US Official Criticizes New Draft of UNESCO Resolution Labeling Israeli Presence in Jerusalem ‘Illegal’.

US Official Criticizes New Draft of UNESCO Resolution Labeling Israeli Presence in Jerusalem ‘Illegal’. (algemeiner).

The latest draft of a resolution entitled “Occupied Palestine” to be voted on this Tuesday by UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, has been sharply condemned by a US official.

The resolution – submitted by Arab states Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar and Sudan –  declares as its aim the “safeguarding of the cultural heritage of Palestine and the distinctive character of East Jerusalem.” The resolution goes on to attack Israel in the harshest terms, stating that all measures taken by the Jewish state in its capital are “illegal” and “null and void.”

“UNESCO is too often used as a vehicle by member states inclined to delegitimize the State of Israel,” the US official told The Algemeiner. “Although several of these anti-Israel resolutions are typically adopted biannually by UNESCO, over time they have become increasingly political in nature and now question Israel’s basic claim to historic sites.”

Although the resolution — a copy of which was obtained by The Algemeiner — reaffirms “the importance of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls for the three monotheistic religions,” it continues by asserting that “all legislative and administrative measures and actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, which have altered or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City of Jerusalem, and in particular the ‘basic law’ on Jerusalem, are null and void and must be rescinded forthwith.”

The Basic Law on Jerusalem was passed by the Knesset in August 1980. It affirms that “Jerusalem, complete and united, is the capital of Israel.”

The mention in the current draft of the “Holy City” of Jerusalem is a slight modification of the original draft, which read: “Any action taken by Israel, the occupying power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction, and administration on the city of Jerusalem, are illegal and therefore null and void and have no validity whatsoever.” Read the full story here.

"Judaism was founded over 3500 years ago; Islam dates to the seventh century. The resolution flies in the face of both the Bible, bedrock of civilization, archaeological evidence, and scholarship." 

Abbas's BFF Pope Francis better releases a new version of the Bible as well. 

Video - The Bible according to UNESCO - The Movie

The #Bible according to #UNESCO - The Movie pic.twitter.com/JAXLZUXTtR

— Israel Foreign Min. (@IsraelMFA) October 14, 2016

UNESCO to vote on text describing Jewish Temple Mt, Western Wall as Muslim holy sites.

Source.

UNESCO to vote on text describing Jewish Temple Mt, Western Wall as Muslim holy sites. (ToI).

A group of 39 US lawmakers called on UNESCO to oppose a resolution that would challenge Jewish and Christian historical ties to the Old City of Jerusalem.

In a letter initiated by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Florida) to the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the lawmakers from both houses of Congress slammed what they called the UN’s “obsessive hostility towards Israel.”

That hostility, they wrote, “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.”

According to the lawmakers, “the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, along with the Western Wall, where Jews from all over the world have come to pray, are described exclusively as Muslim holy sites and referred to only by their Muslim names. When the Western Wall is referenced, it is only with quotation marks, implying that the title is unofficial and not based on historic fact.”

That hostility, they wrote, “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.”

Ros-Lehtinen slammed the resolution’s “ill intent.”

Its purpose, she said, was “to deny the historical record of the Jewish peoples’ connections to their holiest city and to imply that Jerusalem is inconsequential to Jews and Christians, with the intent of laying the groundwork for additional UN efforts to delegitimize Israel and undermine its status as the capital of the Jewish State,” she wrote. Read the full story here.

'Antisemitic' UNESCO refuses to backtrack on 'Muslim Temple Mount'.

SOURCE

UNESCO refuses to backtrack on 'Muslim Temple Mount'. (INN).

UNESCO head calls for 'respect and dialogue' following outrage over its decision, but does not take back saying Temple Mount is Muslim.

The UN cultural body on Monday called for "respect and dialogue" following outrage over its vote divorcing the Temple Mount from the Jewish people, but did not take back its attempt to rewrite history at the holiest site in Judaism.

"Jerusalem is a Holy Land of the three monotheistic religions, a place of dialogue for all Jewish, Christian and Muslim people. Nothing should be undertaken to alter its integrity and authenticity," UNESCO chief Irina Bokova said in a statement.

"Only respect and dialogue can build the trust we need to move forward."

The UNESCO executive board on Thursday adopted a resolution on "Occupied Palestine" presented by several Arab countries.

