UNESCO’s Executive Board has unanimously endorsed a draft resolution on the city of Jerusalem and its walls during its 207th session, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Sufian Qudah said on Wednesday.
Qudah underlined the importance of the decision, which was the result of Jordanian diplomatic efforts, in coordination with Palestine and UNESCO’s Arab and Muslim groups, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.
The decision affirms all previous gains that have been stipulated in the Jerusalem file, he added.
Qudah highlighted that the resolution and its appendix stress all the components of Jordan’s stance on the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls, including Muslim and Christian holy sites, noting that it also reiterates rejection of all Israeli violations and unilateral measures at these locations.
The resolution calls on Israel to halt all illegal unilateral procedures and violations against Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif and in the Old City, Qudah said.
There is little new in the document - except for when it talks about Gaza:
7. The first week of May 2019, a serious eruption of hostilities took place in the Gaza Strip and southern Israel. In total 25 Palestinians were killed, including militants, four women and two children, in addition to 154 injured. The hostilities also caused a significant amount of destruction including damage to 41 housing units and 13 education facilities in Gaza1. On 6 May a cessation of hostilities was established, ending the escalation, after intense efforts by the United Nations and Egypt.
Why does UNESCO say "In total 25 Palestinians were killed"? Don't Israelis count?
No. Dead Israelis simply don't exist to UNESCO. Only Palestinians are victims, Israelis are purely aggressors.
UNESCO's anti-Israel bias has been obvious for years. But rarely has it been this egregious.
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In response to the news that Benjamin Netanayahu will visit the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron today, Palestinian Chief Justice Mahmoud al-Habbash stated that "the infringement of the Palestinian territories and Islamic holy sites for electoral contests is a crime and a violation of the Palestinian rights in the land and holy sites, and a flagrant violation of international laws and resolutions of international legitimacy, especially resolutions of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization "UNESCO", which confirmed more than once that the city of Hebron and the Ibrahimi Mosque It is a pure Islamic heritage and there is no right for non-Muslims in it like the Temple Mount and the Old City of Jerusalem."
Is that what UNESCO said?
In 2017, UNESCO declared the old city of Hebron to be a "Palestinian heritage site." But its description of the Cave of the Patriarchs does not say that it was an Islamic holy site alone:
The main monument of the town is the centrally sited Al Haram Al-Ibrahimi Mosque/The Tomb of the Patriarchs. Elements of the current building date back to long before the Mamluk Period, as do its religious associations and the reasons why it is revered by Christians, Jews and Muslims alike. The mosque is said to host the remains of God’s prophet Abraham/ Ibrahim, his wife Sara, their sons Isaac and Jacob and their wives Rebecca and Leah, as well as Jacob’s son Joseph. (?)
There is reference in the Book of Genesis to Abraham purchasing the field for the tomb. The sanctity of the tomb site was known from as early as the Herodian Period, (1st century BCE) when a monumental enclosure was built around the sacred Cave of Machpelah, whose location is now lost. This enclosure of massive, finely dressed stone blocks still frames the mosque and within it are structures that reflect later Fatimid, Crusader, Ayyubid, Mamluk and Ottoman periods. The great covered prayer hall was constructed in 12th century out of the remains of the Crusaders 11th century Romanesque church which in turn arose from the ruins of a 7th century mosque.
Habbash is lying - UNESCO never declared Hebron or the Tomb of the Patriarchs to be "Islamic," let alone exclusively Islamic. It recognizes that that main frame of the site was built in Herodian times, under Jewish self-rule. It also recognizes that it was a holy Jewish (and Christian) site way before Islam.
UNESCO simply declared it Palestinian based on the world believing that it is part of a mythical nation that never existed. But it never said a word about it being exclusively Muslim.
Given that under international law, people have the right to visit their holy sites, Palestinians are lying when they try to ban Jews from worship in sites that were holy 2000 years before Mohammed ever soiled his first diaper.
I also will note that already in 2009, when "Palestine" first bid to join UNESCO, they made it clear that the primary purpose of them joining that organization was to ban Jews from holy sites.
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Tonight at 8 PM Israel time, there will be a ceremony dedicating a Sefer Torah (Torah scroll) to be used at the Ma'arat HaMachpela, the Cave of the Patriarchs where tradition says Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their wives are buried.
It is the second holiest site in Judaism after the Temple Mount.
The Hebron Waqf said in a press release: "Some Hebrew sites published a promotional video stating that the settlers will present at 8 pm on Thursday a Torah scroll to the Haram al-Ibrahimi Mosque with a concert.
"This attack is a grave violation of the sanctity of the Haram al-Ibrahimi Mosque and a dangerous precedent, and it affects the feelings of Muslims," the statement said.
The Waqf said that "the occupation government has full responsibility for the visits of the settlers and their desecration of the Haram al-Ibrahimi Mosque, the change in its Arab Islamic features, and the imposition of punitive measures against it."
The organization called on all international and human rights institutions, especially UNESCO, to shoulder their responsibilities towards the holy place, and to stop this "grave violation."
In a veiled threat, the Waqf said "the occupation government bears full responsibility for what happens as a result." Meaning that Muslims will riot.
Ma'an published this video of a large tourist group visiting the holy site, whom they call "settlers," in order to inflame Arabs to stop large numbers of respectful Jews and non-Jews from visiting the holy site.
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A few years ago, I bought a leather Etrog box - used during the holiday of Sukkot that ends today- in Hebron.
It looks like this:
The words are a paraphrase from a Midrash written before 500 CE:
אמר ר′ יודן: שלושה מקומות אין אומות העולם יכולות להונות את ישראל ולומר להם גזולים הם בידכם, ואלו הן: מערת המכפלה וקבורתו של יוסף ובית-המקדש
R. Yudin says: In three places the nations of the world cannot taunt Israel and say that they stole them from their hands, and they are: the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the burial place of Joseph and the Holy Temple.
