The countries, like Italy,
which abstained in a UNESCO vote on a controversial resolution
that makes no reference of Jewish ties to a key holy site are
accomplices to terror, Venice Chief Rabbi Scialom Bahbout said
Thursday.
Bahbout said the countries who abstained on the resolution
"which denies the close relationship of the Jewish people with
Jerusalem and the Temple Mount have collaborated with a
terrorist act which aims to wipe out thousands of years of
history".
Bahbout was speaking in a message to a conference being
held in Venice by the European People's Party entitled 'Building
the Peace and Security of Europe and Neighbouring Peoples'.
The resolution, the rabbi said, "enacts a lie".
Israel suspended ties with the UN cultural agency after it
adopted a resolution on Temple Mount (known to Muslims as the
Haram esh-Sharif) and the Western Wall in Jerusalem, ignoring
any Jewish connection.
UNESCO said the places should be referred to only by their
Arabic names.
The resolution also condemned Israel for restricting
Muslims' access to the holy site and denounced aggression by
Israeli police and soldiers.
Israel has accused UNESCO of trying to rewrite history.
Jews refer to the hilltop compound in Jerusalem's Old City
as the Temple Mount.
Muslims refer to it as al-Haram al-Sharif, Arabic for the
Noble Sanctuary, and it includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the
golden Dome of the Rock.
It is the holiest site in Judaism and the third holiest in
Islam, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
According to Islamic scholars, the rock is the spot from
which the Prophet Muhammad ascended to Heaven accompanied by the
angel Gabriel.
The UNESCO board adopted the resolution by consensus
Tuesday at the Paris headquarters of the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. A draft form
of the resolution had already been approved by a commission last
week.
Israel suspended its cooperation with UNESCO over the
resolution last week, though it is not clear what programs the
suspension will affect. Israel had already suspended its funding
to UNESCO when Palestinian membership was approved, along with
the United States, which used to provide 22% of the agency's
budget.
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