Issues

US-Israel Relationship

UN Ambassador Nikki Haley says Western Wall belongs to Israel

Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said the Western Wall belongs to Israel and Israel’s capital should be in Jerusalem.

Haley made the comments during an interview Tuesday with the Christian Broadcasting Network in the wake of reports that a Trump administration official, responding to a request that Israeli officials accompany President Donald Trump when he visits the Western Wall, replied that the Western Wall “is not your territory, it’s part of the West Bank.” A White House spokesman later told JTA that the staffer’s remarks “do not represent the position of the United States and certainly not of the president.”

The interview by the CBN’s David Brody in New York is scheduled to air Wednesday evening.

“I don’t know what the policy of the administration is, but I believe the Western Wall is part of Israel and I think that that is how we’ve always seen it and that’s how we should pursue it,” Haley said in a video clip posted on the CBN website. “We’ve always thought the Western Wall was part of Israel.”

Trump’s visit to the Western Wall, which reportedly will include his Jewish daughter and son-in-law, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, has been billed as a private visit.

Read More: JTA