By World Israel News Staff
The U.N. General Assembly adopted a resolution on Wednesday which called the Temple Mount by its Muslim name, Haram el-Sharif, and downplayed the historical connection of the Jewish people to the holiest site in Judaism.
Called the “Jerusalem resolution,” the measure was passed by a 129 to 11 vote, with 31 abstentions.
The resolution said that those endorsing it were “expressing grave concern over the continued closure of Palestinian institutions in the City as well as acts of provocation and incitement, including by Israeli settlers, including against holy sites.”
An American envoy to the U.N. said he’d voted against the measure due to its exclusionary nature, which does not acknowledge that denies the significance of the Temple Mount to faiths other than Islam.
“It is morally, historically and politically wrong for the Assembly to support language that denies both the Jewish and Muslim connections to the Temple Mount and Haram al‑Sharif,” he said.
Dame Barbara Woodward, the British envoy to the U.N. said the country had abstained on the measure due to its one sided language, which she’d pushed the authors of the resolution to change.
“The resolution adopted today refers to the holy sites in Jerusalem in purely Islamic terms without recognizing the Jewish terminology of Temple Mount,” she said.
“The UK has made clear for many years that we disagree with this approach …we are disappointed that we were unable to find a solution to the final reference.”
A U.N. press sheet on the vote referring to remarks made by Israeli representative to the U.N. Gilad Erdan about the recent terror attack in Jerusalem appeared to suggest that the referring to the shooting spree, which killed a South African immigrant, was a matter of opinion.
Notably, the official U.N. text summarizing Erdan’s comments about the attack, which was perpetrated by a Hamas-backed gunman, referred to the incident as an “act of terror.”
The use of quotations seems to insinuate that the event’s status as a terror attack was questionable or up for debate.
An additional two resolutions condemning Israel were passed on Wednesday.
“The UN’s assault on Israel with a torrent of one-sided resolutions is surreal,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental watchdog organization.
“It’s absurd that in the year 2021, out of some 20 UN General Assembly resolutions that criticize countries, 70 percent are focused on one single country— Israel. What drives these lopsided condemnations is a powerful political agenda to demonize the Jewish state.”
