[Free Beacon] The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization passed a resolution on Thursday that diminishes the historic and spiritual connections of Judaism and Christianity to the city of Jerusalem after dozens of U.S. lawmakers called on the international body to reject the measure.Israeli officials and others in the pro-Israel community decried the resolution as anti-Semitic and said it was an effort to delegitimize the Jewish state. Twenty-four countries voted in favor of the measure while six rejected it, including the United States. Another 26 states abstained. No European nation approved the resolution, which was introduced by Egypt,
| ...clearly President Sisi is not actually a friend to Israel, but a partner of necessity in their mutual fight against Hamas... |
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.) led a bipartisan group of 40 lawmakers earlier this week in writing a letter to the Executive Board of UNESCO saying the resolution to be discussed Thursday and Friday was part of a broader effort to delegitimize Israel.
"The United Nations’ obsessive hostility towards Israel will be on display yet again this week as UNESCO considers another blatantly biased resolution that unjustly singles out our close ally Israel with false accusations and criticism, and attempts to erase the specific deep-rooted, historical connection of Jews and Christians to Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital," Cruz said.
The resolution, postponed from the initial July vote amid fallout from the failed coup in Turkey, identifies holy sites in Jerusalem exclusively by their Muslim names. Jewish and Christian advocacy groups were particularly outraged by a provision that would declare the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, sacred to "Muslims only."
How they voted: UNESCO resolution on Temple Mount, Western Wall
[IsraelTimes] The following is a breakdown of how the nations of the world voted on today’s UNESCO resolution that omits any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and Western Wall.
For: South Africa, Algeria, Bangladesh, Brazil, China, Egypt, Russia, Lebanon, Iran, Malaysia, Morocco, Mauritius, Mexico, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, the Dominican Republic, Senegal, Sudan, Chad and Vietnam
Against: Britain, the Netherlands, Lithuania, the US, Estonia and Germany
Abstentions: Albania, Argentina, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, El Salvador, Spain, France, Ghana, Greece, Haiti, India, Japan, Kenya, Nepal, Uganda, Paraguay, South Korea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Slovenia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, and Ukraine
Absent: Turkmenistan and Serbia