US Attempts to Block New Anti-Israel Resolution at UNESCO

April 26, 2017

by: Ilse Posselt

Wednesday, 26 April 2017 | On 13 October 2016 the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted a resolution that seeks to erase the Jews’ historic footprints in their ancient capital, Jerusalem. The motion denied all Jewish and Christian ties with the City of God, thus ultimately proclaiming Jerusalem a Muslim city and the Temple Mount an exclusively Islamic site.

Three months later another body in the United Nations (UN) followed suit. This time the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) condemned all Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, including those in east Jerusalem and the Old City, as “a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the vision of two States living side-by-side in peace and security.”

Next week, UNESCO will meet again. One of the agenda items up for voting is yet another anti-Israel resolution. Yet this time, the Jewish state has an ally in its corner who is working actively on its behalf to ensure that the motion does not pass.

According to Israel’s Channel 10 News, the Trump administration has instructed its ambassadors serving in UNESCO member states to set up meetings with their host countries’ foreign ministries in a bid to persuade them to give the resolution the thumbs down.

The focus of the resolution up for voting this Monday is reportedly not on Jerusalem. This time, the UN’s cultural arm will seek to deny any Jewish ties with the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem. The Cave of the Patriarchs is the ancient burial spot of the biblical patriarchs and matriarchs, the final resting place for Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah and Jacob and Leah. Rachel’s Tomb marks the spot where Jacob buried his wife, Rachel, when she passed away during childbirth (Genesis 35:19).

Neither Israel nor the US is allowed to cast a vote. Both countries suspended their funding to UNESCO in 2011 after the UN’s cultural body admitted the Palestinians as members, and consequently lost their voting rights.

While the US is barred from casting a ballot, the Trump administration refuses to sit by idly to see UNESCO pass yet another anti-Israel motion. According to The Times of Israel, the Trump administration’s plan of action includes diplomacy and negotiation. Each US ambassador posted in a country that has voting rights in UNESCO received instructions via a formal missive to inform the foreign ministries in these countries of the US’s expectation of a “no” vote.

The missive expresses its disappointment over the recurrent anti-Israel theme within the UN’s cultural arm and reportedly hails the upcoming resolution as “one-sided” and “counter-productive.”

This is not the first time that Trump has voiced his dismay at the blatant bias against the Jewish state in the UN and its various bodies. Then-presidential candidate Trump spoke out strongly against the UNESCO resolution passed in October 2016 that referred to both the Temple Mount and the Western Wall only by their Muslim names and branded Israel as the “occupying power.”

Moreover, after the UNSC passed their controversial resolution in December 2016, Trump promised that “things will be different” under his watch.

With four days to go until the UNESCO resolution comes up for a vote, only time will tell whether Trump’s approach of diplomacy will prove successful.

Posted on April 26, 2017

Source: (Bridges for Peace, 26 April 2017)

Photo Credit: Kathy DeGagne/BFP