Israel's Netanyahu Vows to Build in Jerusalem Israel's prime minister has vowed to build in Jerusalem despite criticism from the United Nations, dismissing the international body in particularly strong terms. "The capital of the Jewish people for the past 3,000 years is Jerusalem," Benjamin Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 2 television on Friday. "So I will say in the clearest way possible, the Western Wall in not occupied territory and I don't care what the U.N. will say," he added, referring to the wall Jews consider their holiest place for prayer. The U.N. last month endorsed a de facto Palestinian state in the West Bank, east Jerusalem and Gaza, areas Israel won in the 1967 war, but which the world views as occupied territory.