Netanyahu on birthday outing says UNESCO cannot erase Jewish history from Israel

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Updated: OCTOBER 21, 2016 18:58
UNESCO resolution on Temple Mount in Jerusalem
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated his 67th birthday with his wife, Sara, and two sons in Tel Gezer on Saturday.
During the outing, Netanyahu directed a number of statements at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), saying the international agency cannot erase Jewish history from the land of Israel.
"Attention UNESCO, here we are standing before the entire city gate of Gezer, a place written about in the bible, where King Solomon built the walls of Jerusalem," Netanyahu said.
"We have been here for thousands of years and here we will remain, they will not delete our history. Here is where we have been and here is where we will stay," he added.
Netanyahu made the statements in the wake of a controversial decision taken by UNESCO's 58 member Executive Board to adopt a preliminary resolution that omits Jewish and Christian ties to the Temple Mount last week.
On Tuesday, the board ratified the resolution with a 24-6 vote, with the rest abstaining.
Shortly after the resolution's passage, UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova spoke in support of Israel, saying “Jerusalem is the sacred city of the three monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity and Islam."
“To deny, conceal or erase any of the Jewish, Christian or Muslim traditions undermines the integrity of the site, and runs counter to the reasons that justified its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage list [in 1981],” she stated on Friday.
Bokovo has been outspoken on this issue since the Palestinians began their drive in 2015 to change the language by which UNESCO references that holy site.
Previously, all resolutions on Jerusalem had spoken of the area with references to the Jewish term the Temple Mount and the Muslim name of Al-Haram Al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary).
For the last year, the Palestinians have submitted resolutions that almost solely use the Muslim term of Al-Haram Al-Sharif and reference the Western Wall by its Muslim name of the Buraq Plaza.
Tovah Lazaroff contributed to this article.