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Israel slams Palestinian UNESCO vote calling Western Wall Muslim site
Israel has condemned an attempt by the Palestinian leadership to push through a vote at a United Nations body, which would declare the Western Wall in Jerusalem a Muslim holy site.
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation) will tomorrow vote on a resolution submitted by six Arab countries on behalf of the Palestinians, which would recognise the Western Wall as part of the al-Aqsa Mosque atop the Temple Mount. The Western Wall is one of the few surviving remnants of the Jewish Temple from the Roman era and due to Israeli restrictions which ban Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount, it is the holiest site at which Jews are permitted to pray. Muslim tradition holds that Mohammed tied up his winged animal Buraq in the Western Wall vicinity before ascending to heaven.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry released a statement, saying that the UNESCO motion is “an attempt to distort history and blur the connection between the Jewish people and its holiest place and to create a false reality.” Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely expressed similar sentiments, saying that the resolution is a “shameful and deceitful Palestinian attempt to rewrite history” and “will fail the test of reality.”
The Temple Mount has been a focal point for the current wave of violence. Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, have repeatedly publicly rejected Palestinian claims that Israel plans to alter the status quo at the site, which permits only Muslim prayer. Nonetheless, the UNESCO resolution accuses Israel of “aggression and illegal measures … against the freedom of worship and access of Muslims to Al-Aqsa Mosque and … attempts to break the status quo since 1967.”
Meanwhile, Israel summoned the French Ambassador yesterday after France suggested a UN Security Council resolution to place international observers on the Temple Mount. Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon explained that “Israel objects to any [Temple Mount related] process that isn’t coordinated with it or is drafted without its participation.”