Israel:
"A struggle is now being waged for the heart of Jerusalem. It is not a new struggle. It is the struggle between intolerance and tolerance, between law-breaking violence and law and order. This struggle is not new because it has been waged, in effect, over Jerusalem and the heart of Jerusalem for hundreds of years, since the rise of the three monotheistic faiths.
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Sometimes one side was in control and excluded the other two and sometimes they traded places and the same thing happened. It could be said that in the long history of Jerusalem, only under Israeli sovereignty since 1967, have we witnessed a prolonged, stable and safe period in which we have been working to ensure freedom of worship and tolerance for all.
This is not a mission that we can carry out without conflict from time to time with those same forces of intolerance that want to expropriate our rights – first of all our rights, but not just ours – on the Temple Mount and other holy sites.
We insist on ensuring the rights of everyone, this occasionally requires taking a strong stand as the officers of the Israel Police, and our security forces, are doing at the moment. We back them in this just struggle. Of course, these things are being expressed erroneously and misleadingly in the global media. In the end truth will win but we must constantly reiterate it."