During a debate at the 37th session of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee, currently taking place in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, the Jordanian delegation, at the behest of the Palestinian Authority, submitted a resolution slamming Israel over its Jerusalem policies.
The resolution censured Israel for a number of developments in the city, including the construction of a visitors’ center, plans to build an elevator by the Western Wall, and accusations of archeological excavations said to be damaging Muslim sites atop the Temple Mount. It also took Israel to task for allegedly failing to hand over to the committee critical information on the state of the Old City.
“The WHC requests Israel to immediately desist from all acts, omissions and the harmful excavations,” according to a joint press released issued Sunday by the Jordanian and Palestinian UNESCO delegations. “The WHC also asks Israel to stop all violations that change of facts on the ground and damages the authenticity and integrity of the Old City of Jerusalem, especially the recent escalatory measures that have been taken against al-Aqsa Mosque and the obstruction of the Jordanian Awqaf’s conservation of the Holy Sites.”
The resolution reportedly passed, with eight of the 21 World Heritage Committee member states voting in favor and 10 abstaining. Only Germany, Switzerland and Estonia reportedly voted against it.
“Passing, once more, a fabricated political decision against Israel, which portrays nothing but the outstanding creative writing skills and unique sense of imagination of both the Palestinians and Jordanians, bears devastating ramifications on the future of UNESCO,” the head of the Israeli delegation said after the vote. “It is rather unfortunate that at such a critical point in time for UNESCO, the Palestinians and their active partners consciously choose to undermine the core values and identity of this organization to an extent that will certainly lead to its ultimate destruction.”
Israel’s Foreign Ministry stated that the resolution was adopted against the better judgment of the majority and “is nothing but a heap of disconnected-from-reality statements.” There is no linkage between the language of the resolution and the actual facts on the ground, the statement continued, “as the text only reflects the clichés of the anti-Israel bubble which the Palestinians cultivate within UNESCO at the expense of the worthy causes the organization is supposed to promote around the world.”
Nevertheless, the statement said, “Israel will uphold its commitments and its sovereign responsibility by continuing to ensure freedom of worship to all faiths in Jerusalem, even as UNESCO insists on turning its back on reality and wreaking damage to the interests of member-states through the regurgitation of the dictates of Palestinian propaganda.”
The report received from the Permanent Delegation of Jordan states that it has been prepared partly in consultation with the Permanent Delegation of Palestine to UNESCO. It provides information based on the observations and report of the Jordanian Awqaf (JA) and the Jordanian National Committee for World Heritage.Essentially, UNESCO accepted the lies of the Arabs wholesale.
5. Deeply deplores the persistence of Israeli archaeological excavations and works in the Old City of Jerusalem and on both sides of its Walls and the failure of Israel to cease such works, and requests the Israeli authorities to prohibit all such excavations and works, in conformity with its obligations under the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954 and its related protocols, the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972, and as clearly stated in the Delhi UNESCO Recommendation of 1956 concerning excavations undertaken in occupied territories;The resolution also praises Jordan's plan for the Mughrabi ascent and slams Israel's, without explaining exactly why.
