Barkat calls British ad authority’s Kotel ban ‘a shameful accusation’
Mayor Nir Barkat called the British Government’s condemnation of the use of pictures of the Western Wall in Tourism Ministry advertisements “a shameful accusation.”
Earlier this week Britain’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) barred the country’s tourist board from using images of the holy site, branding it “misleading.”
“The Western Wall is the heart and soul of the Jewish people and the State of Israel,” said Mayor Barkat on Wednesday. “It will forever remain the center of a united Jerusalem. Such a shameful accusation shows a complete ignorance of history. The city of Jerusalem and the State of Israel will continue to advertise the important historical and spiritual sites throughout Jerusalem – north, south, east and west.”
The ASA came in response to a magazine ad by the Government Tourist Office promoting a four day-trip to Israel, including Jerusalem. The ad features an image of the Western Wall, the Temple Mount and the Dome of the Rock.
“We considered that readers were likely to understand that the places featured in the itinerary were all within the state of Israel,” reads a statement the ASA issued early Wednesday. “We understood, however, that the status of the…West Bank was the subject of much international dispute. Because we considered that the ad implied that the part of east Jerusalem featured in the image was part of the State of Israel, we concluded that the ad was likely to mislead.”
According to Israel’s tourism minister, Stas Misezhnikov, “Jerusalem is the core to Israel’s identity and therefore an inherent part of its tourism. Just as no faction would interfere with the official stance of the British government regarding the country’s marketing policy, so the attempt to do so towards Israel is at the outset flawed and therefore under no circumstances negotiable.”
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