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Click to return to 'A Year In Jerusalem'
This is the first time any statesman in Israel has ever publicly spoken about Jesus Christ. PM Ehud Barak was addressing a press conference at the United Nations. Barak was countering Yasser Arafat's crass attempts to claim Jesus as a champion of the Palestinian cause, using terms like 'Our Palestinian Messiah' and claiming the Temple was never in Jerusalem. This was broadcast on the 8th September 2000; the prime minister later repeated his remarks in a full-page interview for the Jerusalem Post. He said:
'I believe that the very word "Temple Mount" in every Western language carries the real story of this place. And when we think of Jesus Christ walking in the streets of Jerusalem when he was a young man, he could never see either a mosque, not even a Christian church, what he [would] have seen was the Temple, the Second Temple of the Jews.'