US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman tells Hadashot news that he was “more mortified than any Palestinian” by the doctored aerial image of Jerusalem, in which the Dome of the Rock was replaced by a Jewish Temple, that he was photographed in front of on Tuesday.
Friedman calls the incident an “unfortunate thing” and said “he felt terrible that people might react to that the way they did.”
However, he takes issue with the criticism from Palestinian officials who blasted him as a “settler terrorist” following the photo’s publication.
“The US has given over $5 billion to the Palestinians since the 1990s. There is no country that comes close in financial aid and to trying to help the Palestinians build better lives,” Friedman says.
The ambassador says the US doesn’t “deserve this treatment” but that he was not offended by the criticism.
The US embassy in Jerusalem on Tuesday said the doctored photo was “thrust in front of” an unknowing Friedman for a photograph during a visit to a nonprofit.
US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman is pictured next to a man holding a poster of the Jewish Temple replacing the Muslim Dome on the Rock on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, at an event for the Achiya educational nonprofit in Bnei Brak, May 22, 2018. (Courtesy: Kikar HaShabbat)
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Wednesday, May 23, 2018
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