We refer to media reports that a UNESCO committee on Thursday (October 13) passed a res­ol­u­tion con­cern­ing the Temple Mount and Western Wall, which pays lip service to the fact that the Old City of Jerusalem is holy to the three mono­the­ist­ic religions – Judaism, Islam and Chris­tian­ity – but then refers to these specific sites as if they were sacred only to Islam.
The res­ol­u­tion includes a special section dealing with the Temple Mount. Whilst the Temple Mount is regarded by Muslims as the third-holiest site in Islam, it is the holiest site in Judaism, being the site of the Biblical First and Second Temples. As the site of the Second Temple, the site is also referred to in the Christian scrip­tures and is therefore of sig­ni­fic­ance to Chris­ti­ans.  Yet the UNESCO res­ol­u­tion refers to the site only by its Muslim names – Al-Aqsa Mosque and Haram al-Sharif.  It mentions neither the Hebrew term for the site
– Har HaBayit – nor its English equi­val­ent, the Temple Mount.
The res­ol­u­tion similarly refers to the Western Wall, the last standing structure of the Second Temple, only by its Muslim name “al-Burak”, and pointedly omits its Hebrew name, Ha-Kotel, as well as its English name.
These are matters that unite the entire Jewish people, regard­less of our diverse political beliefs or vari­ations of religious observ­ance. They lie at the core of our history and identity as a people. The location of the Biblical Temples on the Temple Mount is a fact that is attested to by an abundance of doc­u­ment­ary and physical archae­olo­gic­al evidence, which no serious scholar disputes.
By erasing these facts from its delib­er­a­tions, UNESCO has become a party to the falsi­fic­a­tion of history for crude and trans­par­ently political purposes, and has dis­respec­ted both Judaism and Chris­tian­ity. It has thereby betrayed one of its central goals: to build inter­cul­tur­al under­stand­ing through pro­tec­tion of heritage and support for cultural diversity.
It is therefore little wonder that when the vote was taken, more countries abstained or voted against the motion than voted in favour. Twenty-four countries voted in favour, while six voted against and 26 abstained, and two were missing from the vote. The U.S., Britain, Germany, Holland, Lithuania and Estonia voted against the res­ol­u­tion.
We under­stand that the Executive Board of UNESCO is set to consider, and will almost certainly approve, the res­ol­u­tion in the coming days. We note that Australia is not currently a member of the Executive Board of UNESCO and is thank­fully untainted by this dis­grace­ful res­ol­u­tion. Nev­er­the­less we believe that it would be appro­pri­ate for Australia to register its views about the matter.
We therefore respect­fully request that the Aus­trali­an gov­ern­ment give urgent con­sid­er­a­tion to issuing a public statement, through you, denoun­cing the res­ol­u­tion that was just passed in committee, and urging the Executive Board of UNESCO to reject it.
Please do not hesitate to contact us if you require any further inform­a­tion about the matter. With best personal regards.
Yours sincerely
Robert Goot SC AM                                     Peter Wertheim AM
President                                                        Executive Director