Thursday, October 22, 2015

UNESCO has voted yes

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: Entire House Jewish Caucus Blasts UNESCO on Temple Mount Vote. Jewish lawmakers condemn claim that Israel is responsible for surge in violent attacks; Jewish groups call decision 'offensive and a distortion of history' (Haaretz and JTA).
All 19 Jewish House lawmakers slammed UNESCO for its vote charging Israel with changing the status quo at a Jerusalem holy site.

“The continued false allegations against Israel as having violated the status quo at the Temple Mount, which is under the custodianship of Jordan and the Wakf Muslim religious trust, and blaming Israel for the surge in violent attacks, must be condemned,” said the statement Wednesday signed by the 18 Jewish Democrats and one Jewish Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives.

UNESCO, the United Nations’ cultural arm, on Wednesday approved a resolution saying that Israel is altering the status quo on the Temple Mount, also known as Haram al Sharif, which is holy to Muslims and Jews.

[...]

UNESCO’s executive committee voted 26-6 on the resolution advanced by six Arab countries, with 25 abstentions, on behalf of the Palestinians. The United States led the dissenters. A proposal to label the Western Wall as a Muslim holy site was removed prior to the vote, which also designated Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron as Muslim sites to be part of a Palestinian state. Both sites are also holy to Jews.

[...]
Related: UK votes against “outrageous” resolution to have holy Jewish tombs reclassified as Muslim sites (Jewish News).

Both (traditional sites) Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs were Jewish sites long before they were Muslim ones. Additional background on the resolution and the sites is here and here and links.