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Netanyahu: ‘The Historical Coin is an Interesting Discovery’ | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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PM Benjamin Netanyahu. (photo credit:REUTERS)


Tel Aviv, London- An old coin promoted by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as proof of the Jewish people’s connection to the Israeli-controlled West Bank has been found to be a souvenir reproduction.

Netanyahu commented on the coin issue on his page via Facebook using the biblical Hebrew term for the West Bank, and said: “this exciting discovery is additional evidence of the deep connection between the people of Israel and its land, to Jerusalem, to our temple, and to the communities in Judea and Samaria,” reported the German News Agency.

However, later, this “discovery,” first reported by Israeli media, turned out to be one of thousands of cheap souvenir coins minted by the Israel Museum.

“There is no chance that it is authentic; it is not an ancient coin. Even to call it a coin is to exaggerate what it is,” Haim Gitler, chief curator of archaeology and numismatics at the Israel Museum, told the Times of Israel.

The coin was found by an 8-year-old girl near the Israeli settlement of Neveh Tzuf in the West Bank in May.