Bennett: ‘There won’t be a joint capital in Jerusalem even in 1,000 years’

Jewish Home Party Chairman Naftali Bennett made clear his opposition to a divided Jerusalem following President Trump’s reported comments about getting tough with Israel.

By David Isaac, World Israel News

“There won’t be a joint capital in Jerusalem even in 1,000 years,” Minister of Education Naftali Bennett said Tuesday.

The Jewish Home Party Chairman made his comments in reaction to reports yesterday that U.S. President Donald Trump said he was ready to get “tough” with Netanyahu just as he got tough with the Palestinians.

The president reportedly made these statements to French President Emanuel Macron during the U.N. General Assembly meeting last month.

Bennett’s comments came in response to an interviewer’s question about whether he thought a new ‘get tough’ policy would include pressure on Israel to concede part of Jerusalem for a Palestinian capital. “As long as we’re in the Israeli government, we won’t agree to a divided Jerusalem, or to a shared capital,” he said.

“It took us years to extricate ourselves from the hole created by [former Prime Ministers] Barak and Olmert  with their hallucinatory suggestions, granting to the Palestinians the Temple Mount. As long as we’re in Jerusalem, we won’t permit any concession of Israeli sovereignty,” he said.