Unesco deletes Jewish history- again
Fury as UN body denies Jewish history in second resolution
THE UN’S cultural organisation gave another momentous snub to Jewish history this week in a move that some activists said could incite violence.
Unesco’s latest resolution describes the Kotel as a part of Al-Aqsa Mosque, ignoring the fact that it is widely regarded as a wall of the ancient Jewish temple complex. The resolution labels it the “Western Wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque / AlHaram Al-Sharif.”
The Muslim term “Al-Haram Al-Sharif” is used throughout the Unesco statement to describe Temple Mount, airbrushing out the Jewish connection to the complex.
The Israeli ambassador Carmel Shama-Hacohen was so angry when Unesco’s World Heritage Committee adopted the resolution that he ceremoniously threw it in the bin.
Mr Shama-Hacohen said: “This is yet another absurd resolution against the state of Israel, the Jewish people and historical truth.”
He said that when the UN equated Zionism with racism in 1975, Israel’s then-ambassador to the UN, Chaim Herzog, tore up the resolution. The latest resolution was “not even worthy of the energy needed for tearing it apart”.
There solution, passed on Wednesday, was a watered-down version of a similar declaration adopted two weeks ago. The decision to hold a second vote was prompted by the diplomatic uproar that followed the original resolution.
Ten member states supported the motion, two opposed it, eight abstained and a representative of one member state was absent. The Palestinians and their allies had been hoping that the resolution would be adopted unanimously, and Israeli press statements expressing fear of such an outcome lulled them into a false sense of security. But Tanzania and Croatia demanded a secret ballot, which Arab states frantically tried to avoid until the very last minute before the vote. According to some reports, the Palestinians had decided to opt for a softer resolution because they mistakenly assumed there would be a majority in favour.
In a letter to the Vatican Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein called the resolution “deeply offensive to both Christianity and Judaism”, and asked for the help of Catholic officials to prevent similar moves in the future.
The Simon Wiesenthal Centre, the only Jewish organisation accredited to Unesco’s World Heritage Committee, said the resolution may boost terror- ists. Shimon Samuels, the centre’s international director, said it would help to convince young Palestinians that Israel is encroaching on what should be purely Muslim sites, and encourage them to retaliate with violence.
“This kind of language is enough to inflame, to incite, a new intifada,” said Mr Samuels, noting that many attacks against Israelis over the last year had been carried out because of a supposed Israeli threat to Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.
The resolution is part of a PA strategy, backed by international allies, to assert the Muslim narrative on Jerusalem and play down Jewish history.