Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday called UNESCO Ambassador Carmel Shama Hacohen back to Israel for consultations following a second resolution by the United Nation's heritage body denying the Jewish link to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Wednesday saw the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization vote on a resolution that refers to the Temple Mount only by its Islamic name, Haram al-Sharif, effectively declaring the area holy solely to Muslims. Ten UNESCO Heritage Committee member states supported the resolution, with eight abstaining and two voting against the measure. The move came a week after UNESCO's Executive Board ratified a resolution that ignores Judaism's historic link to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in Jerusalem, a decision that was widely condemned in Israel as "delusional," "ignorant" and "disgraceful." Israel suspended its collaboration with UNESCO following the vote. Shama Hacohen denounced Wednesday's vote, and in a symbolic move, tore and discarded the paper on which the resolution was printed, as Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Chaim Herzog did in 1975, following the adoption of Resolution 3379, which dubbed Zionism "a form of racism and racial discrimination." Netanyahu said Wednesday that he will decide on Israel's next move after he confers with Shama Hacohen. "It is UNESCO that deserves condemnation not only for its present blindness but for its past blindness as well," the prime minister said. Speaking at the inauguration of the Adelson School of Entrepreneurship at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya, Netanyahu noted that the Heritage Committee's vote "disappointed the Palestinians and several Arab countries. It was supposed to be passed unanimously, by consensus, because the UNESCO secretary-general said that if it was not passed unanimously, then the decision would not be implemented. "I would like to thank the leaders of Tanzania and Croatia for demanding a vote. I spoke with them, and I very much appreciate their willingness to take a stand there. Because it reached a vote, it will not be implemented, because it [the vote] was not unanimous. "Eleven out of the 21 countries that are members of the Heritage Committee, as they call it, did not support the vote. For Israel, this is a significant result because one year ago, with a membership that was much more comfortable for us, we received a result that was not as good. "This advances what I have been telling you, and what I told the U.N., is happening, that Israel's bilateral relations will also -- in the end -- be reflected in international forums, even though this will take time. It takes time and a little help from above. I said that it would take 10 years, in my mind less than 10 years, to break the automatic majority in U.N. institutions. ... This process is happening, and it is also expressed in this vote. The change that is taking place is finding expression here. I would like to thank the personnel at the Foreign Ministry, the National Security Council and our UNESCO embassy, who assisted me in my talks with the various leaders." Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein approached the Vatican Wednesday and asked the Holy See to thwart such decisions, as they undermine the Christian link to Jerusalem as well.