In all three cases, the Torah records that the sites were publicly paid for.
The Arab world, of course, deny any Jewish connection to any of those sites, as well as for Rachel's Tomb and other Jewish holy sites. While most towns in the region retain their Biblical names, for these three places these sites are in have been renamed "al-Khalil" instead of Hebron, Nablus instead of Shechem, and Al Quds instead of Jerusalem.
The very three places that Jews have always known belong to them are the ones that the world claims to be exclusively Arab and Muslim.
The irony is too bitter for words.
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The official Palestinian Wafa news agency reports:
The head of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas spoke about the need to stop violations against Al Aqsa Mosque, stressing that it is a red line that can not be tolerated in the face of the suffering of daily attacks and violations by the occupation forces and settlers.
The PA Ministry of Information says that any Jews that visit the holiest spot in Judaism are doubling their "terrorism" by visiting during Ramadan, that Israel is "waging war on holy sites" and is disregarding the feelings of Muslims by entering the site. The ministry requested that UNESCO put pressure on Israel to stop its "religious terrorism" and "prevent the establishment of Talmudic rituals in the Haram al Sharif."
Nothing is being said against Christians peacefully visiting the site. Only Jews must be banned, and now Abbas is saying that such a ban on Jews is a red line before any peace agreement is made.
Abbas is demanding that the world support his antisemitism as a prerequisite for "peace."
This joins his demand that Israel release all Arab terrorists from prison before any "peace" agreement could be signed.
Which means that Abbas is telling the world that the state that he is demanding will enforce terror-supporting and antisemitic policies.
And still not one Western nation or major Western media outlet is willing to publicly call their "moderate peacemaker" out for what he explicitly says.
The Ministry of Information also complained about the fact that during the Shavuot holiday, Muslims are not allowed to visit the "Ibrahimi Mosque" in Hebron. This is a long standing agreement where the Cave of the Patriarchs is used exclusively by either Jews or Muslims for an equal number of days every year, and the spaces are divided between Jews and Muslims the rest of the year.
When Abbas says he wants a return to the "status quo" on the holy sites, he means the status quo of when Jordan didn't allow a single Jew to visit any of Judaism's holy sites in Jerusalem, Hebron, Bethlehem or elsewhere.
Antisemitism is part and parcel of the Palestinian Authority's official policies.
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Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General, called for new efforts to build trust, on the basis of respect and mutual understanding, following the 199th session of the Executive Board of UNESCO,that closed on 14 April, 2016.
The UNESCO Executive Board took decisions on issues relating to the Middle East, including to the World Heritage Site of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls.
"Jerusalem is a Holy Land of the three monotheistic religions, a place of dialogue for all Jewish, Christian and Muslim people, nothing should be undertaken to alter its integrity and authenticity" said Irina Bokova. "It is a mosaic of cultures and peoples, whose history has shaped the history of all humanity. Only respect and dialogue can build the trust we need to move forward -- this is the strength of UNESCO, for the benefit of all."
"I believe Member States have a responsibility to UNESCO’s mandate, to move forward in ways that promote dialogue, tolerance and peace,” continued Irina Bokova. “This is especially important for young people, who should be nurtured and educated for peace.”
The Director-General has always appealed for dialogue and consensus so that UNESCO’s mandate of protecting World Heritage and promoting tolerance and mutual respect can be taken forward.
It renamed the area of the Kotel the "Al Buraq Plaza."
It accused Israel of planting fake Jewish graves and referred to bogus research that implied that most of the graves in the ancient Mount of Olives cemetery were also fake.
It claimed that ancient 2000 year old ritual baths that have been discovered around the perimeter of the Temple Mount were actually Jewish inventions meant to "convert"the Umayyad palaces that were built about a thousand years later.
It demanded that Jews be denied their rights to visit the Temple Mount.
According to UNESCO, "tolerance" and "respect" means that Jews must deny their own heritage and history in favor of a religion that has brazenly stolen its own culture and holy sites from them.
UNESCO has proven beyond any doubt that it has become a joke, an organization that now spends its time denying and destroying only one nation's history and culture. UNESCO's goal is no longer to protect culture and history; it is to pander to those who want to destroy and pervert culture and history for antisemitic ends.
Disgustingly, countries such as France, Spain and Sweden voted in favor of this resolution that denies Jewish history itself.
(h/t Bob Knot)
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This resolution goes over a litany of complaints about Israel, including how it allows Jews to visit the Temple Mount, or, as it says, "the continuous storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif by the Israeli
right-wing extremists and uniformed forces, and urges Israel, the Occupying Power, to take
necessary measures to prevent provocative abuses that violate the sanctity and integrity of
Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif."
But there is a new bizarre accusation being brought up:
As far as the rest of the resolution, those Umayyad palaces that are mentioned were discovered and are being preserved by those awful Jews. Yet they were built using plundered stones from Byzantine churches and even the second Jewish Temple.
No one is "converting" them into Jewish ritual baths - those had been there for a thousand years before the Umayyad palaces were built.
How will UNESCO act when being given this laundry list of lies?
(h/t Gidon Shaviv)
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Palestinians have withdrawn their demand that the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization declare the Western Wall an “integral part” of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, Israeli officials said Wednesday.
The resolution — which the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) executive board is scheduled to vote on Wednesday — still contains a request to recognize Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron as Muslim sites. Israeli diplomats said they would continue to fight the resolution, and try to get allied states to reject it.
