PA government welcomes UNESCO resolution rejecting use of term “Temple Mount,” proves that Israel is trying to “erase an established [Arab] heritage”
Headline: “The [PA] government and Fatah welcome the UNESCO resolution regarding the Al-Aqsa Mosque”
“The [PA] government welcomed the resolution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to reject the use of the misleading term of the Israeli occupation – Temple Mount – and continue to use the real and natural Arab-Islamic name – the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. Official Government Spokesman Yusuf Al-Mahmoud stated: ‘The UN resolution [ratified] by a majority of 33 states proves that the world is convinced that Israel is conducting a campaign of distortion and falsification, which targets the Arab heritage and the sites holiest to Muslims and Christians in occupied Jerusalem.’ The official spokesman emphasized that the attempts that the occupation has been making for decades in this area have been proven worthless, as they are based on distortion, deception, and attempts to erase an established heritage with roots thousands of years old, as acknowledged by the world’s top archaeologists, including Israeli archaeologists.”
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passed a resolution on April 15, 2016, in which it referred to the Temple Mount only as the "Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif" (the Noble Sanctuary) and defined it as a "Muslim holy site of worship," thereby removing the Jewish connection to the holiest site in Judaism and only recognizing the Muslim terminology for the site. The resolution also referred to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount as the "[Al-] Buraq Plaza," although it twice mentioned the"Western Wall Plaza" in parentheses after the Muslim name. The UNESCO resolution condemned Israel for not removing the "Palestinian sites of Al-Ḥaram Al Ibrāhīmī/Tomb of the Patriarchs in AlKhalīl/Hebron and the Bilāl Ibn Rabāḥ Mosque/Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem" from its heritage lists, after having listed the sites as Muslim in a resolution on Oct. 21, 2015 and disregarding their Jewish ties. The resolution passed in April 2016 was submitted by Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, and Sudan. It was approved by 33 states with 17 abstentions and six countries voting against: the US, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and the UK. Ghana and Turkmenistan were absent from the vote.
UNESCO was to vote on another resolution declaring the Temple Mount to be a holy site only for Muslims in a session ending on July 20, 2016. However, the vote was delayed due to a coup taking place in Turkey and rescheduled for October 2016 or later.
“The [PA] government welcomed the resolution of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to reject the use of the misleading term of the Israeli occupation – Temple Mount – and continue to use the real and natural Arab-Islamic name – the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. Official Government Spokesman Yusuf Al-Mahmoud stated: ‘The UN resolution [ratified] by a majority of 33 states proves that the world is convinced that Israel is conducting a campaign of distortion and falsification, which targets the Arab heritage and the sites holiest to Muslims and Christians in occupied Jerusalem.’ The official spokesman emphasized that the attempts that the occupation has been making for decades in this area have been proven worthless, as they are based on distortion, deception, and attempts to erase an established heritage with roots thousands of years old, as acknowledged by the world’s top archaeologists, including Israeli archaeologists.”
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passed a resolution on April 15, 2016, in which it referred to the Temple Mount only as the "Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif" (the Noble Sanctuary) and defined it as a "Muslim holy site of worship," thereby removing the Jewish connection to the holiest site in Judaism and only recognizing the Muslim terminology for the site. The resolution also referred to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount as the "[Al-] Buraq Plaza," although it twice mentioned the"Western Wall Plaza" in parentheses after the Muslim name. The UNESCO resolution condemned Israel for not removing the "Palestinian sites of Al-Ḥaram Al Ibrāhīmī/Tomb of the Patriarchs in AlKhalīl/Hebron and the Bilāl Ibn Rabāḥ Mosque/Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem" from its heritage lists, after having listed the sites as Muslim in a resolution on Oct. 21, 2015 and disregarding their Jewish ties. The resolution passed in April 2016 was submitted by Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, and Sudan. It was approved by 33 states with 17 abstentions and six countries voting against: the US, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and the UK. Ghana and Turkmenistan were absent from the vote.
UNESCO was to vote on another resolution declaring the Temple Mount to be a holy site only for Muslims in a session ending on July 20, 2016. However, the vote was delayed due to a coup taking place in Turkey and rescheduled for October 2016 or later.