If this weren’t so absurd, it would actually be pretty humorous. Ignoring 3,000 years of history, UNESCO decreed this week that Jews have no claim to Jerusalem, especially the Temple Mount ~ UNESCO adopts PLO’s Islamist resolution denying Jewish, Christian ties to Jerusalem.
 
They’re clearly crazy.
 

UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) is a UN agency whose ostensible mission is to promote peace, social justice, human rights and international security through international cooperation on educational, science and cultural programs.

(Note: Once “social justice” is one of your objectives, truth is automatically going to be a casualty)

The agency’s resolution is mostly a pack of lies drafted by the Palestinians (themselves a historical farce) that totally ignores the Jewish ties to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount by simply denying reality.
 

To begin with – contrary to both Hebrew and Christian scriptures – Jerusalem is not even mentioned in the Quran. So for Muslims to be making exclusive claims to the area is simply preposterous.
 
According to tradition (both Jewish and Muslim), the Temple Mount is first mentioned as the area of Mount Moriah where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Issac at God’s command. The first Jewish temple was built there in the 10th century B.C. by King Solomon. Briefly, here’s the rest of the site’s history, from The Jewish Virtual Library ~

(The First Temple) was destroyed by the Babylonians in 586 BCE, but 70 years later Jews returning from exile built the Second Temple on the same site. King Herod refashioned it into an edifice of great splendor […]
 
Following the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in the year 70, the area of the Temple was deliberately left in ruins (first by the Romans, then by the Byzantines). This desecration was not redressed until the Muslim conquest of the city by the Caliph Omar ibn al-Khattab in 638. He ordered the clearing of the site and the building of a “house of prayer”.
 
Some 50 years later, the Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik built the Dome of the Rock to enshrine the outcrop of bedrock believed to be the “place of the sacrifice” on Mount Moriah. He (or his son, the Caliph al-Walid I) also built the large mosque at the southern end of the Haram, which came to be called al-Aksa after the Koranic name attributed to the entire area.
 
During the 1948 Israeli War of Independence, Jordan retained control over Jerusalem’s Old City and the Temple Mount and subsequently refused entry to the area to any Jewish person. During the 1967 Six-Day War, the Israeli Defense Forces conquered Jerusalem and liberated the Temple Mount, reclaiming Jewish control over the area for the first time since the destruction of the Second Temple.

 
So what happened? Jerusalem after all is central to the Jewish Heart ~

When religious Jews pray three times a day, they always turn toward the Holy City. Synagogues likewise place the holy ark (the place where Torah scrolls are kept) on the wall closest to Jerusalem. Many observant Jews keep small section of an eastern wall of their house unpainted as a sign of mourning for the destruction of the Temple. Every year we close the Passover Seder with the words La-Shanah Haba’ah Bi Yerushalayim! (“Next year in Jerusalem”).

So how did Muslims come to have so much control over the site that UNESCO now pretends the Jews have no claim on it at all? Unfortunately, Israel itself shares much of the blame. Many Israelis are as secular as most Americans these days and simply may not have the reverence for the Temple that we might expect. Also, they have perhaps been fearful of international condemnation.
 
In any event, they agreed after 1967 to allow the Jordanian, Islamic Waqf (religious committee) to continue managing the Temple Mount ( though Israel provides security and upholds decisions made by the waqf about access to the site). But since Islamists don’t even recognize Israel’s right to exist, of course that wasn’t enough. It’s never enough.
 
They’ve been pushing, pushing for exclusive control to the point where they’ve now denied that the Jews have any claim to the land at all. Insanity.
 
Here’s the first half of an informative video – the Truth about the Temple Mount – including the part about the Waqf trucking away all archaelogical proof of earlier temples! Naturally, if they destroy the evidence, it makes it that much easier to ignore the history ~
 

 
According to the Rabbi of the Western Wall, after passing this ridiculous resolution UNESCO has forfeited its right to exist ~

Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz,the Rabbi of the Western Wall, responded dismissively to the UNESCO decision on the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

“In all of world history I don’t know of an ‘occupying power’ whose land is full of the relics of its ancestors. The holiness of the Temple Mount and the Western Wall for the Jewish people goes back many generations. It does not need anyone’s approval. It is ridiculous to deny the (archaeological) discoveries that are occurring all the time.”
 
“The millions of worshipers who come to pray at the Western Wall in front of the Temple Mount are the Jewish answer to UNESCO.
 
“UNESCO, which was founded in the name of higher values, attacked Israel, which works to ensure the accessibility of the holy sites of all religions. It also encouraged the Muslim Waqf, which works to systematically destroy all archaeological relics o the Temple Mount. After this decision UNESCO has forfeited its right to exist.” Rabbi Rabinowitz added.

Tomorrow, October 24th, is United Nations Day. Wouldn’t it be nice if the organization celebrated by permanently disbanding itself?

I’m sure God is not amused by this fiasco. But He will deal with this in His own way, in His perfect time.

We thank you our Father that your eyes and your heart are always on Jerusalem and the Temple Mount and that Jesus has affirmed his identity by bearing the name of YAHWEH at that same holy place. Help your people to also affirm these truths at every opportunity. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Related:

• United Nations: Western Wall not Jewish ~ UNESCO resolution expected to pass not only denies Temple Mount’s Jewish ties, but also portrays Western Wall as Muslim holy site.
• UNESCO Ratifies Anti-Israel Resolution on Jerusalem ~ (UNESCO Chief Opposes Resolution, Gets Death Threats)
• Opinion: UNESCO’s Endorsement of Temple Denial isn’t Just Inaccurate – it’s Dangerous
• American Christians Bombard U.N. Agency With Thousands of Emails Over Anti-Israel Measure
• Israel rejects UNESCO Executive Board decision on ‘Occupied Palestine’ ~ The deep Jewish ties to the holy sites in Jerusalem and its surroundings are undeniable and no decision of UNESCO can alter that.
• The “Peace Process” Delusion
• U.N. issues more UNreal resolutions
• Why the UNESCO Vote On the Temple Mount Matters
• Archaeologists Locate Site Where Romans Breached Jerusalem’s Walls ~

Just days after the UN’s cultural agency voted in favor of a resolution denying Jerusalem’s Jewish history, archaeologists have discovered the site where the Romans breached Jerusalem’s walls in the prelude to the destruction of the Second Jewish Temple nearly 2,000 years ago, confirming those ties, The Times of Israel reported Thursday.

• Miami Herald Columnist: UNESCO Decision is a “Step Against Reconciliation and Peace” ~

(Frida Ghitis)described the Temple Mount as “the holiest sites in Judaism,” and that the existence of the Temples there is backed by “overwhelming archaeological and historical evidence — in addition to the Jewish bible and the Christian gospels.” Yet in the UNESCO resolution, “Jewish and Christian history does not exist. Jews surface only in the present, as a malevolent force, mercilessly attacking Palestinians for no reason at all.”