SWC Applauds President Biden for Traveling to Israel

July 15, 2022

“However, Jerusalem as a shared Capital is non-negotiable”

The Simon Wiesenthal Center thanks President Biden for traveling to Israel, for singular gesture with Holocaust survivors at Yad Vashem, for debunking the “Big Lie” about Israel and for his longtime support of Israel’s security. 

“However, we must protest the suggestion that Jerusalem be a shared capital for the Palestinians and the people of Israel,” Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Rabbis Marvin Hier, founder and CEO and Abraham Cooper, associate dean and global social action director, said in a joint statement. “While President Biden’s allusion that the Irish people suffered under the British for 400 years, no one has made the suggestion that London should be a shared capital between the people of England and the people of Ireland.”

“It’s a non-starter. Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish people and has been for over 3,000 years. There is only one Jewish state and there are 22 Arab states with capitals of their own,” Rabbis Hier and Cooper said. 

 “We believe in the potential of a two-state solution that can only be done if Palestinian leaders, UNWRA school books, and Palestinian civil society recognizes the legitimacy of their Jewish neighbors which includes the continuous presence of the Jewish people in their homeland. Jerusalem is non-negotiable. Palestinians can have their own capital, in Ramallah, and must not feed the delusions that Israel will ever cede their sovereignty. No other country must face such a demand, and neither should Israel.

“We should all remember the lessons of the Abraham Accords: peace begets peace, a lesson on full display in Israel, UAE, Bahrain and Morocco.”

For further information contact the Center’s Communications department at pressinquiries@wiesenthal.com, join the Center on Facebook, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent directly to your Twitter feed.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament (Parlatino).