The executive board of the United Nations cultural agency has voted to adopt a controversial resolution that denies a Jewish connection to the Old City of Jerusalem.
The board reportedly formally approved the resolution, titled “Occupied Palestine,” on Oct. 18 in the final day of its meeting in Paris.
The approval came five days after the resolution passed in a preliminary vote of the executive board of UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands and Estonia voted against the resolution, which was passed 24-6 with 26 countries abstaining.
Mexico fired its Jewish ambassador to UNESCO after Andrés Roemer, in a personal protest, walked out of last week’s voting session, leaving his deputy to cast the country’s vote. Roemer was most lately Mexico’s consul general in San Francisco.
The resolution refers to the Temple Mount several times only as Al-Aqa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif, the Islamic term for the Temple Mount, without mentioning that it is the holiest site in Judaism. It also uses the term Buraq Plaza, placing “Western Wall Plaza” in quotes, appearing to deny a Jewish connection to the site.
Both U.S. presidental candidates slammed the decision by the NGO’s executive board, as did UNESCO’s own director general Irnia Bokova, who said this week that “Jerusalem is the sacred city of the three monotheistic religions — Judaism, Christianity and Islam.”
A similar resolution, ignoring Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and Western Wall, was adopted by UNESCO’s executive board in April. — jta