UNESCO Expected To Disavow Israeli Sovereignty Over Jerusalem – On Independence Day

UNESCO is set to pass another anti-Israel resolution that, inter alia, denies Israel’s claims to Jerusalem.

Brought by human rights champions Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Sudan, they are set to do it tomorrow – Israel’s Independence Day.

Because, scum and villainy.

The United Nations’ cultural agency is set to pass a resolution on Tuesday — Israel’s 69th Independence Day — that indicates rejection of the Jewish state’s sovereignty in any part of Jerusalem. The resolution also harshly criticizes the government for various construction projects in Jerusalem’s Old City and at holy sites in Hebron, and calls for an end to Israel’s blockade of Gaza without mentioning attacks from the Hamas-run Strip.

Submitted to UNESCO’s Executive Board by Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Sudan, the resolution on “Occupied Palestine” will most likely pass, given the automatic anti-Israel majority in the 58-member body. Its wording as of Monday was slightly less harsh on Jerusalem than previous resolutions, in that it does affirm the importance of the city to the “three monotheistic religions.”

As it stood on Monday, Tuesday’s resolution, unlike previous resolutions, does not refer to the Temple Mount only as Haram al-Sharif, or to the Western Wall Plaza only as al-Burak plaza, the respective sites’ Muslim names. In fact, these sites are not mentioned at all.

Furthermore, Resolution 201 EX/PX/DR.30.1 affirms “the importance of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls for the three monotheistic religions.” It also notes that The Patriarchs’ Cave and Rachel’s Tomb in Hebron “are of religious significance for Judaism, Christianity and Islam” — though it calls them “Palestinian sites.”

However, the current draft of the resolution still contains many red flags for Israel. For instance, Israel is referred to throughout the document as the “occupying power,” indicating that it has no legal or historical ties to any part of Jerusalem.

The text stresses that “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and in particular the ‘basic law’ on Jerusalem, are null and void and must be rescinded forthwith.”

Basic Law: Jerusalem, which was passed by the Knesset in 1980, declares united Jerusalem as Israel’s sovereign capital.

The current draft of the UNESCO resolution declares “everything Israel does in Jerusalem as illegal,” according to a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry. The resolution also affirms previous UNESCO resolutions that “denied the connection between the Jewish people and Jerusalem,” the Israeli statement lamented.

The resolution also refers to UN Security Council Resolution 2334, which in December declared all Israeli settlements, including in East Jerusalem, illegal under international law.

Resolution 201 EX/PX/DR.30.1 declares as null and void Israel’s annexation of East Jerusalem and “[r]egrets the failure of the Israeli occupying authorities to cease the persistent excavations, tunneling, works and projects in East Jerusalem, particularly in and around the Old City of Jerusalem, which are illegal under international law.”

The text further “[d]eplores the military confrontations in and around the Gaza Strip and the civilian casualties caused,” and urges Israel to immediately end its Israel’s “closure” of the Hamas-held enclave, arguing it “harmfully affects the free and sustained movement of personnel, students and humanitarian relief items,” but not mentioning attacks on Israeli civilians that emanate from the strip.

 

You can see the entire resolution here.

Israeli diplomats have reportedly been trying to get the council’s European members to reject the resolution. And while Italy has announced it will vote against it, there is a long way to go in order to convince the others because – as the Jerusalem Post reports – the text “is less egregious by Israeli standards than past documents.”

Meanwhile, Israel in UNESCO tweeted this in response to the resolution:

While Tzipi Hotovely, Israel’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, released this video, calling the resolution “fake history”:

6 thoughts on “UNESCO Expected To Disavow Israeli Sovereignty Over Jerusalem – On Independence Day”

  1. Norman_In_New_York

    Throughout all this bluster, Israel holds the high cards, actual sovereignty over Jerusalem, and none of these unenforceable resolutions can take that away.

  2. Aside from scattered leftists and the Arab s***hole countries that take these ridiculous resolutions seriously, it’s not legally binding and merely symbolic. At the end of the day, Jerusalem is Israeli territory, and no fluffy language coated in fake history and outright lies will change that.

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