DOWNTOWN — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid tribute at the 9/11 Memorial Thursday night.
Netanyahu, who is in the city for the United Nations General Assembly, spent about 40 minutes at the newly-opened site with his wife, Sara Ben-Artzi, and memorial designer Michael Arad, who grew up in Israel.
"There were four Israeli citizens who were killed on 9/11, so he went over to see the names and touch the names," the mayor told WOR’s John Gambling Friday morning during his weekly radio sit-down.
Photographs released by City Hall show Israel's first couple placing a wreath with white and purple flowers on a wooden stand at the southwest corner of the Southern Pool, close to where the names of the Israeli victims are engraved.
"He just said, 'This is unbelievable. It's so moving,'" Bloomberg said, once again praising the memorial’s design, which features two acre-large reflecting pools in the footprints of the former towers.
Bloomberg said the experience is even more striking at night, when light shines through each of the names engraved in brass.
The mayor also said Friday that the number of tickets available to the public to visit the site will soon be increased.
"We now know how long people stay and how to get them through the magnetometers," he said.
While admission is free, the memorial instituted a ticketing system because it was worried about crowds at the site, which is still partially under construction.
