October 21, 2015 Temple Mount United Nations/ Archaeological Excavations

October 21, 2015 Temple Mount

United Nations/ Archaeological Excavations

Paris ― The United Nations’ cultural heritage agency adopted a resolution on Wednesday that criticized Israel for mishandling heritage sites in Jerusalem, but it left out a contentious clause that would have classified the Western Wall, one of Judaism’s holiest sites, as a part of Al Aqsa Mosque compound in the Old City.

… The proposal regarding the Western Wall had emerged amid a deadly flare of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, prompted partly by a dispute over Al Aqsa compound, known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims.

In recent months, Israeli security forces have entered the compound in response, the authorities say, to Palestinian youths who have stayed in the mosque overnight with stockpiles of stones, fireworks, metal bars and even pipe bombs.

While the resolution dropped the clause classifying the Western Wall as part of Al Aqsa compound, it reaffirmed that two other sites, the tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem, which are in the West Bank, were “an integral part of Palestine.”

The resolution criticized aspects of Israel’s management of holy sites in Jerusalem, saying that “it deeply deplores the recent repression in east Jerusalem, and the failure of Israel, the occupying power, to cease the persistent excavations and works in east Jerusalem particularly in and around the old city.”

… FROM 1948 UNTIL 1967, ISRAELIS DID NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THE OLD CITY COMPOUND, WHEN IT WAS UNDER JORDAN’S CONTROL.

Source: The New York Times. October 22, 2015.