EMET Condemns UNESCO Resolution to Recognize Jerusalem’s Western Wall as Part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque

(Washington, DC, October 20, 2015)  Today, the Endowment for Middle East Truth (EMET) strongly condemned the historically ludicrous resolution proposed by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the other six Arab members’ of UNESCO (United Nations Education, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) to declare Judaism’s most holy site – the Western Wall in Jerusalem – as part of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

This resolution is nothing short of a disgrace.  The PA and its Arab allies are once again trying to rewrite history and incite Palestinian violence with the proposed resolution.  Unfortunately, the Arab world has a long history of provoking hysteria about the alleged “Judaization” of Jerusalem.  In 1929, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, whipped up violent riots by spreading conspiracy theories that the al-Aqsa Mosque and other Muslim holy sites were being threatened by Jews, resulting in numerous pogroms of Jews in Jerusalem and throughout British-controlled Palestine.  Since its inception and until today, the PA and its officials routinely have created libels about the Temple Mount being endangered by Jews to incite violence.  Denying Jewish history in Jerusalem is a central component of the PA’s ideology.  It began with Yasser Arafat and continues under the current PA President Mahmoud Abbas.  In a speech in Moscow last month, Abbas spoke about the “systematic aggression against the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque,” and “emphasized that the Al-Aqsa Mosque belongs to Muslims only,” according to the official PA news agency WAFA.

The proposed UNESCO resolution, submitted by the Arab members on behalf of the PA, also makes false and inflammatory claims of “Israeli aggression and illegal measures taken against the freedom of worship and access of Muslims to al-Aqsa Mosque and Israel’s attempts to break the status quo since 1967.”  These are all blatant lies.  Israel has not changed the status quo, as the Jordanian Waqf continues to hold the control over the Temple Mount that Israel voluntarily handed over following its liberation after the Six Day War of 1967.  Since then, and including today, Muslims have had unfettered access to visit and pray at the Temple Mount.  Meanwhile, Jews are forbidden from praying at their most sacred site, by their own government, in an attempt to mollify Muslim paranoia.  This resolution would only provide more fuel to this Muslim paranoia.

“This resolution is an attempt to deny any connection between Judaism and its most holiest site – the Western Wall of the Jewish Second Temple – and must be completely rejected and condemned by UNESCO,” Sarah Stern, the Founder and President of EMET said. “Denying Jewish claims that are well and long established to holy sites in Israel is a tactic used time and again by the Arab world to incite hysteria and attacks against Jews.  The international community must recognize it for what it is – a libel to fuel Palestinian violence against innocent Israelis and Jews,” Stern added.