It referred to Israel as the "occupying power" several times, and only referred to the Temple Mount as Al-Aqsa Mosque, likewise calling the Western Wall by the name Al-Buraq Wall, a term created in the 1920s by Arabs in an ahistorical attempt to claim the site.

The resolution criticized Israel for "excavations and works" in eastern Jerusalem, and urged it to stop "aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims' access" to the Temple Mount.

The resolution also outrageously accused Israel of "planting fake Jewish graves in Muslim cemeteries."

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Saturday night slammed the resolution as "yet another absurd UN decision."

"UNESCO ignores the unique historic connection of Judaism to the Temple Mount, where the two Temples stood for a thousand years and to which every Jew in the world has prayed for thousands of years. The UN is rewriting a basic part of human history and has again proven that there is no low to which it will not stoop."

Then on Sunday Science Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) slammed UNESCO for its "boorishness" in a letter to Bokova, noting how the decision shows a "resounding lack of historical knowledge."

Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Temple Institute on Monday issued a sharp response to the decision, which "ignores the Jewish people’s connection to the Temple Mount is another politically-motivated act of revisionist history, obscene even by the standards of this morally bankrupt organization."

"Judaism was founded over 3500 years ago; Islam dates to the seventh century. The resolution flies in the face of both the Bible, bedrock of civilization, archaeological evidence, and scholarship."

UNESCO scrubs Jewish History, Renames Western Wall "Al-Buraq Plaza".

UNESCO scrubs Jewish History, Renames Western Wall "Al-Buraq Plaza". (JBN).

On Friday, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) Executive Board in Paris adopted a resolution erasing Israel’s ties to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

The UNESCO resolution referred to the Temple Mount area solely as the Al-Aqsa Mosque or Al-Haram Al Sharif, ignoring the Jewish claim to the site.

The resolution called Israel “the occupying power” and the Western Wall as Al-Buraq Plaza. It demanded that Israel not restrict Muslim access to the Temple Mount, condemning Israel for “illegal measures against the freedom of worship” at the “Muslim holy site of worship”.

It demanded a return to the “status quo”. The status quo since Israel conquered the Temple Mount in 1967 forbids non-Muslim prayer on the Temple Mount and has remained unchanged.

Blaming “Israel aggression” for the violence at the site, it had no mention of the role of Muslim rioters.

It also condemned the Israel’s plans to establish an egalitarian, non-Orthodox prayer section by Robinson’s Arch.

It accused Israel of “planting Jewish fake graves in other spaces of the Muslim cemeteries” located on Waqf property east and south of the Temple Mount, and of “the continued conversion of many Islamic and Byzantine remains into the so-called Jewish ritual baths or into Jewish prayer places.”.

It referred to Hebron and Bethlehem as solely “Palestinian sites”.

Authorized by the executive board’s Programme and External Relations Commission, the resolution was submitted by Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, and Sudan.

The 58-member board approved the resolution with 33 votes in favor, six against and 17 abstentions. Two countries, Ghana and Turkmenistan were absent all together. Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the US voted against the resolution. France, Spain, Slovenia, Sweden, Russia and Slovenia were among those countries that supported the resolution.

Israeli ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama, released a statement saying, “Even if UNESCO passes dozens of resolutions, and decides to continue passing thousands more, Jerusalem will always remain as part of the capital of Israel and the Jewish people.” Shama added, “As you continue on this path of incitement, lies and terror you will be sending UNESCO down a path towards irrelevance.”

“This is yet another absurd UN decision,” Netanyahu said Saturday. “UNESCO ignores the unique historic connection of Judaism to the Temple Mount, where the two temples stood for a thousand years and to which every Jew in the world has prayed for thousands of years. The UN is rewriting a basic part of human history and has again proven that there is no low to which it will not stoop.” Hmmm.....Rewriting History an Islamist Favorite Pass Time. 

Video - Adriani Relandi's trip to 'Palestine' A.D. 1699 revisited.

ADRIAN RELAND (1676-1718), Dutch Orientalist, Linguist and Cartographer wrote an account of his visit to Palestina in 1696.

His book, Palaestina ex veteribus monumentis illustrata, was published in 1714.

Relandi identifies each of the places mentioned in the Mishnah or Talmud along with their original source. If the source was Jewish, he listed it together with the appropriate sentence in the Bible. he also arranged a population survey and census of each community.

His most prominent conclusions

1. Not one settlement in the Land of Israel has a name that is of Arabic origin. Most of the settlement names originate in the Hebrew, Greek, Latin or Roman languages. In fact, till today, except to Ramlah, not one Arabic settlement has an original Arabic name. 

