IS IT STUPIDITY OR FEAR that caused 31 nations to deny any historical Jewish presence in Israel’s capital.
The 31 nations passed a resolution acknowledging only Islamic history of the Temple Mount – referring to the site only as “Al-Ḥaram Al-Sharif” and ignoring any Jewish history at the sacred site.
In all, there were five Israel-related items on the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) agenda: Muslims prevailed in all five.
This DESPITE archeological proof that Jews were on the mount centuries before Muhammad arrived on the scene. This despite literary evidence that the Temple was on the mount centuries before Muhammad arrived on the scene.
Don’t take the Jews’ word for it – check it out in Rome where Titus’ arch still depicts Roman soldiers carrying off the Temple menorah.
Discount if you will all the writings as “sepur savta” – grandmother’s stories – disregard the unchallenged life in Babylon where Jews wrote “if I forget thee o’Jerusalem.” If the Jews never were in Jerusalem, why cry over the loss of the city? (Even then, some Jews remained in Jerusalem. It NEVER has been completely free of Jews; not when the Babylonians ruled, not when the Romans ruled, not even when the Moslems ruled. Even under Jordanian control – when Jews had few freedoms – Jews still lived in their holy city.)
In July 2011, USA Today headlined Ancient bell found in Jerusalem Old City sewer and reported that A tiny golden bell pulled after 2,000 years from an ancient sewer beneath the Old City of Jerusalem was unveiled Sunday by Israeli archaeologists, who hailed it as a rare find.
The orb half an inch in diameter has a small loop that appears to have been used to sew it as an ornament onto the clothes of a wealthy resident of the city two millennia ago, archaeologists said.
HaAretz, an Israeli newspaper and propagandist for the Palestinian Authority, headlined on Oct. 21, 2015 Were There Jewish Temples on Temple Mount? Yes has as its lead paragraph The preponderance of archaeological and historical evidence is overwhelming and the argument that there is 'no proof' of the Temples is a modern political artifact.
The Wall Street Journal reported under the headline A Boy’s Discovery Rebuts Temple Mount Revisionism that while "Palestinians deny Jewish roots at the holy site, a newly unearthed artifact confirms historical truths."
An unidentified writer for Palestine Facts notes that In 715 AD, Prophet Muhammad SAW made a journey to Heaven from the Dome of Rock, the site built by Caliph Abd al-Malik in 687 AD. Muslims all over the world could now associate with the place even more and al-Aqsa Mosque was built on the same site. Based on this, Jerusalem became the third most sacred city for Muslims after Makkah and Medina. Dropping the Roman name, it was given a Muslim name ‘Bait al-Muqaddas’ in line with al-Bait al-Haram in Makkah.
No one denies the Muslim presence in Jerusalem. The Temple was allowed – rightly or wrongly - by the Israeli government to remain under Muslim control after the city was returned to the Jewish state. Allowing the Muslims to control the Temple mount never denied that the first and second Temples were Jewish or suggested anything other than the Muslims were late arriving, even after non-Jews had control of the city.
But UNESCO, blind to reality, denies the history of the site, proving that the organization belies its name: the United Nations Educational (no), Scientific (no) and Cultural (no) Organization.
THE RESOLUTIONS
According to Middle East Resolutions: Detailed Voting Results on UNESCO’s web site were as follows:
The first item that came up for a vote was Item 5, Implementation of 35 C/Resolution 49 and 184 EX/Decision 5 (IV) relating to the Ascent to the Mughrabi Gate in the Old City of Jerusalem. The roll call vote was 31 voting for the resolution (against Israel), 5 against (in support of Israel), and 17 abstentions. The five votes supporting Israel on this item were from Germany, Denmark, USA, Italy, and Slovakia.
The second item was item 14, Jerusalem and the Implementation of 35 C/Resolution 49 and 184 EX/Decision 12. The roll call vote was 34 voting for the resolution (against Israel); 1 against (USA), and 19 abstentions.
The third item was item 15, Implementation of 184 EX/Decision 37 on “the two Palestinian sites of al- Haram al-Ibrahimi/Tomb of the Patriarchs in al-Khalil/Hebron and the Bilal bin Rabah Mosque/Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem”. The roll call vote was 44 voting for the resolution (against Israel), 1 against (USA), and 12 abstentions.
The fourth item was item 36, Implementation of 35 C/Resolution 75 and 184 EX/Decision 30 concerning educational and cultural institutions in the occupied Arab territories. The roll call vote was 41 voting for the resolution (against Israel), 1 against (USA), and 15 abstentions.
The final item was item 37, Report by the Director-General on the reconstruction and development of Gaza; Implementation of 184 EX/Decision 31. The roll call vote was 41 voting for the resolution (against Israel), 1 against (USA), with 15 abstentions.
