Monday, April 18, 2016

More UNESCO resolutions

TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH: UNESCO says no Jewish history on Temple Mount; Hebron and Bethlehem 'Integral part of Palestine' (NOGA TARNOPOLSKY/THE MEDIA LINE, Jerusalem Post).
UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Association, announced a number of resolutions just before the weekend started.

One, submitted by the Russian Federation, called for defining UNESCO’s role in safeguarding and preserving Palmyra and other Syrian World Heritage sites. Another was about “Enhancing UNESCO’s contributions to promote a culture of mutual respect and tolerance.”

A third was simply entitled “Occupied Palestine” and addressed the Jerusalem Old City hotspot that Jews refer to as the Temple Mount and Muslims call Haram Al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary. Except that the Jewish link to the site, considered the holiest place for Jews, went unmentioned.

In the context of Jerusalem’s Old City, the document refers to Israel solely as “the occupying power” and refers to the site itself, the world famous esplanade flanked by the Western Wall - considered by many experts to be the last existing retaining wall of the mount that once held the ancient Jewish temples - only by its Islamic moniker.

The decision refers to the plaza fronting the Western Wall only in quotation marks, except when using one of its Arabic names, Al-Buraq, a reference to the Prophet Mohammed’s ascent to heaven.

The Israeli government responded with fury.

“This is yet another absurd UN decision,” an incandescent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement released late on Saturday. “UNESCO ignores the unique historic connection of Judaism to the Temple Mount, where the two temples stood for a thousand years and to which every Jew in the world has prayed for thousands of years. The UN is rewriting a basic part of human history and has again proven that there is no low to which it will not stoop.”

[...]
I have not been able to find the text of the draft resolution(s) online. The earlier resolution mentioned in the article was noted here and links.