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UNESCO Declaration Continues to Evoke Passion, Criticism

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While outside the Jerusalem Chairman’s Conference, thousands of people lined the streets of the capital for the annual Jerusalem March, which a total of 30 000 people attended.

Last week’s UNESCO resolution rejecting Israel’s connection to Jerusalem continued to dominate Israel’s body politic and social sphere on Thursday, with government ministers, diplomats, public officials and visitors pursuing a furious attack against the world cultural body.

In Jerusalem, former Foreign Ministry Director-General Dore Gold, MK Yehuda Glick (Likud), Social Equality Minister Gila Gamliel and Deputy Minister for Diplomacy Michael Oren reiterated Israel’s historic connection to the city to visiting parliamentarians. While outside the Jerusalem Chairman’s Conference, thousands of people lined the streets of the capital for the annual Jerusalem March, which a total of 30 000 people attended.

“You saw how many people there were yesterday at the Kotel (Western Wall),” one woman told Tazpit Press Service (TPS) on her way to the Jerusalem March, referring to the tens of thousands of people who attended Wednesday’s Priestly Blessing at the holy site. “That’s the only way to fight for recognition here – to show our love for Jerusalem and our connection to it. You’ll see – we will have even more people out for the march today than were at the Wall yesterday.”

In addition, the UNESCO decision also served as a background to the calls made that the Amona and Ofra villages must be legalized. A mass gathering of 6000 people assembled in solidarity against eviction from Amona and to regularize the situation of Judea and Samaria in Israel, as proposed by the Regulation Act.

“We came here before Yom Kippur and promised Amona residents to legalize all Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria. It will happen, or there won’t be a government,” Eli Ben-Dahan said.

Finally, members of the Jerusalem Chairman’s Conference – a group of 23 parliamentarians representing 17 countries in Scandanavia, Africa, Europe and Africa concluded a three-day tour of Israel with a declaration celebrating the upcoming 50th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem and blaming UNESCO for essentially caving to anti-Semitic pressures.

“Whereas the common misrepresentation of the Jewish State of Israel as an occupier in the Land of Israel has become the primary anti-Semitic canard of the present generation…[and] the lie of occupation as pretense for attacking the State of Israel through means of political and economic warfare, having harmed the legitimacy of international law [has] corrupted the function of international institutions such as the United Nations and its functionaries, such as UNESCO…we call upon governments, institutions and leaders around the world, as a matter of official policy, to reject UNESCO’s recent resolution seeking to deny Jerusalem’s Jewish origins and Christian beliefs and heritage, and furthermore the misrepresentation of the Jewish State of Israel as an occupier,” the declaration stated.

Asked why reaction to the UNESCO decision is so significant, Director of the Knesset Christian Allies Caucus Josh Reinstein told TPS that the efforts of his group, and others including fellow conference sponsors World Jewish Congress and the International Christian Embassy, are more than merely symbolic gestures of support for Israel.

“First of all, it’s critical to see and understand that there are many people who care. You don’t get to see them on CNN or BBC, but there are over 1000 parliamentarians who are people of faith around the world, standing with Israel. The fact that [UNESCO] said that the people of Israel have no connection to Jerusalem is akin to saying the Bible is a lie. It’s not just an anti-Israel resolution; it’s an anti-Judeo-Christian values statement.

“But our efforts, and those of our fellow conference sponsors such as the World Jewish Congress and the International Christian Embassy, have resulted in more than merely symbolic gestures of support for Israel. We’re seeing the fruits of our efforts in many different ways, at the state level where legislators are banning BDS activities, to national legislation in places like Italy and Hungary making Holocaust denial illegal. So there are real issues at play here, and their support is critical,” Reinstein said. 

By: Andrew Friedman
(TPS)

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