2. Most of the land was empty, desolate, and the inhabitants few in number and mostly concentrate in the towns Jerusalem, Acco, Tzfat, Jaffa, Tiberius and Gaza. Most of the inhabitants were Jews and the rest Christians. There were few Muslims, mostly nomad Bedouins. 

3. The book totally contradicts any post-modern theory claiming a "Palestinian heritage," or Palestinian nation. The book strengthens the connection, relevance, pertinence, kinship of the Land of Israel to the Jews and the absolute lack of belonging to the Arabs, who robbed the Latin name Palestina and took it as their own.

Palestinian Authority Ex-mufti forbids Jerusalem’s ‘internationalization’

Palestinian Authority Ex-mufti forbids Jerusalem’s ‘internationalization’. (TOI).

A leading Palestinian cleric has issued a religious edict forbidding the “internationalization” and “Judaization” of Jerusalem.

In a fatwa — or Muslim religious ruling — Jerusalem’s former Palestinian Authority-appointed mufti, Sheikh Ekrima Sabri, wrote that “the internationalization and Judaization of Jerusalem is forbidden and unlawful under Islamic law. It is a sin to assist in the internationalization or Judaization of this city.”

After explaining the importance of Jerusalem as the third-holiest city in Islam, and referencing a similar decree he issued in July 2009, Sabri condemned “those who [would] withdraw from Jerusalem” as people who “withdraw from the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is the crown of Jerusalem.”

International agreements “to protect Al-Aqsa” are permissible, Sabri wrote, as long as they do not include the United Nations.

“If an agreement is signed between Arab and Islamic states only to protect Al-Aqsa, there’s nothing wrong with that. This is their duty, as long as the agreement does not internationalize or Judaize, and as long as the UN is not involved.”

Sabri currently holds no official position in the Palestinian Authority, but was a former appointee of the PA’s founding chairman, Yasser Arafat.

Israel recently rejected a Jordanian proposal that would have seen the Hashemite Kingdom begin to oversee visits to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem instead of Israel, Arab sources told The Times of Israel on Monday. Hmmm.........We don't accept man made laws only Sharia. Read the full story here.

“The Muslim Schism Over Jerusalem”

“The Muslim Schism Over Jerusalem” (JCPA).

Amid the systematic destruction of mosques and holy places in the Arab world, it is precisely Israel’s responsibility for security at the mosque compound on the Temple Mount that protects the mosques there from a similar fate.

The Sunni controversy between the Salafis – from whom Al-Qaeda emerged – and the Muslim Brotherhood is about what constitutes the center of Islam. Whereas the Salafis view the Arabian sites of Hijaz and Mecca as the center of the faith, the Muslim Brotherhood locates it at the ancient Cairo Al-Azhar University.

Because Cairo has no special religious holiness, the Brotherhood regards Jerusalem as their religious center. From the Salafis’ standpoint, the Muslim Brotherhood’s enhancement of the special status of Jerusalem poses a danger to the status of Mecca. Jerusalem was at the bottom of agenda for the Prophet and his successors, and Mecca was at the top.

The Palestinian Authority is the weakest force in the Al-Aqsa plaza. In visiting the site recently, the PA minister of religious affairs was almost lynched.

The notion of a “conflict over Jerusalem” immediately brings an association with the Arab-Israeli conflict over the Holy City.

Surprisingly, however, amid the systematic destruction of mosques and holy places in the Arab world, it is precisely Israel’s responsibility for security at the mosque compound on the Temple Mount that protects the mosques there from a similar fate.

To understand the nature of the danger to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, one needs to understand the disputes within the world of Islam over the mosque and over the importance of Jerusalem in general.

Islam is divided into the Shia and the Sunna, but the Sunna is also divided into two main groups: the Salafis and the Muslim Brotherhood. There are other groups as well, such as the Sufis, but that does not concern us in this discussion. Read the full story here.

@ChrefSalah @mlmshussain So few Arabs Palestine 1919 Mufti had to beg others for money to refurbish neglected Al-Aksa pic.twitter.com/eiftF3ukMj

— DancingwithAngels (@DefenderMikhail) August 18, 2015

Video - Jerusalem - Planning for Third Temple With Help From Web.

Jerusalem - Planning for Third Temple With Help From Web.HT: Forward.