6. Reiterates the necessity of cooperation to facilitate access to the Old City of Jerusalem and both sides of its Walls, including religious heritage sites therein, in the context of the UNESCO Conventions for the protection of the cultural heritage, and expresses its concern regarding the restricting obstacles imposed by the Israeli authorities on the freedom of access provided to Jordanian and Waqf experts to safeguard such sites;
7. Also deplores, in this regard, the damaging effect of the Jerusalem Light rail (tram line), itinerant at few meters from the Walls of the Old City of Jerusalem, which severely affects the visual integrity and the authentic character of the site and urges Israel to restore the original character of the site in conformity with its obligations under the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954 and its related protocols and the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972 as well as the 2011 UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Historic Urban Landscape;
8. Regrets the Jerusalem Municipality plan to build a two-line cable car system to connect the Mughrabi Quarter with the Mount of Olives in East Jerusalem, and also urges Israel to prevent any damage to the integrity and authenticity of the property by abandoning the above mentioned project in conformity with its obligations under the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954 and its related protocols and the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972;
9. Also regrets the decision of the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee, that approved the construction of a visitor centre on the Givati Parking lot in Silwan at a distance of twenty meters from the Walls of the Old City as well as its approval of the so called “Liba House” project, a huge structure of three storeys and approximately 3700 square meters in the Old City of Jerusalem, the extension of the Strauss Building and the Western Wall elevator, and further urges Israel to renounce to the above mentioned projects in conformity with its obligations under the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954 and its related protocols and the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage of 1972;
10. Requests the World Heritage Centre to continue applying the Reinforced Monitoring Mechanism to the Old City of Jerusalem on both sides of its Walls, including the Mughrabi Ascent, and also requests it to report every four months on this matter;
23. Further regrets Israeli religious-extremist groups' provocative incursions into Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound through the Mughrabi Gate, and urges the Israeli authorities to take the necessary measures to prevent such abuses that violate the sanctity and integrity of the Compound and inflame tension on the ground;So UNESCO is explicitly calling on Jews to be banned from Judaism's holiest site, because their peaceful and respectful visits are "abuses" and "inflame tension."
After 1967, archaeologists found that the wall extended all the way around the Temple Mount and is part of the city wall near the Lion's Gate. Thus, the Western Wall is not the only remaining part of the Temple Mount. Currently, Robinson's Arch (named after American Edward Robinson) remains as the beginning of an arch that spanned the gap between the top of the platform and the higher ground farther away. This had been used by the priests as an entrance. Commoners had entered through the still-extant, but now plugged, gates on the southern side which led through beautiful colonnades to the top of the platform. One of these colonnades is still extant and reachable through the Temple Mount. The Southern wall was designed as a grand entrance. Recent archeological digs have found thousands of mikvehs (ceremonial bathtubs) for the ritual purification of the worshipers, as well as a grand stairway leading to the now blocked entrance. Inside the walls, the platform was supported by a series of vaulted archways, now called Solomon's Stables, which still exist and whose current renovation by the Waqf is extremely controversial. The temple itself was constructed of imported white marble that gleamed in the daylight.
On September 25, 2007 Yuval Baruch, archaeologist with the Israeli Antiquities Authority announced the discovery of a quarry compound which may have provided King Herod with the stones to build his Temple on the Temple Mount. Coins, pottery and an iron stake found proved the date of the quarrying to be about 19 BCE. Archaeologist Ehud Netzer confirmed that the large outlines of the stone cuts is evidence that it was a massive public project worked by hundreds of slaves.[30]Moreover, there is a significant and growing collection of artifacts that verify specific parts of the Biblical narrative.
Could you take what is, without a doubt, the worst tragedy imaginable – the intentional, violent murder of your sweet little girl – and turn your grief into the impetus to help others?
That is what Frimet and Arnold Roth did after their then-15 year old daughter, Malki, was murdered in the grotesque homicide bombing of the Sbarro Pizzaria in downtown Jerusalem. Malki Roth and 14 other innocent civilans died violent deaths on the 9th of August, 2001. Eight of the murdered were children. A woman pregnant with her first child also died in the bombing, and 130 were wounded.
The Roths created Keren Malki (Malki Foundation) within months of the bombing. What would so understandably have made most parents turn inwards with grief, instead, for the Roths, became a mission to create something positive that would reflect the goodness of the daughter whose future was stolen. Malki’s little sister is severely disabled and Keren Malki, formed 12 years ago, provides a myriad of services for the benefit of children with special needs and their families.
This week the Roths were honored for the work that Keren Malki (keren is the Hebrew word for ‘foundation’) has done over the past twelve years for the benefit of children with special needs and their families. Israel’s Minister of Welfare and Social Affairs, Meir Cohen, presented the Roths with the Minister’s Shield for Volunteerism – Lifetime Achievement Award.Read the whole thing.
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• SWC’s International Relations Director, Dr. Shimon Samuels (pictured above) toured and documented the Death exhibit warning, “The Jeu de Paume’s ode in praise of suicide terrorism serves a campaign to provoke future violence.”