In addition, the Palestinians seek condemnation of ongoing Israeli archaeological excavations near the Temple Mount and elsewhere in Jerusalem’s Old City, as well as of the “aggression and illegal measures taken against the freedom of worship and access of Muslims to Al-Aqsa Mosque and Israel’s attempts to break the status quo since 1967.”
In an effort to garner support for the motion, some of the most incendiary language was removed or exchanged for less provocative terms.
Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama Hacohen, confirmed to Israel Radio Wednesday that the Palestinian delegation had proposed a new version of the controversial resolution, removing the clause that would have declared the Western Wall a Muslim site.
He said the initial proposal had met with opposition from a range of countries including Russia, China and even Cuba.
On Tuesday, the head of the United Nations cultural agency said she “deplored” the proposal. The move, Irina Bokova warned on UNESCO’s website, “could be seen to alter the status of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls and incite further tensions.”
The executive board had been scheduled to vote Tuesday on a resolution submitted by Arab states that would officially recognize the Western Wall as part of the Muslim holy site, but Bokova postponed the vote until Wednesday.
In a statement, Bokova called on the UNESCO board “to take decisions that do not further inflame tensions on the ground and that encourage respect for the sanctity of the Holy Sites.”
Declaring Rachel's Tomb a Muslim site is especially egregious. I wrote in 2009 that Muslims didn't start calling it the "Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque" until the 1990s..
Muslims have recognized Rachel's Tomb as a Jewish holy site for centuries, and that designation was codified by an Ottoman decree in 1830:
In 1830, the Turks issued the firman that gave legal force to Rachel’s Tomb being recognized as a Jewish holy site. Additionally, notes the JCPA’s Nadav Shragai, the governor of Damascus sent a written order to the mufti of Jerusalem to fulfill the sultan’s order:
“This is our order to you: [The following matter] was submitted to us by the subject of our order, the sage representative of honored Jerusalem’s Jewry and his translator that the tomb of esteemed Rachel, the mother of our Lord Joseph... They [the Jews] are accustomed to visit it from ancient days; and no one is permitted to prevent them or oppose them [from doing] this... It turned out that at this holy site, they have been visiting since ancient times, without any person preventing them or trespassing on their property and they [have it] as was their custom. In accordance with the respected judgment, I order that our commandment be issued to you so you will treat them accordingly without addition or without subtraction, without hindrance and without opposition to them by anyone in any way whatsoever – written August 10, 1830.”
An additional firman from April 1831 was issued “To inform and demonstrate to all interested parties and the appointed officials, the right of the Jews who are residents of holy Jerusalem to visit the grave of Rachel, the mother of the Prophet Joseph, peace be upon him, without hindrance... Rendered in Istanbul at the end of the month of Shawwal in the year 1246 to the Hejira. Signed: The Sublime Porte.”
This episode proves that when the PLO demanded to join UNESCO, it was not to promote any sort of educational or cultural goals - it was entirely to erase Jewish history from the Land of Israel. It is doing the opposite of UNESCO's mandate.
If UNESCO had a shred of decency, it would suspend "Palestine" as a member for its offensive and sickening attempts to politicize the institution, just as it is trying to hijack every other international body it joins to put pressure on Israel.
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Overnight, Joseph's Tomb in Shechem (Nablus) was set on fire by a mob of Arabs.
Whether or not it is historically the real tomb of Joseph, it is certainly a major Jewish shrine.
It is the most important Jewish holy place under Palestinian rule. There are some important synagogues and sites but none associated with a Biblical figure that I am aware of.
Under every agreement between Jews and Arabs, holy places were to be protected and free access allowed. Lists of holy sites for all religions were compiled by the UN. But Jewish holy sites under Arab rule have never been protected by Arabs; Jordan destroyed dozens of synagogues and did not allow Jews to enter the Old City. Not Israelis - Jews.
Joseph's Tomb is the exception that proves the rule. It is the only Jewish shrine that Israeli Jews have been allowed to access under Arab rule, but that access was severely restricted - only once a month, in the middle of the night, with the IDF protecting the worshipers from Arabs that riot every single time.
If the world community had its way and Israel would withdraw to the Green Line, the situation at other Jewish holy sites like Rachel's Tomb and the Tomb of the Patriarchs would be like that has been at Joseph's Tomb at best. Access would be very limited, accompanied by riots at the very idea of Jews entering "Muslim holy sites."
Yes, by a massive coincidence, every Jewish holy site is also an Muslim holy site. It just so happens that Mohammed chose the Western wall of the Jewish Temple to tether his flying donkey, thereby superseding Jewish rights. The Cave of the Patriarchs was converted to the Ibrahimi Mosque. Rachel's Tomb very recently became a venerable old Muslim mosque called the Bilal Bin Rabbah mosque. Samuel's Tomb is also claimed by Muslims as their own.
Joseph's Tomb is no different. While Muslims generally associated it with the biblical Joseph, more recently mny have claimed that it is the tomb of an altogether different person, a sheikh coincidentally named Yusuf.
Yet if it was really a Muslim holy site, why are Muslims setting it on fire?
A similar situation happened several months ago, when Muslims set fire on the southern wall of the Temple Mount, in an attempt to draw Israeli forces there. Besides that, they have used the Al Aqsa Mosque as a weapons depot, they practice soccer and volleyball and parkour on the supposedly sacred grounds (I've never seen them do that at the Kaaba in Mecca.)
If these sites were really holy, they would be venerated, not desecrated.
Either they are not really holy sites, or the idea of burning a Jewish holy place is far more important than the holiness they supposedly have for Muslims.
