ISRAEL SLAMS EU REVISION TO UNESCO JERUSALEM PROPOSAL!
Foreign
Ministry ‘concerned’ over new draft, says it still challenges Jewish ties to
Old City, Temple Mount
A European Union revision to a
controversial resolution by the UN’s cultural body on the Old City of Jerusalem
had Israel “concerned” on Thursday, with the Foreign Ministry saying the new
text still downplays Jewish historical ties to its holiest site.
A statement from the Foreign Ministry
in Jerusalem expressed “concern’ over the EU revision to the UNESCO resolution,
which it said “nullifies the bond and relationship of the Jewish people to the
Temple Mount.”
“The EU proposal still denies the
connection of the Jewish people to the Temple Mount,” the Foreign Ministry
statement said. The text of the proposal has not yet
been released by the EU.
In
its statement, the Foreign Ministry singled out EU member France, which expressed remorse over
its “yes” vote on an April UNESCO resolution that ignored Jewish ties to
Jerusalem. It also emphasized Jerusalem was
still applying diplomatic pressure to quash the current version. “Nothing is finished yet,” the
ministry added.
The
move came days after a joint Palestinian-Jordanian resolution on Jerusalem was shelved after failing to garner
enough support. That proposal urged a return of the Temple Mount and
the Al-Aqsa Mosque to what it called “the historic status quo” following the
1967 Six Day War, under which the Jordanian Waqf religious authority had the
right to administer all aspects of the sites “including maintenance,
restoration, and regulating access.”
Israel
has put pressure on UN members to reject that vote, including in a letter Monday
by Foreign Ministry chief Dore Gold, and vocal complaints from Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu after a previous UNESCO vote on Jerusalem in April.
The complex, which was the site of
the two biblical temples, is Judaism’s holiest site. Muslims regard the
compound — which houses the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine — as
the third-holiest site in Islam.
While Jews are allowed to enter the
site, they are banned from worship under arrangements instituted by Israel when
it captured the area from Jordan in 1967.
The site has been a focal point of
violence wracking Israel and the West Bank over the past 10 months, amid claims
by Palestinian leaders — vehemently denied by Israel — that the Israeli
government plans to change the status quo on the Temple Mount. Some 40 victims
have been killed in Palestinian stabbing, shooting and car-ramming attacks in
the wave of violence since October.
A resolution adopted by
UNESCO’s executive board in April enraged Israel for ignoring
the Jewish connection to Jerusalem.
The April resolution criticized
Israel for “excavations and works” in East Jerusalem, and urged it to stop
“aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims’
access” to their holy site. The resolution also accused Israel of “planting
fake Jewish graves in Muslim cemeteries” and of “the continued conversion of
many Islamic and Byzantine remains into the so-called Jewish ritual baths or
into Jewish prayer places.”
The April resolution was approved by
33 states of the 58-member body, including Russia, Spain, Sweden, France and
Brazil.
Like
France, Brazil said its vote a mistake.
Seventeen countries abstained while
six voted against — the United States, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, the
Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
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