Speaking Sunday night, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Danon sarcastically said that the Jewish people “are grateful” to Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas for “recognizing the Jewish right to pray at the Kotel.” Abbas made the comments earlier Sunday, speaking to Israeli students in Ramallah.

“We do not need the permission of anyone to pray at the Kotel, certainly not from the Palestinian leadership,” Danon said. “Jews have prayed, Jews pray, and Jews will pray at the Kotel forever.”

Besides presenting his views on the Kotel, Abbas also discussed numerous other issues. Abbas said he would never recognize Israel as a Jewish state. “You want to go the UN to change the name of the state, then do so. I only know and recognize Israel, I do not know a 'democratic, Jewish state.'”

He also said he would not allow Jews to remain in “Palestine,” and would demand that hundreds of thousands of Jews in Judea and Samaria be forced to move. “We will not equate the Palestinians who have been here for thousands of years with the settlers,” he said.

“Not only do the settlers steal our land, but they kill us too. They must be stopped.”

Hatnua leader Tzipi Livni praised the trip by students to Ramallah, calling it “very important. This is exactly what is needed – curious young people who are asking the hard questions,” she said.