Unesco adopts controversial Jerusalem resolution
The resolution is not expected to have direct impact on Jerusalem itself, but it deepened tensions within Unesco, which is also facing a diplomatic dispute between Japan and China that threatens funding
The board adopted the measure by consensus in its morning session at Paris-based Unesco. A draft form of the resolution had already been approved by a commission last week.
The resolution is not expected to have direct impact on Jerusalem itself, but it deepened tensions within Unesco, which is also facing a diplomatic dispute between Japan and China that threatens funding.
The resolution, titled “Occupied Palestine”, is the latest of several measures at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation over decades that Israelis see as evidence of ingrained anti-Israel bias within the United Nations, where Israel and its allies are far outnumbered by Arab countries and their supporters. Israel’s concern has mounted since Unesco states admitted Palestine as a member in 2011.
Israel last week suspended its ties with Unesco over the draft resolution, which uses only the Islamic name for a hilltop compound sacred to both Jews and Muslims. The site includes the Western Wall, a remnant of the biblical temple and the holiest site where Jews can pray.
Jews refer to the hilltop compound in Jerusalem’s Old City as the Temple Mount. Muslims refer to it as al-Haram al-Sharif, Arabic for the Noble Sanctuary, and it includes the al-Aqsa mosque and the golden Dome of the Rock. It is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in Islam, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.