Tel Aviv (dpa) – The Jewish people’s ties to controversial Jerusalem holy sites came under fire Thursday when UNESCO’s executive board adopted a resolution disputing the link and criticizing Israel’s custodianship. Of the 58-member group, 24 countries were for the resolution, while only six – the US, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Estonia – were…
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The American Jewish Committee issued this statement:
AJC deplored today’s UNESCO vote erasing any Jewish connection to Judaism’s holiest site, the Temple Mount, in Jerusalem. UNESCO, the cultural arm of the world body, adopted the resolution on Jerusalem by a vote of 24 to 6, with 26 abstaining.
“A minority of UNESCO members, led by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Arab countries, has sought for a long time to exploit this body to castigate Israel,” said AJC CEO David Harris, who in recent weeks met with a number of world leaders urging rejection of the resolution. “The United States, United Kingdom, Germany, the Netherlands, Lithuania and Estonia have asserted moral leadership by firmly and unequivocally rejecting this blatant historical revisionism. Let’s be clear what’s at work here: This is another attempt to undermine the very foundation of the State of Israel and the documented, age-old historical Jewish connection to the land. And unlike previous such resolutions, notably, not one European nation lent its support this time.”
The UNESCO resolution refers to the Temple Mount only by its Muslim name, and thus ignores both Jewish and Christian ties to the holy sites in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Harris also pointed out that PA President Abbas has yet to respond to the invitation from Prime Minister Netanyahu, expressed at the UN General Assembly last month, to visit Israel and address the Knesset.
“Palestinian-inspired UNESCO resolutions – or, for that matter, absurd calls by the PA to revisit the Balfour Declaration of 1917 – do not bring the day of Israeli-Palestinian peace any closer,” Harris said. “Only direct bilateral negotiations can achieve that goal.”
The America-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) issued this statement:
AIPAC deplores the resolution preliminarily approved today by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) which outrageously attempts to undermine historic Jewish and Christian ties to the Old City of Jerusalem. In its characterization of the current situation in Jerusalem, this resolution is an affront to the truth and a crude attempt to delegitimize the Jewish state.
By approving such an untruthful and one-sided resolution, UNESCO undermines efforts to seek a peaceful resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by giving support to forces in the Palestinian community that reject reconciliation. Unfortunately, this resolution is also demonstrative of Palestinian efforts to circumvent direct negotiations by manipulating international institutions.
We commend the nations that stood up for historic truth and rejected this malignant resolution. We praise the Obama administration for opposing this resolution along with the signers of the Oct. 10 bipartisan Congressional letter which urged UNESCO to reject it.
The Anti-Defamation League issued this statement:
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned yet another in a series of resolutions passed today by the UNESCO Executive Board, which, it said, “essentially expunges the 3,000 years of Jewish connection to Jerusalem.”
Similar resolutions have been adopted by UNESCO political bodies in the past. The resolution passed today continued to refer to the Temple Mount/Holy Sanctuary solely by its Islamic name, Haram al Sharif, and referred to the Western Wall Plaza in quotation marks, referring to it first as the Al-Buraq Plaza, its Islamic name.
As always, the resolution included numerous highly politicized allegations and false charges against Israel, including of Israel denying Muslims religious access to holy sites and Israel destroying Muslim sites.
The only tacit acknowledgment of Judaism’s connection to Jerusalem is a first-time reference to “the importance of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls for the three monotheistic religions…”
Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO, issued the following statement:
Yet again, member states of the UNESCO Executive Board have perpetuated outrageous and false allegations against Israel and blatantly denied the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and Jerusalem.
To expunge the Jewish connection to Jerusalem is to deny the very cultural heritage of Jerusalem. This is not only unethical, but it contradicts the role of UNESCO to build intercultural understanding and protect cultural heritage.
Resolutions such as these poison the atmosphere and sow mistrust making steps toward reconciliation all the more difficult.
We express our appreciation to the United States, United Kingdom, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Estonia and Germany, who all voted against the resolution.
The resolution received more abstentions than votes in favor, indicating widespread concern with the biased document. According to reports, 24 countries supported the resolution, six voted against, and 26 abstained. Of the countries who had publicly expressed regret for voting for a similar resolution in April, France abstained, and Brazil voted in favor.
ADL had earlier written to the ambassadors of 28 member countries of the UNESCO Executive Board, urging them “to reject this highly political and dangerous degradation of the Jewish connection to Jerusalem.”
Additionally, ADL wrote to UNESCO Director General Irina Bukova asking that she again use the “moral voice of your office to protect the integrity of Jerusalem as a holy city to the three monotheistic religions…Both in the interest of preserving UNESCO’s integrity and relevance, and in the interest of affirming the genuine cultural heritage of Jerusalem.”
The Director General previously condemned efforts to deny the Jewish connection to Jerusalem.
The American Jewish Congress issued this statement:
NEW YORK – As news of UNESCO adopting an anti-Israel resolution circulates, American Jewish Congress President Jack Rosen issued the following statement:
“The American Jewish Congress strongly condemns UNESCO for adopting a resolution that attempts to rewrite history by disregarding Judaism and Christianity’s ties to the Temple Mount and Western Wall, while solely identifying Islam as having religious ties to these sacred sites.
“We also condemn the shameful timing, as the resolution circulated while the Jewish faith observed the Jewish High Holidays, with the vote scheduled for today, a day after Yom Kippur.
“Lastly, we are deeply disappointed with the 24 countries that voted in favor. Your collective submission allowing this motion to pass sets a dangerous precedent of further politicizing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and also endangers it to be turned into a religious one.”