Israeli president says all of Jerusalem is ‘Zionist’

Israel’s president said on Sunday that all of the occupied city of Jerusalem, the third holiest place for the world’s 2 billion Muslims, is “Zionist”, Israeli media has reported. Reuven Rivlin made his comments at en event to mark the 48th anniversary of the occupation of East Jerusalem.

“My Jerusalem is Zion and Zionism,” he said, “It belongs first and foremost to its people, and to all its residents: secular, religious and Haredi, Arabs and Jews.”

Jewish militias occupied West Jerusalem in 1948 and it was part of the occupied lands upon which the Zionists announced the establishment of the state of Israel.

“In my united Jerusalem there is west and there is an east,” added Rivlin. “We completed the physical unification of the city, but the task of unifying the city’s social and economic lives has barely begun.”

Referring to the recent Palestinian protests against continuous Israeli violations in Jerusalem, the Israeli president said: “In recent months Jerusalem has witnessed bloody, brutal, murderous terrorist attacks. We will continue to fight against terrorism without hesitation and without fear.”

With that in mind, he concluded, “the ticking bomb” that is the welfare of the residents of East Jerusalem will not be dismantled by police and security forces alone.

The Times of Israel also reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has stressed that Jerusalem will remain united and a capital for the Jewish nation. “Jerusalem will not become once again a wounded and bisected city,” he said. “We will forever keep Jerusalem united under Israeli sovereignty. On this special day, it is clear to us that a divided Jerusalem is a memory. The future belongs to the complete Jerusalem that shall never again be divided.”

According to the Times of Israel, Netanyahu’s message was intended for the international community and the EU, which opposes the Israeli occupation of East Jerusalem.

“Jerusalem was only ever the capital of the Jewish people, not of any other people,” claimed Netanyahu. “Here our path as a nation began, this is our home and here we shall stay.”