Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:
The Zionist Organization of America is appalled and condemns CBS News Senior Director of Standards and Practices Mark Memmott who instructed CBS News journalists not to refer to Jerusalem as being in Israel or as Israel’s capital. This means that CBS News will no longer report reality or what’s true.
CBS News is ignoring that the U.S. Congress recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in 1995, when Congress passed the Jerusalem Embassy Act, by an overwhelmingly vote of 93-5 in the U.S. Senate and 347-37 in the U.S. House.
Among other things, the Jerusalem Embassy Act found that:
- “Since 1950, the city of Jerusalem has been the capital of the State of Israel”; and
- “In 1996, the State of Israel will celebrate the 3,000th anniversary of the Jewish presence in Jerusalem since King David’s entry”; and
- “The city of Jerusalem is the seat of Israel’s President, Parliament, and Supreme Court, and the site of numerous government ministries and social and cultural institutions”; and
- “Each sovereign nation, under international law and custom, may designate its own capital.”
And, in 2017-2018, then- President Donald Trump formally recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and kept the longstanding presidential promise to comply with the Jerusalem Embassy Act’s requirement to move the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
It is thus an irrefutable fact that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. As the Jerusalem Embassy Act made clear, Israel has the right to designate its own capital. Yet, CBS News’ Memmott would deny Israel – the only Jewish state – the right of every sovereign nation.
Memmott’s excuse for denying reality is absurd: Memmott told CBS News’ journalists that Jerusalem’s status is “disputed” because Palestinian Arabs want eastern Jerusalem for the capital of a non-existent future Palestinian Arab state. The Palestinian Arabs and Iran and its other proxies also “dispute” Israel’s entire existence and want to destroy Israel. Is CBS News going to stop calling Israel a nation because Palestinian Arabs and Iran have evil designs on all of Israel? And what about Iran’s calls for “Death to America”? Is CBS News going to stop calling the United States a country?
CBS News and Memmott also ignore that Israel is firmly opposed to giving up its land. After October 7 it is clear that giving up land means more Palestinian Arab murders of Jewish civilians: The Knesset recently overwhelmingly voted against allowing the creation of a Palestinian Arab state.
CBS News’ instruction also ignores the facts that:
(1) Jerusalem was never the capital of any nation besides Israel.
(2) Jerusalem is never mentioned in the Muslim holy book, the Koran – and is not a holy city to Muslims. (The Muslim holy cities are Mecca and Medina.) By contrast, Jerusalem is mentioned 700 times in the Jewish holy books.
(3) Jerusalem is never mentioned in the PLO charter.
(4) Israel protects the holy places of all faiths in Jerusalem.
(5) Jews have been the largest religious group in Jerusalem since at least the first census in 1844.
(6) Jerusalem was part of the Mandate that guaranteed Israel to the Jewish people under binding international law.
(7) For thousands of years through today, Jews have been praying facing Jerusalem, and pray daily to return to Jerusalem. By contrast, Muslims pray facing Mecca.
(8) Jordan attacked and captured eastern Jerusalem from Israel in 1948, and Jordan illegally occupied Jerusalem for the next 19 years. When Jordan attacked Israel again in 1967, Israel liberated eastern Jerusalem in a defensive war. Israel reunited Jerusalem under Israeli sovereignty and restored Jerusalem’s status as Israel’s united, undivided capital.
Notably, during the 19 years of illegal Jordanian occupation of eastern Jerusalem (1948-1967):
- No Arab Muslim leader ever visited Jerusalem (except some leaders of Jordan);
- Jordan allowed Jerusalem to become a slum with virtually no running water or electricity, and built slum homes against the Western Wall;
- Jordan made Amman its capital (not Jerusalem);
- Jordan built new royal palaces in Amman, maintained existing royal palaces in Amman, and established the University of Jordan in Amman — not in Jerusalem;
- Jordan destroyed all 58 holy Jewish synagogues in Jerusalem;
- Jordan built barbed wired walls with armed guards to separate eastern and western Jerusalem, and refused to allow any Jew or rarely even any Christian to enter eastern Jerusalem to pray at the Jewish and Christian people’s holy sites;
- Jordan expelled or imprisoned all of eastern Jerusalem’s Jews (including Jewish families living in Jerusalem’s Jewish quarter for centuries);
- Jordanian snipers continued to shoot at Israeli citizens in western Jerusalem, including Jewish children walking back and forth to school.
For more information about Jerusalem’s status as Israel’s eternal, undivided and lawful capital, see Written Testimony of National President Morton A. Klein, Congressional Hearing on Moving the American Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, before the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Subcommittee on National Security, November 8, 2017.
The ZOA urges Jewish, Christian and other groups and people of goodwill to join ZOA in demanding that CBS News and Mark Memmott publicly recognize that Jerusalem is not holy to Muslims and was never important to Muslims except to deny Jerusalem to the Jewish people and that Jerusalem is Israel’s holy, eternal undivided capital, and to report this as a fact.