UNESCO adopts resolution over Jerusalem likely to anger Israel

The UN cultural agency on Tuesday adopted resolution on east Jerusalem which Israel has claimed ignores Jewish ties to a key holy site.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab

18 October, 2016

The al-Aqsa mosque compound was taken by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War [AFP]

The UN cultural agency on Tuesday adopted a resolution on the occupied Palestinian territories which Israel claims "ignores" Jewish ties to religious sites in occupied east Jerusalem.

"It was adopted," a UNESCO spokesman said of the resolution which led Israel last week to suspend its cooperation with the Paris-based agency.

The resolution - which was backed by several Arab states - was adopted without a new vote after being approved at the committee stage last week.

It was passed last Thursday but saw a turn of events after Mexico announced that it had changed its position on the issue and called for a re-vote.

The announcement came after its Jewish ambassador Andres Roemer walked out of Thursday's vote in Paris in what appeared to be a personal protest at his country's decision to vote in favour.

Mexico was one of the 24 states that voted in favour of the resolution last week. Six countries, including the US, the UK and Germany, voted against and 26 other states abstained.

The resolution refers to "Occupied Palestine" and is critical of Israel's management of Palestinian religious sites, but it is the names used to describe key sites that appear to have infuriated Israel the most.

It refers to the al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem's Old City - Islam's third holiest site - only by its Muslim name. The site is known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

A UNESCO official said the organisation had received threatening calls over the resolution dealing with east Jerusalem

A UNESCO official said the organisation had received threatening calls over the resolution.

Last Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu complained that saying "Israel has no connection to the Temple Mount and Western Wall is like saying China has no connection to the Great Wall of China or Egypt has no connection to the pyramids."

The al-Aqsa mosque compound in east Jerusalem, which was taken by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move not recognised internationally, has long been a flashpoint in the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.

In April, UNESCO passed a resolution condemning "Israeli aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims' access to the al-Aqsa Mosque", also failing to mention the site's Jewish name of the Temple Mount.

That led Netanyahu to propose a "seminar on Jewish history" for UN staff in Israel.

In 2011, the Palestinians were admitted as a member state of the organisation, which led the US - Israel's key ally - to suspend its payments to UNESCO.

Agencies contributed to this report.