The overnight fire has, as of this writing, received next to no international coverage. Suspected arson of Muslim and Christian holy sites by Jews is reported widely and is used as evidence that all Jews or "settlers" are bigots, but this fire that was openly set by a crowd of dozens of men will not be used to demonize all Arabs - even though the number of Arabs who support free Jewish access to their holy sites is far lower than the corresponding number of Jews supporting Muslim access to their own holy places. Equal rights to Jews is simply not a remote possibility for Palestinians.
Lately, the State Department has been talking about the importance of maintaining the "status quo" at religious sites. Yet no one has ever heard anyone accuse Arabs of violating the status quo. Burning a religious site and heavily damaging it is a very serious violation of the status quo. While I expect that the State Department will perfunctorily condemn this act, it will not use that magic phrase when discussing this incident.
From early accounts of the fire, the PA put it out and is not suspected of setting it. However, clearly there was little protection of the building. Nevertheless, when mainstream media report this incident on page 17, they will take pains to say that this was only an angry crowd of youths, but not representative of Palestinians in general. Jews who are suspected of violent acts, on the other hand, are generalized to all Israelis or- more often- "settlers" even if they don't live across the Green Line.
Moreover, Arabs love to claim that Jews routinely desecrate holy places by merely walking around. Will any media accurately report this as a desecration?
Similarly, Arabs say that they are convinced that Jews want to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque, even though they could do it whenever they want. But this is not the first time that Joseph's Tomb has been set on fire in reality. The psychological projection is perfect, but no one reports it.
Finally, there will be inevitably calls from supposedly liberal Westerners and left-wing Israelis to ban Jews from Joseph's Tomb altogether, just as they are now calling on Jews to stop visiting the Temple Mount. The thinking is that if Muslims act so extremely as to set fires or stab people using their bogus claims on their bogus holy sites as their excuses, then it is better to remove the excuse. In these cases, freedom of religion for Jews can always be vetoed by Arab violence and threats.
Joseph's Tomb teaches a lot about the conflict. It is too bad that most people refuse to learn.
A senior Palestinian Authority diplomat has refused to defend an initiative aimed at ensuring that the United Nations recognizes the historical significance of posters opposing the Israeli occupation.
Next month, a program run by UNESCO — the UN’s educational, scientific and cultural organization — will approve a number of collections of documents deemed to have historical and universal value.
Approximately 1,600 Palestine-themed posters are among the nominations to Memory of the World, as the program is known.
The nomination has been strenuously opposed by a pro-Israel lobby group, the World Jewish Congress, which has argued that the UN should not associate itself with the posters as they “could fuel hatred and anti-Semitic perceptions.”
Supporters of the collection approached the Palestinian Authority seeking help in countering the pro-Israel lobby.
Elias Sanbar, the PA’s ambassador to UNESCO, refused to help.
In an email message, seen by The Electronic Intifada, Sanbar stated that he would not get involved in the issue because the feeling that some of the posters were anti-Semitic was shared by Irena Bokova, UNESCO’s director-general.
“Some of the posters, as I have been told, are ‘anti-semitic,’” wrote Sanbar, who is based in Paris. “As I have not seen the posters, I have no opinion on this fact. But this is the official opinion of the DG of UNESCO. And you will understand that I won’t let my delegation enter into this debate.”
The email message was sent in late February.
Dan Walsh, who has assembled the collection, said he was “stunned” by Sanbar’s attitude.
“It completely contradicts Palestine’s push to legitimate the country’s cultural patrimony via the United Nations,” Walsh added.
The PA’s refusal to cooperate represents something of a U-turn. Last year, the PA formally requested that UNESCO recognize the collection’s significance. Palestine has been a member of the organization since 2011.
Bokova may have bowed to pressure from the Israel lobby. She has reportedly threatened to veto a decision by a UNESCO international advisory committee if it approves the collection at a meeting in Abu Dhabi during the first week of October.
Walsh described the veto threat as “malfeasance.”
“It is not being used to advance the goals of the UN or UNESCO but rather the goals of Zionism,” he said.
Electronic Intifada and Sanbar are lying. Antisemitism isn't the reason that UNESCO's director-general was against including these posters - it was because so many of them glorified violence, as I mentioned earlier this year: She said some of the posters “would seem totally unacceptable and run counter to the values of UNESCO and its aspiration to build peace in the minds of men and women.”
So this collection which is meant to show the history of Palestinian Arab nationalism through the medium of posters shows it quite clearly - there was very little such nationalism before 1967. I don't think that is the message that the curator wants to give to the world, however.
Despite Dan Walsh's clear anti-Zionist feelings, I happen to love the larger collection which includes incredible Zionist posters, as well as many of my own creations, which is most flattering. (I have lots more, Dan, if you are reading.)
It also is fascinating look at the evolution of Palestinian Arab political thought and propaganda - for example, trying to equate their movement with the Vietnamese or early attempts to use choldren's and women's rights as a weapon against Israel.
But I was wondering if any of the posters in the collection are in fact antisemitic.
Most of them certainly aren't. . Many are filled with lies, including fake quotes and other falsehoods, along with others that promote violence and terror. Some are truly disgusting, promoting child soldiers and celebrating the worst terror attacks against Jewish civilians,
Some other Palestinian posters were antisemitic but were not included in the smaller collection meant for UNESCO. For example:
But I'm not seeing much else from the Arab side in the 1960s and 1970s.
I do see antisemitic posters by Jews, unfortunately, like this one that draws Hitler mustaches on children in a poster for Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria:
Whether or not UNESCO decides to incorporate these posters, I think that the project is a remarkable resource.
The UN agency that promotes education wants a say in how future textbooks are written, and Saudi Arabia -- a nation whose own school books have been criticized for promoting hatred of Christians and Jews -- is helping to bankroll the effort.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is currently working with member states to revise its strategy for the publication of textbooks and learning materials. According to UNESCO's website, experts from 21 countries met in Paris last month at a meeting financed by a $29,000 Saudi donation and focused in part on "ways to ensure that content aimed at students systematically reflects cultural and religious diversity, and avoids gender stereotypes."
