January 20, 2013

JERUSALEM (JTA) — The HaTnuah Party has asked Israel’s Central Elections Committee to disqualify the Jeremy Gimpel, a dual U.S. citizen on the Jewish Home Party’s candidate list, for a controversial remark about the Dome of the Rock.

Gimpel, who is 14th on the candidate’s list and could be voted into the Knesset in this week’s elections, was shown Friday night on Channel 2’s nightly newscast in a video of a speech before a Christian group speculating on the mosque located on the Temple Mount being blown up. 

“Imagine today if the golden dome, I’m being recorded so I can’t say blown up, but let’s say it was blown up, right, and we laid the cornerstone of the Temple in Jerusalem. Can you imagine what would be? None of you would be here. You would be going to Israel. It would be incredible,” Gimpel said in the clip.

Gimpel has explained that the clip was from a speech he delivered to a Christian group and that his words were taken out of context.

Hatnuah, the new center-left party led by Tzipi Livni, said that Gimpel’s speech contained sedition and incitement and that he should be disqualified from running in Tuesday’s election.