Editorial was wrong

There are numerous factual errors in the PG's March 27 editorial regarding Israel ("Israel's Choices," March 27). I will simply address three.

First, you state, "that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel is, of course, strictly his [Netanyahu's] version of the status." You have ignored the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995, passed by both the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives, which recognizes that Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Israel and should remain an undivided city.

Second, you label the buildings "settler housing." Jerusalem is not a "settlement"; it is the capital of a sovereign country. A sovereign country has the right to designate the capital of its country.

Finally, you claim "Israel took East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 war." Actually, Jordan illegally captured the eastern part of Jerusalem in 1948 and promptly demolished 58 synagogues and expelled or killed all the Jews. It was retaken by Israel only after Jordan and other Arab states attacked Israel in 1967. So-called "East Jerusalem" has been part of Jewish Jerusalem for some 3,000 years, and the Jews made up a majority in "eastern" Jerusalem since the mid-1800s.

 

SIMONE SHAPIRO
Squirrel Hill