Then, last week, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah cut a $20 million check to UNESCO's emergency fund.
Critics warn that the funding will come at a price, and predict the Saudis will want input into what goes into rewritten textbooks.
Well, those critics underestimated the issue.
Because the Saudis are not only adding input into the process - they are creating it.
UNESCO and the King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID) convened education experts to test a tool to assist educators in writing textbooks which are free of stereotypes and prejudices about culture, religion and gender. The tool is needed to assist in curriculum development worldwide as well as to assess current textbooks in circulation or develop new ones. It will eventually be used to communicate curriculum recommendations to textbook authors, in both public and private sectors. KAICIID and UNESCO organized the workshop to test the tool in Vienna, Austria, from 1-3 July 2015.
The importance of textbooks in influencing societies cannot be emphasised enough. As Noro Andriamiseza from UNESCO explained: “a curriculum consists of more than textbooks, but textbooks are an important part of a curriculum, the most visible part”. Textbooks can support diversity and coexistence, but when they include prejudices, they can divide societies. The workshop aimed to gain feedback and recommendations to further improve the tool prior to its publication.
The workshop is part of the Memorandum of Understanding between the King Abdulaziz Center for National Dialogue and UNESCO, that established the “Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Programme for a Culture of Peace and Dialogue” and builds on outcomes from the UNESCO Forum on Global Citizenship Education.
KAICIID’s educational programme includes the Image of the Other Programme that focuses on building accurate representation of religious and cultural diversity through interreligious and intercultural education. The programme supports the exchange of ideas and approaches, serving as a platform for public outreach, sharing best practices, ideas and materials trans-regionally.
It also includes the KAICIID Policy Network (KPN), a platform for experts and governmental focal points to discuss interreligious and intercultural education in formal and non-formal education. The focus includes interreligious education, curriculum development and evaluation tools, teacher training and new e-learning resources.
The KAICIID has already released a similar toolkit for journalists to report on "religions" (meaning, Islam) more to the liking of the Saudi royal family. This toolkit seems to be a project of the Saudis, rubber stamped by UNESCO and some handpicked "independent" educators.
I need not point out the irony of an initiative to teach tolerance of other religions coming from a country where the public observance of any religion besides Islam is illegal.
It's been a long time since I looked at the topic, but I have some old posts about what Muslim leaders often mean when they talk about "dialogue:" they mean that others should listen to what Muslims have to say, but not the other way around.
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.
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)
The Jordan Times reports that the foreign affairs committee at UNESCO's executive board passed a resolution with a series of antisemitic demands designed to eliminate any Jewish rights in the Old City of Jerusalem.
The foreign affairs committee at UNESCO's executive board on Monday adopted a resolution submitted by Jordan and Palestine that reaffirms the definition of Al Aqsa Mosque as the entire sacred complex surrounding it.
The resolution, supported by the Arab and Muslim group, confirms that Bab Al Magharbeh, the largest entrance for non-Muslim visitors to Al Aqsa Mosque complex, is an indivisible part of Al Aqsa, Islam's third holiest shrine, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.
This is the Moroccan gate; Jordan is claiming thatit should control the gate and therefore prohibit Jews from entering the Temple Mount.
The resolution also calls on Israel to cease all excavation work and demolitions within the Old City, and urges it to end all violations that exacerbate tension and conflict among the followers of various faiths.
The UNESCO committee also called for an immediate stop to all actions impeding 19 projects implemented under the Hashemite rehabilitation projects of Al Aqsa Mosque.
In other words, Arab excavations that destroy Jewish heritage are OK, but any careful Israeli archaeology in the region is forbidden.
Israel is also required to reopen the Bab Al Rahma gate of the mosque, put a stop to actions disrupting reconstruction work at the site and take the necessary measures to ensure the implementation of the Jordanian design for the reconstruction of the road to Bab Al Magharbeh.
The resolution also urged Israel to end the forced entry of Jewish extremists and armed military personnel to Al Aqsa courtyards and their assaults on Jordanian awqaf department personnel in Al Haram Al Sharif.
Moreover, it called for stopping the transformation of various buildings at the site into synagogues, and criticised decisions to change the historical names of dozens of streets and archaeological sites into Jewish names.
The committee demanded that Israel refrain from hindering Muslims’ and Christians’ access to their places of worship and urged Tel Aviv to stop working on over 100 excavation sites implemented by settler societies with the aim of imposing a Jewish identity on unearthed Islamic or Christian artefacts.
Even normally anti-Israel reporter Karl Vick recognized that the major aim of the PLO joining UNESCO was to bar Jews from their holy sites.
UPDATE: According to Arab media, the only countries to vote against the antisemitic resolution were the United States, Germany and the Czech Republic.
There is an elephant in the room, that Palestinian Arab culture is suffused with glorification of violence and terror acts. And that is part of what I was calling attention to by commenting on "Palestine" joining an educational and cultural institution.
Amazingly, the new UNESCO head seems to have noticed this, at least in terms of Palestinian Arab poster art:
The head of UNESCO vetoed the inclusion of a vast collection of Palestine-themed posters in a register of world heritage, arguing that the posters fuel hatred and anti-Semitism, The Times of Israel has learned.
The decision by Irina Bokova to block the Liberation Graphics Collection of Palestine Posters from being accepted into UNESCO’s Memory of the World program marks the first time such a nomination has been vetoed.