An organization based in Jerusalem is working on a detailed architectural blueprint for the Third Jewish Temple on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount — and has turned to the internet for help with the controversial project.

“It is not enough to wait and pray for the Third Temple,” the statement added. “It is a Biblical obligation to build it.”

According to Rabbi Chaim Richman, the institute’s international director, the temple would stand in the present location of the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim shrine. Muslims revere the mount as the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.

That makes the concept anathema to the Islamic world and would likely spark widespread worldwide controversy if it ever got off the ground.

Richman did not set a target date for breaking ground for the construction project. The temple will be built, he told JTA, when “the world will want us to build the temple.”

“The Jewish people have a responsibility to all of humanity, including Islam,” Richman said. “I don’t expect it to come about through any sort of confrontation or any sort of military maneuver. The Jews have to represent good in the world, light in the world.”

The Indiegogo campaign is tied to the upcoming fast of Tisha b’Av, which mourns the First and Second Temples’ destruction. Richman quoted the verse in Isaiah calling the temple “a house of prayer for all nations.”Read the full story here.


JOIN OUR INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN http://goo.gl/bLF7tY

Make the future. Build the Holy Temple!

WATCH our previous Children Are ready Videos:

The Children Are Ready I: http://youtu.be/LPmViwmJSJE

The Children Are Ready II: http://youtu.be/5bw-lJlyuqA

Libel: Israel Intends to Destroy the Al-Aksa Mosque.

Libel: Israel Intends to Destroy the Al-Aksa Mosque.HT: INN. By Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld.
The writer has been a long-term adviser on strategy issues to the boards of several major multinational corporations in Europe and North America.He is board member and former chairman of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and recipient of the LIfetime Achievement Award (2012) of the Journal for the Study of Anti-Semitism.

’Israel intends to destroy the Al Aksa mosque’ on the Temple Mount is a major lie promoted by leading Palestinian, Arab and Muslim groups and individuals. Haj Amin al Husseini, the pre-war Grand Mufti of Jerusalem was the first to promote this slander in the 1920s. It was part of the vast anti-Semitic activities of this ally of Hitler.

“During the Second World War, Husseini planned to build an Auschwitz-like crematorium near Nablus. He intended to have Jews from Palestine and Arab countries gassed there. Husseini also helped create Muslim SS units in Bosnia and Kossovo.

“The ‘Al Aksa is in danger’ lie has expanded greatly since 1967. It is propagated by official Iranian sources – Al Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, etc. Akrama Sabri, former Mufti of Jerusalem appointed by the Palestinian Authority is another leading disseminator of the Al-Aksa libel.”

Nadav Shragai is a senior journalist with the Israel HaYom daily and a Fellow at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He specializes in the history of the conflict concerning Jerusalem. His latest book is titled, The“Al-Aksa is in Danger” Libel: The History of a Lie.

“In Israel, the main propagator of the ‘Al Aksa is in danger’ lie is Sheikh Raed Salah, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement. He has often in the past called for ‘sacrificing lives to defend Al-Aksa.’ In 1996, Salah organized the first mass rally under the ‘Al Aksa is in danger’ slogan followed by many others. Saleh shares many views with Iran’s leaders including striving toward a worldwide caliphate.

“The ‘Al-Aksa is in danger’ libel has been revived in particular during Israeli archaeological excavations or construction close to the Temple Mount.  This incitement has ignited violence by Muslims on several occasions. The reality is, Israeli excavations have only taken place alongside the walls of the Mount, or hundreds of meters away from it.

“These Arab claims are an inversion of the truth. The main danger of collapse of the Temple Mount and parts of the Al-Aksa mosque came from Muslim building on its southeastern part, and in particular from the renovation of Solomon’s Stable there to serve as an underground mosque 15 years ago.

“The ‘Al-Aksa is in danger’ claim is part of a wider Arab campaign to re-write Jerusalem’s history. This narrative includes lies such as the Arabs ruled Jerusalem for many years before the Jewish people arrived in ancient times. In fact, very few Arabs were present in this part of the Middle East then. Another lie is that the Al-Aksa mosque was built before the establishment of the Jewish Temple. However, Islam did not even exist at that time.

“At the beginning of this century, Yasser Arafat publicly claimed that there was never a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount. Yet before 1967, Muslim sources going back centuries affirmed the existence of the Jewish Temple on the Temple Mount.

