Tel Aviv Mayor Tells the Media His City is Cool — but not Israel’s Capital

July 24, 2012 14:33 by Yarden Frankl

Following The Guardian’s statement that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel and the UK Press Complaints Commission’s ruling in The Guardian’s favor, who better to ask whether Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel than Ron Huldai, the Mayor of Tel Aviv?

So that’s exactly what we did!

Yesterday, in the Mayor’s office, we asked him about the various efforts by the media to label his city as Israel’s capital. He is very proud of his city, but was absolutely clear about the issue of Israel’s capital.

He mentioned that although Tel Aviv is one of the “coolest” cities in the world, it is NOT Israel’s capital.

Since we had spent the whole day on the streets of the city, asking residents if THEY thought their city was the capital, we disagreed strongly with his characterization that the city is “cool.” It’s actually really, really hot! (You can watch our hunt for Israel’s capital next week.)

But, we do concur wholeheartedly that Tel Aviv is NOT Israel’s capital.

You can find all sorts of things in this amazing city. After all, it is the financial and cultural center of Israel. From high tech start-ups to beautiful beaches to the third largest sushi market in the world per capita (behind Tokyo and New York,) Tel Aviv has a lot to be proud of.

But it’s not the capital of Israel.

That has always been Jerusalem.

Just ask the Mayor.

He appreciated the chance to set the record straight.

Following our video interview, which we will be publishing in the very near future,  Mayor Huldai also lent his support to the Israeli government’s current campaign against the BBC’s Olympic coverage and contributed the following video where he made many of the same points that we had discussed.

Category: Backspin Tags:Israel's capital, Jerusalem, Mayor Huldai, Tel Aviv
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