The collection was initially accepted by an advisory board but then blocked by Bokova, who said some of the posters were “totally unacceptable” and “run counter to the values of UNESCO,” the UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Besides universal themes of occupation and the motifs depicting the struggle for liberation and peace — such as barbed wire and white doves — many of the posters feature machine guns and hand grenades, extolling armed resistance and terrorism. Some of the posters glorify Palestinian suicide attacks and other murderous missions against Israeli civilians, including a 1978 massacre known in Israel as the bloodiest terror attack in the country’s history.
In August, the collection — which includes some 1,700 posters celebrating the Palestinian national liberation movement — was accepted for formal review by UNESCO’s International Memory of the World Register, which strives to preserve archival holdings of “world significance and outstanding universal value.”
Usually, nominations are considered by an international advisory board, and, if approved, confirmed by the organization’s director-general. In this particular case, too, the board reviewed the nomination and none of its members raised any concerns, which indicated that the board would recommend that the director-general formally accept the collection into the register.
However in this case, Bokova, surprised that no one had raised any objections to the posters, said she has decided to block the collection’s approval.
“In my capacity of Director General of UNESCO, I will oppose any such proposal for inscription,” she wrote in a December 23 letter to the chair of the advisory board, Helena Asamoah-Hassan. Some of the posters “would seem totally unacceptable and run counter to the values of UNESCO and its aspiration to build peace in the minds of men and women,” Bokova wrote.
She is of course right. The entire collection can be seen here, and there are many posters that glorify terror as well as gleefully call for the destruction of Israel:
And some posters are undeniably antisemitic:
This worship of hate and violence is so embedded in Palestinian Arab culture that the UNESCO board could not find any problems with this artwork - how else would Palestinians celebrate their culture?
Bokova's decision wipes away the fog of willful ignorance around this aspect of Palestinian "culture" (a culture that, as I noted previously, did not seem to produce any poster art before 1967.)
It is sad that the world's standards for how Palestinian Arabs are expected to act is so low that this collection did not even raise eyebrows at UNESCO until now. It is astonishing that the head of UNESCO has publicly exposed the elephant.
UPDATE: UNESCO denies everything in this story, says that the collection is still under consideration. (h/t Ian)
UNESCO just published a report on how textbooks teach, or don't teach, the Holocaust in countries worldwide.
The summary map showing the level of Holocaust education in each country is here:
Areas that did not even mention the Holocaust even implicitly (light beige) include Angola, Antigua & Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Benin, Bolivia,
Brunei, Cameroon, Dominica, Egypt, Fiji, Ghana, Guyana, Iceland, Micronesia
(Federated States of), Iraq, Jamaica, (Kosovo)**, Lebanon, Nepal, New Zealand (!), "Palestine," Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Seychelles, Thailand, and Zambia.
Nations that only mentioned World War II or Nazism without mentioning the Holocaust (light orange)include Algeria, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Burkina Faso, China, Cook
Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of the Congo,
Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Gambia, Georgia, Honduras, India, Indonesia,
Japan, Kenya, Lesotho, Malaysia, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Nicaragua,
Niger, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Scotland,
Senegal, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Switzerland (Jura, Lausanne), Tunisia, Uganda,
Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Yemen,
Zimbabwe.
Many Muslim nations that probably do not teach the Holocaust did not submit textbooks for this study (white), including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, , Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and many others.
Interestingly, the US state of Maryland is the only one called out for not teaching the Holocaust as its own topic and instead only as part of a more generalized human rights curriculum.
After Gidon Shaviv of Presspectiva emailed UNESCO about this new evidence, they commendably and immediately removed Murtaja from their list of journalists killed in wars. Moreover, UNESCO released a strong implicit condemnation of Hamas for "instrumentaliz[ing] the profession of journalists by combatants."
On 14 November, the Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, issued an update about the statement she issued on 29 August, 2014, regarding Abdullah Murtaja, in the context of UNESCO’s mandate to defend freedom of expression and press freedom.
The original statement issued on 29 August was in line with UNESCO’s policy of condemning all killings of journalists. During this week, information has been brought to the attention of UNESCO that Mr Murtaja was a member of an organized armed group -- an active combatant, and, therefore, not a civilian journalist. This has come to light in a video was posted recently on the Internet with Abdullah Murtaja speaking as a member of an organized armed group.
UNESCO therefore withdraws the statement of 29 August.
“I deplore attempts to instrumentalize the profession of journalists by combatants," declared Irina Bokova. “The civilian status of journalists is critical, especially in situations of conflict, to ensure the free flow of information and ideas that are essential to the wider public and the restoration of stability and peace,” declared the Director-General.
The nomination of a major collection of posters from the Palestine Poster Project Archives has been accepted for formal review by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s Memory of the World program. The UNESCO program’s International Register inscribes library and archival holdings of “world significance and outstanding universal value.”
The nominated work, the Liberation Graphics Collection of Palestine Posters, is the first documentary heritage resource ever nominated by the state of Palestine for inscription to the Memory of the World program. If inscribed, it will join a register that includes the Bayeux Tapestry, the Book of Kells, the Phoenician Alphabet, the Gutenberg Bible, Karl Marx’s personally annotated manuscript of Das Kapital, and hundreds of other historically significant documents.
The Liberation Graphics Collection of Palestine Posters comprises 1,700 rare posters created by Palestinian and international artists in solidarity with the Palestinian quest for liberation, sovereignty, and the right of return. These documents cover a critical time period in Palestinian history: the second half of the twentieth century, when Palestinians organized and asserted themselves under conditions of colonization, war, exile, and occupation.
I have nothing at all against the Palestine Poster Project. Despite the name, they have gathered an incredible collection of historic Zionist posters from as far back as 1897. It is a tremendous research site with fascinating tidbits and some fantastic and important poster art.
Here is a poster from the Fifth Zionist Congress in 1901.