“The Temple Mount mosques have also occasionally been used for terror purposes. Some groups have planned in them – though not departing from there for terrorist acts – to carry out deadly attacks such as in 1986 when the ‘Silwan Squad’ threw grenades at Israeli soldiers in the Old City. Another terrorist group which used the mosque was the abductors and murderers of three Israeli policemen in 1992 and 1993. Yet another gang planned to set up an infrastructure for Al Qaeda in the mosque. They also wanted to shoot down President Bush’s helicopter during his 2008 visit to Jerusalem.

“The mosques were also utilized for major incitement to terror and violence during the first and second intifadas. Using mosques for military purposes has been declared legal by senior religious authorities in the Muslim world, including Sunni Sheikh Yussuf al Qaradawi and the Shiite Ayatollah Khomeini.

“The United States and the United Kingdom, as well as Muslim states such as Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia have taken measures against incitement in mosques. The most far-reaching action was undertaken by Pakistan in 2007. That country’s army broke into the main mosque of Islamabad, killing deputy Imam Abd al-Aziz Ayazi and hundred of his followers. Ayazi’s supporters had carried out many terror attacks.

“In view of all this, Israel’s course of action in dealing with Muslim hate-mongering in Temple Mount mosques is extremely liberal. This, while several of its preachers strongly incite against the Jewish people, the Zionist movement and the State of Israel.

“Historically, the religions and people who conquered Jerusalem destroyed many houses of worship of the defeated, or converted them into their own houses of worship. Israel, to the contrary, left the management of the Temple Mount to the Muslim religious endowment authorities when it conquered the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967. This is the third holiest place for Muslims after Mekka and Medina, while for Jews it is the holiest. The only change was that Jews and members of other religions could finally access it. Israel has made major efforts to protect the Temple Mount mosques. This makes the claim that Israel wants to destroy them, even more absurd.

“Israel has effectively relinquished the Jewish right to pray on the Temple Mount. Israel’s policy thus contrasts greatly with that of all other religions. Through this decision, the State of Israel has made the greatest concession ever of one religion to another.”

Prominent religious Zionist rabbi: “Our generation is charged with reclaiming the Temple Mount” and returning its sovereignty to the people.

Prominent religious Zionist rabbi: “Our generation is charged with reclaiming the Temple Mount” and returning its sovereignty to the people.(TOI).

“We are not far from seeing the day when our land is cleansed from terrorists,” said Rabbi Dov Lior, the prominent, controversial, nationalist chief rabbi of the Hebron-area settlement of Kiryat Arba. 

The rabbi was speaking Thursday following a tour with several Jewish visitors at the Temple Mount, the religious site holy to Jews and Muslims in the Old City of Jerusalem.Lior’s statements were broadcast Sunday evening by Channel 10 TV.

The rabbi was outlying his “vision” for access to the site, which is restricted for non-Muslims, according to Israeli law. The Temple Mount is controlled by the Muslim Wakf, but security is overseen by Israel. Non-Muslims are allowed to visit, according to instructions by security forces, but all non-Muslim religious ritual is banned.

“Our generation is charged with reclaiming the Temple Mount” and returning its sovereignty to the people, Lior said.

One of the most outspoken religious leaders supporting the Jewish claim to the entire Land of Israel, Lior added that he didn’t know “how to get rid of them [Arabs]. We’re not far from seeing the day where our lands are cleansed of terrorists and their supporters. They can go to Saudi Arabia.”

“I’m not saying we shouldn’t help them from a humanitarian point of view. If need be, we’ll build stables for their camels. In Saudi Arabia. Not here,” he added.

In 2011, Lior made very similar comments, calling Arabs “camel riders” and “wolves” who “hate peace,” adding that they should be given the “right of return” to places like Saudi Arabia.

Lior is affiliated with the hard-right Tekumah party, which merged with Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home before the elections earlier this year.

Tensions on the Temple Mount have been running high in recent months, especially during the period of the Jewish High Holidays, when non-Muslim worshipers and tourists planned to visit the site. On several occasions, clashes between Palestinian worshipers and Israel Police forces broke out in protest of such visits.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Friday that he was considering an appeal to the United Nations Security Council over what he termed as Israel’s continuous violation of Palestinian property, especially the Temple Mount, as well as ongoing settler violence in the West Bank.

“Israel has no right to split up the Al-Aqsa Mosque, neither physically nor in terms of prayer times,” Abbas said, and stressed that “all East Jerusalem is Palestinian.”

Great sight.