Two members of the Simon Wiesenthal Center
writing for The Hill, deliver a scathing yet entirely correct
article of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and
Cultural Organization (UNESCO) decision to rob Jews of their ancient heritage
inherent in Israel as if that heritage never existed.
JRH 5/4/17
***************
Despite UNESCO's bias, Jews won't abandon Israel's holy
Jewish sites
By RABBI ABRAHAM COOPER AND RABBI YITZCHOK ADLERSTEIN,
OPINION CONTRIBUTORS
05/03/17 05:20 PM EDT
Forget fake news. UNESCO is promoting an entire fake
universe.
Like so many other UN agencies with an assured anti-Israel
majority, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
(UNESCO) regularly votes to deny some
aspect of Israel’s legitimacy. Their diplomatic machinations at
UNESCO serves as the backbone of much of the Muslim world’s refusal to
recognize the Jewish people’s historic links to Israel, the Holy Land.
To legitimate their denial of the past and today’s reality
of a Jewish state with more than 8 million citizens,
history itself must be re-written, holy sites rebranded. That’s where the
Orwellian leveraging of the agency whose raison d’etre is supposed to be the
protection of history and culture — not its eradication — comes into play.
UNESCO’s new resolution,
timed to coincide with Israel’s 69th Independence Day on Tuesday, May 2,
rejects Israeli sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem, including modern West
Jerusalem.
The resolution passed with
22 nations supporting the measure, 10 opposing it, 23 countries abstaining, and
three absent.
It's not just Trump, Europe forgets the Holocaust's Jewish victims by Rabbi Abraham Cooper & Dr. Harold Brackman... https://t.co/hNB5bmCKJc— SimonWiesenthalCntr (@simonwiesenthal) February 2, 2017
In its text, Rachel’s Tomb and the
Tomb of the Patriarchs where Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rivka,
Jacob and Leah are buried were repackaged as Muslim mosques. To her credit,
Irina Bokova, UNESCO’s Director-General, has been a consistent critic of the
charade. “To deny, conceal, or erase any of the Jewish, Christian
or Muslim traditions runs counter to the reasons that justified its inscription
on the UNESCO World Heritage
list,” she insisted last year. But Madam Bokova’s term shortly
expiries and Israel’s opponents could soon have a firmer grip.
What is particularly galling was the role Germany reportedly
played in enabling fellow European Union members to be free to
support for this outrage.
If the German Foreign Minister or any other European
diplomat thinks this cynical maneuver which further fuels dreams of an
alternative universe sans Israelis will impact Jews in Israel or around the
world, they are dead wrong.
Jerusalem is the heart of the Jewish people. Centuries ago,
long before anyone heard of Mohammed, Jews understood the importance of the
city that King David built and made his capital. They built two temples there,
which became focal points for their religion and their peoplehood, maintaining
that centrality, even in times that it lay in ruins. “If I forget thee, O
Jerusalem, let my right hand fail me,” spoke the prophet.
In their unparalleled, 2,000-year exile before returning
home in modern times, Jews never left
Jerusalem. A small group remained in the Holy Land throughout; the
rest, scattered literally around the world, were united by the shared prayers
offered three times a day for the return to Zion. Jews survived the Crusades, Torquemada, Chmielnicki and
Hitler without ever diluting their passion for Jerusalem.
TIP President and CEO @JoshBlockDC: UNESCO can't be allowed to deny Jewish link to Temple Mount https://t.co/mC1IIc3Itt via @thehill— The Israel Project (@israelproject) October 20, 2016
The Jewish people will not abide by the ballot box stuffing
of morally bankrupt regimes at UNESCO and they won’t forget when Arab were
custodians of Jerusalem’s Old City, seized during the 1948 war of independence.
Synagogues in the Old City were razed.
Tombstones became latrines. Jews were barred from visiting holy
sites. Christians took note of the mindset of the conquerors and reacted with
horror at the thought that the Church of the Holy Sepulcher could become the
next Palmyra.
Indeed, anyone concerned with
the protection of educational, scientific, and cultural treasures of others,
should look at Israel’s record. It may be the only country in the Middle East
in recent years where the Christian population
has consistently increased. The Jerusalem municipality
gives out free Christmas trees to its Christian citizens each
year. (If it only gave out one, that would be more than the number of
Christians and Jews allowed to visit Mecca!)
When different Christian sects come to blows occasionally over the
administration of their holy sites, it is the Israeli police whom they call in
to restore peace.
Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem is the only guarantee
that holy places will be preserved for everyone.
Reality and mutual respect, not fantasy, are the first
building blocks of trust and treaties. It is a toss-up as to who has done more
damage with the latest UN Middle East fiasco — Arab regimes that continue to
deny that the Jewish people has risen from the ashes, or dapper European
diplomats who think they can still denigrate cowering Jews. Take note Berlin
and Brussels. Those days are over.
The views expressed by
contributors are their own and are not the views of The Hill.
__________________
Rabbi Abraham Cooper is
Associate Dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center. Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein is the
Wiesenthal Center’s Director of Interfaith Relations.
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