PA minister says the Western Wall has no holiness to Jews

The PA's Minister of Waqf and Religious Affairs has declared that the Western Wall is an Islamic holy site and that no Jews worshipped there before 1917.

Speaking in reaction to Binyamin Netanyahu's statement that the Kotel "will be ours forever," the minister, Mahmoud Habash, said that Israel's claims were "worthless."

Habash said that Israel's claim on Jerusalem and the "Wailing Wall" lacks the most basic historical foundations. He said that the Wall was not a non-Muslim place of worship at any time in history, until after the issuance of the Balfour Declaration in 1917.

That will come as a surprise to these Jews worshipping there in this photograph from 1865:

Habash went on to call for UNESCO to uphold Palestinian Arab "rights" in Jerusalem, presumably to confirm his bizarre interpretation of history. 

Given that UNESCO hasn't the foggiest idea what the Wall is to begin with, Habash might be successful. 

The PA had previously made the same claims, notable the Ministry of Information in 2010.