French PM: France Will Never Deny Jewish Historical Ties to Jerusalem

The Jerusalem Post reports: France will never deny the “true, existing right” of Jewish historical ties to Jerusalem, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls has pledged.

Valls made the statement in a letter penned Thursday to Shmuel Rabinovitch, the Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Sites of Israel.

The French diplomat’s remarks came in light of Rabinovitch’s protest over Paris’s backing of a UNESCO resolution adopted in April that ignored Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

“Unfortunate and clumsy formulations befell the language of UNESCO’s decision to the point of insult,” read the letter, which Rabinovitch’s office released Monday. “I believe that this should have been avoided and that the vote should not have happened.”

Valls asserted that France’s position has not changed on Jerusalem, which views the capital as a symbol of “the unification of the three major monotheistic religions.”

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