Venahafoch Hu – UNESCO’s biased vote on Jerusalem cancelled

Jewish prayers at The Kotel in Jerusalem

In a strange twist of diplomatic politics, the disgusting UNESCO vote, in which all Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, Hebron, Jerusalem and other holy places was denied or erased, has been cancelled – by Mexico! – and is being sent for a revote:

The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will hold a new vote on a draft resolution that failed to acknowledge a Jewish connection to the Temple Mount because of a request by Mexico that is set to reopen discussions on it.

According to the Secretariat of Foreign Affairs of Mexico, which voted in favor of the contentious resolution, his country has taken issue with a section of the resolution which refers to Jerusalem’s holy sites only by their Islamic names.

Mexico is therefore seeking to withdraw and change its previous vote just one day before the UNESCO executive board was set to close proceedings on the resolution.

Sadly it is not purely good news:

However, the draft resolution still has a majority and is expected to pass again as it is unlikely there will be a change in other countries’ votes.

And there was a disgusting antisemitic attitude from Mexico towards their own Jewish representative:

Mexico had changed their representative to UNESCO following a diplomatic debacle in which the Mexican ambassador Andres Roemer—who is also Jewish—refused to vote in favor of the resolution and was subsequently fired.

Former Mexican ambassador to Unesco, Andres Roemer, fired for refusing to vote on an antisemitic resolution

There are some rather puzzling, not to say self-contradictory, aspects to the Mexican reaction:

But when it came time to vote, he received instructions from his government to vote in favor of the resolution, leading him to leave the room in protest and allowing a more junior representative to vote in his stead.

His decision raised ire among the Jewish community in Mexico, with some calling him a “traitor.” He was fired as a way to calm the anger in the Jewish community.

Why would firing a Jewish diplomat “calm the anger in the Jewish community”? I would have thought it would have exacerbated it.

And most peculiarly of all, if the Mexican Foerign Ministry had instructed the ambassador to vote for the resolution, and then his replacement indeed voted for, why has Mexico now reconsidered their vote?

It is a mystery.

Another mystery is the reaction of Irina Bukova, the head of UNESCO herself, who sharply criticised the vote on Jerusalem and the holy sites. My question to her is “where were you when the vote was placed on the agenda?” As the chief of the organization, does Bukova not have a say in what gets voted on? And if not, what is the point of having a chief at all?

Maybe she was afraid to speak out in advance because she knew what might happen – and  what indeed happened after she expressed her reservations at the vote: she received death threats apparently from Arabs!

Jerusalem (AFP) – UNESCO chief Irina Bokova has received “death threats” after expressing reservations about Arab-backed resolutions on the holy sites in Jerusalem, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations organisation said on Monday.

“The director general has received death threats and her protection has had to be reinforced,” Carmel Shama Cohen said on Israeli public radio.

“These threats were made after her criticism” of two resolutions adopted last week at committee stage ahead of a final vote, Cohen said, accusing Arab countries of “appalling conduct” over the drafts.

Bokova distanced herself from the resolutions in a statement, saying “nowhere more than in Jerusalem do Jewish, Christian and Muslim heritage and traditions share space”.

Why has this outrageous news not reached a wider audience? Why have there been no reactions of outrage from international diplomats?

Of course I know the answer. The death threats did not come from Jews or Israelis, and therefore it is simply not news.

Maybe the nations should take note that this vote has been cancelled today and is being set for rediscussion tomorrow, both days being in the middle of the Festival of Succot, on which all the nations are commanded to go up to Jerusalem, to the (Jewish) Temple, to pay homage to G-d.

Secondly, (via DP-PT) as the news broke today, it is interesting that in today’s morning prayer service, during the Hoshanot service (where the worshippers circle the synagogue holding their lulavim and etrogim) the words which are recited during the circuits are:

אבן שתיה, בית הבחירה

The Foundation Stone, The Temple (lit: the chosen House).

I would recommend that the nations take a long hard look at yesterday’s Haftara (reading from the Prophets), starting Zecharia 14:1. Here are verses 11-13:

וְיָשְׁבוּ בָהּ, וְחֵרֶם לֹא יִהְיֶה-עוֹד; וְיָשְׁבָה יְרוּשָׁלִַם, לָבֶטַח.  {ס}  יב וְזֹאת תִּהְיֶה הַמַּגֵּפָה, אֲשֶׁר יִגֹּף יְהוָה אֶת-כָּל-הָעַמִּים, אֲשֶׁר צָבְאוּ, עַל-יְרוּשָׁלִָם; הָמֵק בְּשָׂרוֹ, וְהוּא עֹמֵד עַל-רַגְלָיו, וְעֵינָיו תִּמַּקְנָה בְחֹרֵיהֶן, וּלְשׁוֹנוֹ תִּמַּק בְּפִיהֶם.  יג וְהָיָה בַּיּוֹם הַהוּא, תִּהְיֶה מְהוּמַת-יְהוָה רַבָּה בָּהֶם; וְהֶחֱזִיקוּ, אִישׁ יַד רֵעֵהוּ, וְעָלְתָה יָדוֹ, עַל-יַד רֵעֵהוּ

And men shall dwell in it, and there shall no more utter destruction; but Jerusalem shall dwell in safety.

And this shall be the plague wherewith G-d will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem: their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their sockets and their tongues shall consume away in their mouths. And it shall come to pass in that day that a great tumult from G-d shall be among them, and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall be raised against the hand of his neighbour.

Don’t say you weren’t warned!