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Wednesday, July 08, 2015

UNESCO passes antisemitic resolution, world yawns (update)

JPost reports:
Israel slammed the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization on Tuesday for adopting a “completely one-sided resolution” on the Old City of Jerusalem that “deliberately ignores the historical connection between the Jewish people and their ancient capital.”

The resolution, adopted by the World Heritage Committee meeting in Bonn, Germany, takes Israel to task for – among other grievances – the following allegations: engaging in “illegal excavations” in the Old City; causing damage to structures on the Temple Mount; impeding restoration work on the Temple Mount; and damaging the “visual integrity” of the Old City with the Jerusalem light rail.

It also deplored various Israeli projects in and around the Old City and the Western Wall Plaza, which it referred to as the “Buraq Plaza.”

Foreign Ministry director- general Dore Gold issued a statement saying that not only does the resolution gloss over any Jewish connection to Jerusalem, it also fails to acknowledge Christianity’s ties to Jerusalem and refers to the Temple Mount area only as a “Muslim holy site of worship.”
The resolution itself should be enough to discredit UNESCO as a serious institution.

Besides what is mentioned in the article, it includes this antisemitic paragraph 8:

The World Heritage Committee...Further regrets Israeli extremist groups' continuous incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound and urges Israel to take necessary measures to prevent such provocative abuses that violate the sanctity and integrity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound and inflame tension on the ground;

As I have documented countless times, Jews who visit the Temple Mount are uniformly quiet, respectful and peaceful. They are greeted by the Muslims there with barrages of insults, intimidation and physical abuse.  In years of looking through Muslim websites, I have not seen a single instance of a single religious Jew on the Temple Mount doing anything that was disrespectful to the holy site.

Jews who want to worship on their holiest site are expelled. Muslims who want to celebrate terror attacks are welcomed.

UNESCO, by explicitly condemning the Jewish right to worship or even visit the Temple Mount, is pushing an explicitly antisemitic agenda.

Oh, and this paragraph goes against international law.

As bad as that is, there is something even more outrageous than UNESCO's explicit antisemitism.

The real  outrage is that there was no outrage. Other nations voted for this resolution without blinking. A resolution that calls all Jews who want to peacefully visit their most sacred site  "extremists" doesn't raise any eyebrows. A resolution that insists that Jews have no religious rights is passed without the least bit of controversy. Diplomats who are supposed to be attuned to bigotry are voting for anti-Jewish bigotry.

That is the outrage.

UPDATE: Here is what it is like for a Jew to walk on the Temple Mount, today. Who are the extremists? Who is practicing abuse of a holy spot? Who is violating its sanctity? Who is inflaming tension? (h/t Bob Knot)