UN Committee Passes Resolution Downplaying Jewish Connection to Temple Mount

The United Nations General Assembly’s Special Political and Decolonization Committee passed a resolution on November 4 that downplayed the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount.

U.N. Watch reported that the resolution, titled “Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” refers to the Temple Mount entirely as Haram al-Sharif, its Muslim name. The resolution expressed concern over “the tensions and violence in the recent period throughout the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem and including with regard to the holy places of Jerusalem, including the Haram al-Sharif, and deploring the loss of innocent civilian life.”

One-hundred and thirty-eight countries, including Britain, Cuba, France, Qatar, Venezuela and the United Arab Emirates, voted for the resolution.

“The UN today showed contempt for both Judaism and Christianity by passing a resolution that makes no mention of the name Temple Mount, which is Judaism’s holiest site, and which is sacred to all who venerate the Bible, in which the ancient Temple was of central importance,” U.N. Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer said in a statement.

Jewish groups also weighed in.

“UN pushing itself into irrelevancy by continuing to promote a pernicious lie,” the Simon Wiesenthal Center tweeted. “No nation or international org will ever succeed in erasing Jewish people’s connection to their heart – the undivided capital of the Jewish state.”

UN pushing itself into irrelevancy by continuing to promote a pernicious lie. No nation or international org will ever succeed in erasing Jewish people’s connection to their heart – the undivided capital of the Jewish state –#Jerusalem. https://t.co/MoGrTjSf2v

— SimonWiesenthalCntr (@simonwiesenthal) November 5, 2020

StandWithUs similarly tweeted, “Once again, the UN is trying to rewrite history, ignoring the ancient & historic connection to #Judaism’s holiest site.”

The @UN passed a resolution that spoke of the Temple Mount solely as an Islamic holy site, by referencing it only by its Muslim name of al-Haram al-Sharif. Once again, the UN is trying to rewrite history, ignoring the ancient & historic connection to #Judaism's holiest site. pic.twitter.com/uuiLG3Gh2i

— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) November 5, 2020

Gabriel Grosman, the mayor of Bal Harbour, Fla., also tweeted, “Nothing to see here. Just the @UN trying to erase Jewish history while no one is looking.”

Nothing to see here. Just the @UN trying to erase Jewish history while no one is looking. https://t.co/OI0xvdxgCj

— Gabriel Groisman (@GabeGroisman) November 5, 2020

Neuer also noted in U.N. Watch’s press release that the Temple Mount resolution was one of seven anti-Israel resolutions that the U.N. passed; for instance, one of the resolutions denounced Israel for “repressive measures” against Syria in the Golan Heights. Three other resolutions addressed the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees (UNRWA) but failed to mention the “sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority, for personal gain” that a U.N. investigation found in the agency, according to Neuer.

“Just two weeks after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group assaulted Israeli civilians with a barrage of rockets from Gaza — while the UN’s General Assembly and Human Rights Council stayed silent — the world body now adds insult to injury by adopting seven lopsided resolutions, whose only purpose is to demonize the Jewish state,” Neuer said. “While France, Germany, Sweden and other EU states are expected to support most of the estimated 20 resolutions to be adopted against Israel by December, the same European nations have failed to introduce a single UNGA resolution on the human rights situation in China, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Turkey, Pakistan, Vietnam, Algeria, or on 175 other countries. Where’s their supposed concern for international law and human rights?”