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By Itzhak Rabihiya

Sebastian Piñera, President of Chile, visited the Western Wall today (Tuesday, 24 June 2019) with his wife and a large delegation as part of his visit to the State of Israel.

The Director of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, Mr. Mordechai (Suli) Eliav, told President Piñera about the history of the site and about it being a house of prayer for all nations. The President also heard about Jewish yearning for Jerusalem throughout the generations. The President expressed vast knowledge of history and was deeply impressed despite this not being his first visit to the Western Wall, and received an album about the Western Wall Tunnels as a souvenir.

The billionaire center-right leader has moved his country closer to Israel in recent years, but also angered Jerusalem by recognizing Palestinian statehood.

The businessman and Harvard-educated economist was accompanied by wife Cecilia Morel and a delegation of Chilean officials. During his visit to the holy site, the Chilean president said he brought written prayers given to him by students at the Anne Frank school in Santiago, to be placed in the stones of the Western Wall.

The visit by the center-right leader came after Pinera and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in Brazil during the inauguration of Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in early January.

Such visits by foreign dignitaries to Jerusalem’s holy sites, including the Western Wall, the holiest place in Judaism at which Jews are permitted to pray freely, are adamantly opposed by Palestinians, who say they legitimize Israeli claims to the eastern half of the city, which they claim for the capital of a future Palestinian state.

A recent spate of such visits, including by senior US officials, has been held up in Israel as a sign of growing international recognition of Israel’s position.

Pinera is on a three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority that began Tuesday with a visit to Yad Vashem and will conclude Thursday after morning meetings with PA officials.

Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, Rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites, recited a chapter of Psalms with the President and blessed him with King Solomon’s prayer that all his prayers will be accepted with good will.  The Rabbi added that visiting the Western Wall expresses identification with the values and heritage of the Jewish nation.

The President remarked that the school named for Anne Frank prepared notes with their prayers that they gave him to place between the stones of the Wall.

The President of Chile signed the Western Wall guestbook with a prayer asking G-d to bring peace to the Holy Land.

Photo credit: The Western Wall Heritage Foundation