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Israel braces for UNESCO vote questioning Jewish history at Temple Mount
Within the coming ten days, UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation) is set to vote on a Jordanian-Palestinian motion which condemns Israel’s presence at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and questions any Jewish connection to the site.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry yesterday said that the latest Jordanian-Palestinian initiative “is another malicious and dishonest attempt to harm Israel’s affinity with its capital”.
The draft resolution calls for a return to what it terms “the historic status quo,” implying that the Temple Mount should not be under Israeli sovereignty. Having captured Jerusalem’s Old City during the 1967 Six Day War, Israel placed administration of the Temple Mount under the joint authority of Jordan’s government and the Jerusalem-based Islamic Waqf religious council. Although Jews are permitted to visit the site in small groups, they are not allowed to pray there for fear of subsequent violence.
The document accuses Israel of “aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims’ access”. The resolution also claims that Israel has been “planting fake Jewish graves in Muslim cemeteries” and has converted “many Islamic and Byzantine remains into the so-called Jewish ritual baths or into Jewish prayer places”.
It is not the first time that such an incendiary resolution has been debated at UNESCO. Last October, a similar motion was carried accusing Israel of “aggression” at the Temple Mount. In addition, in April this year, another like-minded resolution was adopted by UNESCO’s executive board.
The five-page draft resolution has been submitted to UNESCO’s 21-member World Heritage Committee, which will meet soon in Istanbul for its 40th annual session. The Temple Mount is holy to both Muslims and Jews, yet the resolution refers to it exclusively by the Arabic term Al-Haram Al-Sharif. The Western Wall, the world’s most significant Jewish prayer site is also referred to by the Arabic term Buraq Plaza, while quotation marks pointedly accompany the words “Western Wall plaza”.