Authored by Yochanan Visser October 15, 2016
Israelis were flabbergasted Thursday when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization adopted the draft version of its second resolution in one year denying any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest site, and the site where important events in the life of Jesus took place as recorded in the New Testament.
According to UNESCO, the Western Wall or Wailing Wall — the last remaining wall of the destroyed temple in Jerusalem — doesn’t exist and has been renamed as the Al-Buraq Plaza the Muslim name for the site where Muslims believe Mohammad was carried to Heaven on a tall, white beast called al-Buraq (lightning) that resembled a horse.
The UNESCO resolution also referred to the Temple Mount as Al-Ḥaram Al-Sharif and read as a press release by WAFA the official Palestinian News Agency that is used to release only virulent anti-Israel propaganda.
Israel is called “the occupying power” of the Temple Mount and Israelis and Israeli security forces are constantly “storming the El-Aqsa Mosque” and threatening “to destroy” the Muslim holy place according to UNESCO.
By the “storming of the El-Aksa Mosque,” UNESCO was referring to the daily visits of groups of Jews and Christians to the site where the Temple once stood. Israel also allegedly commits crimes, abuses and aggression against the El-Aqsa mosque and has caused excessive damage to the Muslim shrines on the Temple Mount, claims UNESCO.
The same resolution also deals with Gaza that apparently has become a place of importance for UNESCO’s work as protector of world heritage sites. UNESCO condemns the continuing (legitimate) sea blockade of Gaza by the Israeli navy and blames Israel for the deaths of thousands of civilians in the Gaza Strip.
UNESCO also reaffirmed that Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Jewish Patriarchs in Hebron are “Palestinian sites” where Israel is doing all sorts of “illegal things” such as building roads and maintenance work.
Israel’s supposed transgressions at both Jewish holy sites are linked to the Palestinian Knife Jihad that has killed scores of Israelis since September 2015, while “settlers” and other “Jewish extremists” are blamed for the “ongoing cycle of violence” by the UNESCO resolution.
Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu was one of the Israeli politicians who reacted furiously to the UNESCO resolution.
“The UNESCO theater of the absurd continues,” Netanyahu said in a statement
“Today that organization adopted another delusional decision stating that the Jewish People have no connection to the Temple Mount or the Western Wall,” Netanyahu wrote.
“Even if they do not read the Bible, I would suggest that UNESCO members visit the Arch of Titus in Rome. On it one can see what the Romans brought back to Rome after they destroyed and looted the Second Temple on the Temple Mount 2,000 years ago. There, engraved on the Arch of Titus, is the seven-branched menorah that is the symbol of the Jewish People and, I remind you, is also the symbol of the Jewish state today. Soon, UNESCO will say that the Emperor Titus engaged in Zionist propaganda,” Netanyahu fumed.
“To say that Israel has no connection to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall is like saying that China has no connection to the Great Wall of China or that Egypt has no connection to the pyramids,” he continued.
”By this absurd decision, UNESCO has lost what little legitimacy it had left. But I believe that historical truth is stronger and that truth will prevail. And today we are dealing with the truth,” the Israeli leader, the son of a famous historian, added.
Netanyahu later ridiculed the UNESCO decision to adopt the resolution that was submitted by Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Sudan.
“What’s next? A UNESCO decision denying the connection between peanut butter and jelly? Batman and Robin?” Netanyahu asked.
The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs also reacted to the new UNESCO resolution and released a short video. The video showed a man reading UNESCO’s version of the Bible where texts such as John 2:13 were “revised.”
On Friday, Israel suspended all cooperation with UNESCO over the resolution that was backed by a large majority of the organization’s members. Only six countries voted against the resolution: The United States, Lithuania, Great Britain, Germany, the Netherlands and Estonia.
France, Sweden, Spain, Greece and Italy were among the countries that abstained from voting while Russia supported the motion.
Even Irina Bolkova the director-general of UNESCO, expressed her dismay and opposition to the resolution on Friday.
“The heritage of Jerusalem is indivisible, and each of its communities has a right to the explicit recognition of their history and relationship with the city,” Bolkova said in a statement.
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