• SWC denounced the exhibition in a Jerusalem Post op-ed: Himmler Meets Jihad in a Paris Art Museum
• SWC is one of the principal organizers of this Sunday’s June 30thdemonstration outside the Jeu de Paume Museum, 1 Place de la Concorde at 3:00 pm.
• A protest was delivered to UNESCO-based International Council of Museums President Hans-Martin Hinz, expressing outrage and demanding removal of the Death exhibit.
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• The exhibit’s introduction in the official museum catalogue describes captured Palestinian terrorists convicted in Israel as “Failed Suicide Martyrs”— who have yet to fulfill their unfinished mission of suicide.
• Israeli Arab volunteers in the Israel Defense Forces are shown as confused or mentally coerced victims and collaborators serving Zionism against the Palestinian cause.
• Palestinian prisoners who signed commitments to desist from terrorism upon their release or exchange were found to be a sham.
An anti-Zionist rabbi said he was attacked in Amsterdam because of Israel.
Rabbi Josef Antebi, 50, an Orthodox Jew who lives in Amsterdam, told JTA he was assaulted on Sunday in the Dutch capital by a young man who “had relatively dark skin and didn’t look very Dutch, or at least didn’t look like his family has been living in Holland for centuries.”Antebi said he was kicked in the stomach by a driver who exited his car after nearly hitting the rabbi. He was taken to a hospital, examined and released with minor injuries after filing a complaint with police.A spokeswoman for the Amsterdam police told JTA that police are investigating but are not certain the attack was anti-Semitic.“Currently we are assuming it is an argument about traffic that got out of hand,” she said.Antebi took a picture of the attacker with his cellular phone.“He shouted negative things about my religion and about my people,” said Antebi, who was born in Israel but says he does not recognize its right to exist and describes himself as a Palestinian Jew.According to Antebi, he turned to a fishmonger operating a street stall and asked him to call the police as the attacker was approaching, but the fishmonger “just motioned ‘no.’ ”The attacker kicked him in the stomach, the rabbi said.“I’m not surprised he did what he did, it’s human behavior,” Antebi told JTA. “The one to blame is the Zionist state, which is doing a lot of bad things to people.”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WED., JUNE 26, 2013And you thought the IRS acted unfairly to the Tea Party....
CONTACT: Lori Lowenthal Marcus, 610.664.1184 lorilowenthalmarcus@gmail.com
IRS First Post-Scandal Appearance in Court Reveals Effort to Run From Justice
Yesterday marked a new entry in an ongoing pattern of changing stories and defenses to prevent the light of day from exposing egregiously unconstitutional behavior by one of the most dreaded limbs of government: the Internal Revenue Service.
“It is no surprise that the IRS is desperately fighting to prevent anyone from learning exactly how the IRS decided to categorize organizations on the basis of their political, religious or other viewpoints, an issue from which the government entity has been reeling for weeks, and with good reason,” said Lori Lowenthal Marcus, president of Z STREET.
Represented by the Justice Department, the IRS filed a brief seeking to dismiss the lawsuit against it brought by Z STREET, a staunchly pro-Israel organization, which was filed in August, 2010.
That lawsuit was the first public utterance that the IRS was discriminating against certain organizations because of their viewpoints, rather than because of a failure to follow the required guidelines of eligibility.
In May, the admission - after years of denials - by the IRS itself that it had engaged in categorizing politically conservative groups for differing treatment touched off a flurry of congressional and media attention. Most of the attention was focused on the treatment of “Tea Party” and other politically or socially conservative groups.
Z STREET brought its lawsuit nearly three years ago, after being told by the IRS agent to whom its file had been assigned that the IRS had to “give special scrutiny to organizations connected to Israel,” and that the files of some of those “organizations were sent to a special unit in Washington, D.C. to determine whether the activities of the organization contradicted the public policies of the administration.” Such treatment by the IRS constitutes bald-faced viewpoint discrimination and is a violation of the U.S. Constitution.
The IRS has defended itself in the lawsuit on several different grounds, including the absurd notion that the government is immune from such a lawsuit. (In fact, of course the Bill of Rights -- which begins with the First Amendment, securing the right to free speech -- was created specifically to protect citizens from unconstitutional behavior by the government).