Not only that, they include several dozen of my posters on their site! While most of them are politically oriented and were not created to be great art, I am proud of this poster that they included.
There are a also few early anti-semitic posters from the Dreyfus Affair.
Now, let's look at the special collection that the "State of Palestine" nominated to be included along with the Gutenberg Bible.
The earliest Palestinian Arab posters they have (outside a reproduction of a 1960 painting) are from 1967.
They include this poster against UNSC resolution 242 put out by Fatah:
And they have an early version of The Map That Lies:
I agree that the collection should be seen - people need to compare and contrast the violent posters of the Palestinian Arabs...
with the forward-looking posters of the Zionists.
If the special Palestinian Arab collection of posters gets accepted by UNESCO, they will be hailed as an important part of Palestinian history and culture. Clearly the PA government thinks so.
Will anyone ask the simple question: Why were there no posters created before the Six Day War?
UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization, has pulled a Jewish exhibit two years in the making, entitled “People, Book, Land – The 3,500 Year Relationship of the Jewish People and the Land of Israel,” after a zero hour protest from the Arab League, The Algemeiner has learned.
The exhibit, which was created by Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC) together with UNESCO, was scheduled to open on January 20th, 2014, at UNESCO’s Paris headquarters. The invitations had already gone out, and the fully prepared exhibition material was already in place. The display was co-sponsored by Israel, Canada and Montenegro.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean of the SWC, told The Algemeiner that the move was an “absolute outrage.” “The Arabs,” he said, “don’t want the world to know that the Jews have a 3,500-year relationship to the Land of Israel.”
Hier said that his organization, which is accredited by UNESCO as an NGO, worked in intimate co-operation with the international body on the project, which his center initiated after the Palestinian Authority was unilaterally accepted as a UNESCO member state in 2011.
“We made a clear attempt to work with them and the system, they can’t say they were blindsided, they commented on every sentence (in the exhibit’s materials) and still, in the end, the Arabs protested and they kicked us out,” he said.
“It is not supposed to be a place of censorship,” Hier said, “It is not supposed to deny one nation the right to their history.”
UNESCO informed the SWC of the change on January 14th in a letter to the Center’s Shimon Samuels, asserting the Arab League’s claim that going ahead with the show “could create potential obstacles related to the peace process in the Middle East.”
In a letter to Irina Bokova, president of UNESCO, President of the Arab group within UNESCO, Abdulla al Neaimi, from the United Arab Emirates, expressed “deep worry and great disapproval” over the program showing the age old connection between Israel and the Jewish people.
“The subject of this exhibition is highly political though the appearance of the title seems to be trivial. Most serious is the defense of this theme which is one of the reasons used by the opponents of peace within Israel,” the Arab League wrote. “The publicity that will accompany… the exhibit can only cause damage to the peace negotiations presently occurring, and the constant effort of Secretary of State John Kerry, and the neutrality and objectivity of UNESCO.”
“For all these reasons, for the major worry not to damage UNESCO in its… mission of support for peace, the Arab group within UNESCO is asking you to make the decision to cancel this exhibition,” Al Neaimi concluded.
So, UNESCO immediately bowed to the wishes of its Muslim masters. Sure enough, mention of the exhibit was scrubbed from the UNESCO site - it was there two days ago according to Google's cache.
But it gets much worse:
Interestingly, 10 days prior to the suspension of the exhibit, the United States declined co-sponsorship on remarkably similar grounds.
“At this sensitive juncture in the ongoing Middle East peace process, and after thoughtful consideration with review at the highest levels, we have made the decision that the United States will not be able to co-sponsor the current exhibit during its display at UNESCO headquarters,” wrote Kelly O. Siekman, Director at the Office of UNESCO Affairs of the State Department, in an email seen by The Algemeiner.
SWC’s Hier told The Algemeiner that he was disappointed in the U.S. position on the issue, and said that he was sure the exhibition would not have been suspended has the U.S. aligned itself as a formal co-sponsor. “This is not the end of this story,” he said.
Let this sink in for a moment: The official United States position is that publicly acknowledging that Jews have deep historic ties to Israel is a threat to the "peace process."
Maybe the White House will ban publicly mentioning the Bible next, because of all those irritating references to "Children of Israel" and "the Kingdom of David" and "Judah" and "Jerusalem." We can't upset the Arabs at this sensitive time, can we? Better hide the Bible that new appointees swear on.
This is beyond disgusting. If the truth must be hidden then you end up with lies, and peace cannot be built on lies. If the US cannot publicly acknowledge that Jews have a deep relationship with their land, then there is no reason for Israel to trust the US. Talking about the "special relationship" rings hollow when basic truths become censored.
General Assembly President John Ashe told today’s meeting that he hoped the Year leads to “robust” support for the people of Palestine. “I am sure I speak for many when I say that I hope the Year helps foster an atmosphere of dialogue and mutual understanding between the two sides of this decades-long conflict,” he said.
Dialogue? Mutual understanding? UNESCO's decision doesn't seem quite consistent with those lofty words, does it?
Oh, that's right. When the UN says "dialogue" they mean "monologue" and when they say "mutual understanding" they mean "one way propaganda." You just have to understand the lingo off the hypocrites and moral midgets that work for the United Nations.
It is scary that the US has been moving in that exact same direction over the past five years.
During a debate at the 37th session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, currently taking place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the Jordanian delegation, at the behest of the Palestinian Authority, submitted a resolution slamming Israel over its Jerusalem policies.
The resolution censured Israel for a number of developments in the city, including the construction of a visitors’ center, plans to build an elevator by the Western Wall, and accusations of archeological excavations said to be damaging Muslim sites atop the Temple Mount. It also took Israel to task for allegedly failing to hand over to the committee critical information on the state of the Old City.
