The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem is fuming over a draft decision distributed on Thursday by representatives of the European Union at meetings of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee in Istanbul on the subject of the Israeli capital’s Old City that completely ignores the Jewish connection to the site.
The proposal is an alternative to the Jordanian-Palestinian one announced earlier this week. The Europeans distributed a document that allegedly partially softens this draft but still completely accepts the Palestinian narrative that the site that includes the Al-Aqsa Mosque is a site holy to Muslims alone.
While the European draft does mention the Western Wall outside of scare quotes, unlike the Palestinian version, sources in Jerusalem claim that the Europeans’ proposal denies the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, despite France’s apology and admission of a mistake in supporting the UNESCO proposal in April that did the same.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon tweeted, “denying Jewish Jerusalem n Temple Mount amounts to denying the roots of Christian Europe. Will EU members agree to that? Crazy
Amb. Carmel Shama Hacohen, Israel’s representative to UNESCO who is in Istanbul and leading efforts against the European initiative, said, “A European consensus in favor of severing the Jewish connection with the Temple Mount is a new record for hypocrisy.”
During the committee’s debate, Shama Hacohen asked the Palestinian representative, Amb. Mounir Anastas, why the Palestinians were not prepared to recognize the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and add the Jewish term “Temple Mount” alongside the Palestinian “Al-Haram Al-Sharif.” Anastas replied, that if the Palestinians recognized the Temple Mount as such, the Palestinian president and Jordanian king would become ISIS’s top target.
The Israeli ambassador answered, “The historical connection of the Jewish people to the Temple Mount is not dependent on the desires and threats of ISIS just like it’s not dependent on the will or decision of foreign countries and international organizations.
The Palestinians the Jordanians should thank God for the Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount that grants them and the place full freedom of religion and complete protection from ISIS and the destruction that it’s sowing on cultural and religious heritage sites throughout the East.”
The Foreign Ministry was also angry with the European Union for its decision to open offices in Tehran. It released a statement saying, “The opening of an EU office in Iran is a grave mistake. Iran’s behavior has not changed. It is the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism. It funds murder throughout the Middle East. It hangs gays and brutally represses its own people.
“Iran brazenly violates its international obligations while literally emblazoning its missiles with ‘Israel will be wiped out.’ Iran recently appointed a cleric head of the Assembly of Experts who calls for the destruction of both Israel and America. Iran should not be rewarded as it spreads murder and mayhem across the world.”
Israel warned the European Union on Thursday night that supporting a UNESCO resolution which views the Temple Mount as a solely Muslim site is akin to ignoring Europe’s Christian roots.
“If the Europeans have a hand in a UNESCO decision that rejects or does not deal with the Jewish people’s relationship to the Temple Mount and Jerusalem, are they not rejecting their own identity?” asked Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon.
“There is no Christianity without Judaism and there is no Jesus without a Jewish Jerusalem and the Temple Mount,” he said.
The EU, he warned, could be willing to make this “ugly and hypocritical gesture to the Palestinians.”
He also issued a slightly toned down version of the message on Twitter.
Emmanuel spoke out after learning that EU representatives in Istanbul could be putting forward a resolution on Jerusalem that spoke of the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site, exclusively by its Muslim name of al-Haram al-Sharif.
This was the case, he said, even though some of its member states – namely the United Kingdom, France and Germany – have opposed such a one-sided text.
Jordan and the Palestinians are pushing for a resolution to this effect to be approved by the 21 members of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s World Heritage Committee, which is meeting in Istanbul from July 10 to 20 to vote on new sites for its World Heritage List.
It is also reaffirming its list of endangered sites, such as the Temple Mount.
In 1981, Jordan placed Jerusalem and its Old City walls on the list of endangered historic sites. “Palestine,” which was accepted as a UNESCO member state in 2011, placed Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity on the World Heritage list in 2012. It was followed two years later by the biblical terraces of Battir.
On Tuesday the committee reaffirmed their placement on the list. A Jerusalem resolution was not discussed at that point or even mentioned.
This led to media speculation that the resolution had been shelved. But Israel said on Thursday that the opposite is true.
After Israel’s initial objection, the EU attempted to find a compromise text and is poised to submit a new draft resolution.
But Israel has learned that is still does not speak of the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount which is Judaism’s holiest site.
“We’re not optimistic,” Nachshon said.
According to UNESCO it can be voted on as late as Tuesday morning.
The countries on the committee are Angola, Azerbaijan, Burkina Faso, Croatia, Cuba, Finland, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Korea, Tunisia, Turkey, Tanzania, Vietnam and Zimbabwe.
But the battle for and against the resolution has involved a much wider list of countries than exist on the committee.
“Palestine” began its UNESCO campaign to reclassify Judaism’s holiest site in October, but failed to garner enough support for a resolution that would have formally declared the area as an exclusively Muslim shrine.
Still, when UNESCO’s 58-member Executive Board met in Paris in April it adopted a resolution that spoke solely of Muslim ties to the Temple Mount.
“Palestine” and Jordan used the same language in the resolution that it now hopes to pass before the World Heritage Committee.