In particular, the government has repeatedly denounced Z STREET for failing to wait the requisite number of days before complaining and going to court for not receiving tax exempt status. And as Z STREET explained in every single one of its own court filings, the lawsuit was not brought because it had not been given (or denied) tax exempt status within a particular time frame. The lawsuit was brought because Z STREET believes, based upon what the IRS agent herself said, that the IRS engaged in unconstitutional viewpoint behavior. There is no requirement to wait a set period of time before making such a claim.
However, in yesterday’s filing, the IRS claimed - for the first time, not surprisingly, as it completely contradicts every other court filing by the IRS in this case - that Z STREET’s lawsuit should be dismissed because it failed to make out the very claim the IRS had repeatedly insisted Z STREET was making - that it qualifies for, and should have already been given, tax exempt status.
It bears noting that yesterday another set of significant documents was released by the IRS, via the House Ways and Means Committee. These, in an apparent attempt to prove that the IRS was not just engaging in viewpoint discrimination against politically conservative groups, showed that the IRS had created a category for review it labeled “progressive,” as if that made everything kosher. But also included in the documents released was a category labeled “occupied territory advocacy.” In other words, the IRS was indeed singling out applications for tax exempt status on the basis of a particular political viewpoint which is inconsistent with this administration’s. And that is bald-faced viewpoint discrimination and is the basis for Z STREET’s lawsuit against the IRS.
The first hearing in Z STREET’s lawsuit against the IRS will be held on July 19 at 10:00 in Courtroom 17 before Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, in the Federal District Court of the District of Columbia.
According to the report, the product of a joint venture between the university and the Israel Democracy Institute, 62% of Arab citizens feel it is impossible to trust most Jews, and 71% think the government treats them as second-class citizens.
The report stated that Arab distress over the current situation was expressed in the finding that 59% agreed with the statement that “it is justified that the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip start a third Intifada if the political stalemate continues,” and the agreement of 58% that “it is justified that Arab citizens in Israel begin an Intifada of their own if their situation does not improve significantly.”
It also found that 73% of Israeli Arabs prefer that Arab political parties would join a coalition government, and a majority believe that their leaders truly represent them.That last byte is important because it's long been known that the 'Israeli Arab' leadership is more extreme than its constituency, but many pundits have claimed that the leadership is not representative of how 'Israeli Arabs' really think of the state. Apparently, most 'Israeli Arabs' don't agree.
Smooha has been charting Arab opinion since 1976.
Everyone in academia is saying that the Arabs and Jews are on a collision course, he said, adding that “it is avoidable, but it depends on the government’s policies.”
He said Israeli Arabs are interested in receiving the benefits that the state provides them – stability, democracy, services and so on. Therefore, he concludes, they are still interested “in playing by the rules.”
The Arab leadership is more critical of Israel than the Arab public, which is “much more pragmatic than their leaders,” Smooha said.
He noted that even though a large majority of Israeli Arabs support Arab parties joining the coalition, no Arab party today would join the government.
Due to this gap, many Arabs are not participating in the political process, he said.
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Regarding the establishment of the State of Israel, 82% of Arabs accuse the Jews of committing the Nakba (catastrophe of Israel’s independence) and 48% said they have participated in Nakba commemoration events.
Around 70% of Arab respondents said Israel was not justified in maintaining a Jewish majority and 55% would prefer to live in Israel rather than in any other country. Some 78% fear a grave violation of their rights and 68% fear a population transfer.
Some 48% would vote in a referendum for a constitution that “defines Israel as a Jewish and democratic state and guarantees full citizenship rights to Arabs,” a drop from 71% in 2006.
Still, 42% favor living in Jewish neighborhoods and 37% would prefer their children go to Jewish schools.
Smooha noted differences within the Arab population, saying Druse definitely had the most positive views of Israel and that the Beduin were becoming more religious and affiliated with the Islamic Movement.Rabbi Meir Kahane HY"D (May God avenge his blood) warned us this would happen.
