President Barack Obama traveled to the memorial service for former prime minister and Israeli founding father Shimon Peres Friday. The service was held at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, the site of the national cemetery of Israel. The White House press office released to the public Obama’s remarks at 7:49 a.m. ET, noting the location of the speech:
But several hours later, at 4:37 p.m. ET on Friday, the White House issued what it called a “correction” to the press release. The heading of the press release was “corrected” to strike through the name of the country, Israel:
The location of Mount Herzl is undoubtedly in Israeli territory, on Jerusalem’s western side and in a part of the city that is not disputed as Israeli. As the national cemetery, Mount Herzl is the resting place for many of Israel’s war heroes and national figures, and is named after Theodor Herzl, the intellectual godfather of the modern state of Israel.
A request for comment from the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton, whose husband, former president Bill Clinton, also attended Peres’s memorial service, has not yet been returned.
