Unesco has approved a resolution from the UAE and five other Arab countries criticising Israel for failing to protect heritage sites and rebuild regions destroyed by war.
Unesco – the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation – on Tuesday approved a resolution drafted by the UAE, Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait, Morocco and Tunisia.
The final version was amended to remove a clause which said the Western Wall in Jerusalem, considered sacred by Jews, is an “integral part” of Al Aqsa Mosque compound.
The resolution condemned Israeli actions at the compound, including the restriction of access to Muslim worshippers during Eid celebrations last month on security grounds. It was supported by 26 of the 58 member countries on Unesco’s executive board. Twenty-five members abstained.
Six countries - the United States, Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, and Estonia – opposed it. Israel denounced the statement as “a clear endeavour to distort history” and appropriate the site.
The resolution “deeply deplores the recent repression in East Jerusalem, and the failure of Israel, the Occupying Power, to cease the persistent excavations and works in East Jerusalem particularly in and around the Old City”.
It also called for the “prompt reconstruction of schools, universities, cultural heritage sites, cultural institutions, media centres and places of worship that have been destroyed or damaged by the consecutive Israeli wars on Gaza”.
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