(Caroline Glick) In
1974, UNESCO voted to boycott Israel and to "withhold assistance from
Israel in the fields of education, science and culture because of
Israel's persistent alteration of historic features in Jerusalem."
UNESCO's moves to deny Jewish ties to Jerusalem and the rest of historic
Israel have continued unabated ever since. For instance, in 1989,
UNESCO condemned "Israel's occupation of Jerusalem," claiming it was
destroying the city through "acts of interference, destruction and
transformation."
In 1996, UNESCO held a symposium on Jerusalem at its Paris headquarters.
No Jewish or Israeli groups were invited to participate.
Beginning in 1996, the Arab Wakf on the Temple Mount began
systematically destroying artifacts of the Second Temple. The
destruction was undertaken during illegal excavations under the Temple
Mount carried out to construct an illegal, unlicensed mosque at
Solomon's Stables.
UNESCO never bothered to condemn this act. It was silent despite
the fact that the Wakf's actions constituted a grave breach of the very
international laws related to antiquities and sacred sites that UNESCO
is charter bound to protect. Similarly, UNESCO never condemned
Palestinian desecration of Rachel's Tomb, of Joesph's Tomb or of any of
the ancient synagogues in Gaza and Jericho which they razed to the
ground.
(MORE PAIN)
The reason for UNESCO's miscarriage of
its responsibilities is clear. Far from fulfilling its mission of
protecting world heritage sites, since 1974 UNESCO has been a partner in
one of the greatest cultural crimes in human history - the Palestinian
and pan-Arab attempt to wipe Jewish history in the Land of Israel off
the historical record.
And UNESCO's crimes in
this area are unending. In 2009 it designated Jerusalem a "capital of
Arab culture." In 2010, it designated Rachel's Tomb and the Cave of the
Patriarchs in Hebron as "Muslim mosques."
UNESCO's
campaign against Jewish history is not limited to Israel. In 1995, it
passed a resolution marking the 50th anniversary of the end of World War
II. Despite requests from Israel, the resolution made no mention of the
Holocaust.
In December 2010, UNESCO published a
report on the history of science in the Arab world. Its report listed
the great Jewish doctor and rabbinic scholar Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon -
Maimonides - as a Muslim renamed "Moussa ben Maimoun."
In
light of UNESCO's virulently anti-Jewish policies and actions, it is
not surprising that it cooperated with the PLO/PA's bid to achieve
recognition of a state that is in a state of war with Israel.