“The WHC requests Israel to immediately desist from all acts, omissions and the harmful excavations,” according to a joint press released issued Sunday by the Jordanian and Palestinian UNESCO delegations. “The WHC also asks Israel to stop all violations that change of facts on the ground and damages the authenticity and integrity of the Old City of Jerusalem, especially the recent escalatory measures that have been taken against al-Aqsa Mosque and the obstruction of the Jordanian Awqaf’s conservation of the Holy Sites.”
The resolution reportedly passed, with eight of the 21 World Heritage Committee member states voting in favor and 10 abstaining. Only Germany, Switzerland and Estonia reportedly voted against it.
“Passing, once more, a fabricated political decision against Israel, which portrays nothing but the outstanding creative writing skills and unique sense of imagination of both the Palestinians and Jordanians, bears devastating ramifications on the future of UNESCO,” the head of the Israeli delegation said after the vote. “It is rather unfortunate that at such a critical point in time for UNESCO, the Palestinians and their active partners consciously choose to undermine the core values and identity of this organization to an extent that will certainly lead to its ultimate destruction.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated that the resolution was adopted against the better judgment of the majority and “is nothing but a heap of disconnected-from-reality statements.” There is no linkage between the language of the resolution and the actual facts on the ground, the statement continued, “as the text only reflects the clichés of the anti-Israel bubble which the Palestinians cultivate within UNESCO at the expense of the worthy causes the organization is supposed to promote around the world.”
Nevertheless, the statement said, “Israel will uphold its commitments and its sovereign responsibility by continuing to ensure freedom of worship to all faiths in Jerusalem, even as UNESCO insists on turning its back on reality and wreaking damage to the interests of member-states through the regurgitation of the dictates of Palestinian propaganda.”
UNESCO has online its synopsis of reports submitted by Israel and Jordan in February about Israeli actions in Jerusalem.
The Jordanian part starts off by saying who waa behind it:
The report received from the Permanent Delegation of Jordan states that it has been prepared partly in consultation with the Permanent Delegation of Palestine to UNESCO. It provides information based on the observations and report of the Jordanian Awqaf (JA) and the Jordanian National Committee for World Heritage.
Essentially, UNESCO accepted the lies of the Arabs wholesale.
Note that UNESCO never said a word about the massive destruction of archaeological treasures by the same Waqf whose words it is now accepting without question.
My Right Word obtained the actual text of the UNESCO resolution.
Some of its paragraphs show that UNESCO essentially wants to kill Jerusalem by ensuring that Jordan and UNESCO have veto power over anything Israel does.
5. Deeply deplores the persistence of Israeli archaeological excavations and works in the Old City of Jerusalem and on both sides of its Walls and the failure of Israel to cease such works, and requests the Israeli authorities to prohibit all such excavations and works, in conformity with its obligations under the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954 and its related protocols, the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972, and as clearly stated in the Delhi UNESCO Recommendation of 1956 concerning excavations undertaken in occupied territories;
6. Reiterates the necessity of cooperation to facilitate access to the Old City of Jerusalem and both sides of its Walls, including religious heritage sites therein, in the context of the UNESCO Conventions for the protection of the cultural heritage, and expresses its concern regarding the restricting obstacles imposed by the Israeli authorities on the freedom of access provided to Jordanian and Waqf experts to safeguard such sites;
7. Also deplores, in this regard, the damaging effect of the Jerusalem Light rail (tram line), itinerant at few meters from the Walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, which severely affects the visual integrity and the authentic character of the site and urges Israel to restore the original character of the site in conformity with its obligations under the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954 and its related protocols and the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972 as well as the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Historic Urban Landscape;
8. Regrets the Jerusalem Municipality plan to build a two-line cable car system to connect the Mughrabi Quarter with the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, and also urges Israel to prevent any damage to the integrity and authenticity of the property by abandoning the above mentioned project in conformity with its obligations under the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954 and its related protocols and the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972;
9. Also regrets the decision of the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee, that approved the construction of a visitor centre on the Givati Parking lot in Silwan at a distance of twenty meters from the Walls of the Old City as well as its approval of the so called “Liba House” project, a huge structure of three storeys and approximately 3700 square meters in the Old City of Jerusalem, the extension of the Strauss Building and the Western Wall elevator, and further urges Israel to renounce to the above mentioned projects in conformity with its obligations under the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954 and its related protocols and the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972;
10. Requests the World Heritage Centre to continue applying the Reinforced Monitoring Mechanism to the Old City of Jerusalem on both sides of its Walls, including the Mughrabi Ascent, and also requests it to report every four months on this matter;
The resolution also praises Jordan's plan for the Mughrabi ascent and slams Israel's, without explaining exactly why.
Its reference to "both sides of its Walls" is UNESCO's way of saying that the City of David archaeological project should also be stopped.
But if you want proof that UNESCO has been thoroughly taken over by antisemites, you only need to read this paragraph:
23. Further regrets Israeli religious-extremist groups' provocative incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound through the Mughrabi Gate, and urges the Israeli authorities to take the necessary measures to prevent such abuses that violate the sanctity and integrity of the Compound and inflame tension on the ground;
So UNESCO is explicitly calling on Jews to be banned from Judaism's holiest site, because their peaceful and respectful visits are "abuses" and "inflame tension."
Barring Jews from the Temple Mount is nothing short of bigotry against Jews. And now this bigotry is sanctioned by UNESCO.
Once you see that paragraph, you know that the rest of the resolution is just fancy words to cover the Arab - and now UNESCO's - goal to deprive Jews of their cultural heritage. Which means that UNESCO is now explicitly violating its own mandate.
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Elder of Ziyon
