UNITED
NATIONS — Senior United Nations officials have objected to a proposal
by some Arab states to classify the Western Wall, one of the holiest
sites in Judaism, as part of the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem’s
Old City, following angry denunciations by Israel and many
JewishAmerican groups.
The proposal is contained in a draft resolution to the executive board of Unesco, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. The agency formally designates cultural treasures around the world.
The proposal to Unesco has emerged at a time when deadly violence
between Israelis and Palestinians has been flaring over the Al Aqsa
compound, known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to
Muslims. New clashes erupted on Tuesday that left at least four Palestinians fatally shot.
The
Unesco director general, Irina Bokova, expressed her objection to the
resolution on Tuesday in a stern statement, saying it “could be seen to
alter the status of the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls.”
The Western Wall, as part of the Old City of Jerusalem, is a Unesco World Heritage site
adjacent to the mosque compound, and its protection is central to the
Unesco mandate. “The protection of cultural heritage should not be taken
hostage,” the statement from Ms. Bokova’s office said.
A
United Nations diplomat said the draft, which is being discussed by
Unesco’s executive board, made up of envoys from 58 countries, had been
proposed by six of the agency’s Arab members: Algeria, Egypt, Kuwait,
Morocco, Tunisia and the United Arab Emirates.
Unesco officials declined to share the draft, which they said was still under negotiation.
Groups
including the Simon Wiesenthal Center, the American Jewish Committee,
the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and the New York Board of Rabbis
have called on the executive board to reject the proposal, saying it
would falsely rewrite history.
David
Harris, the executive director of the American Jewish Committee, called
the proposal a “naked assault on historical fact and brazen effort to
strip the Jewish people of the age-old link to our most sacred site, the
Western Wall.”
Israel has aggressively lobbied against the measure. “The shameful and deceitful Palestinian
attempt to rewrite history will fail the test of reality,” the deputy
foreign minister, Tzipi Hotovely, said in a statement late Monday.
Attempts
to bring the measure up for a vote as early as Tuesday appeared to have
been delayed. Broader diplomatic efforts designed to cool tempers in
the region have so far delivered little.
The
United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, visited Jerusalem on
Tuesday for meetings with officials including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
and President Reuven Rivlin of Israel, saying “I am here in the hope
that we can work together to end the violence, ease the tensions and
begin to restore a long-term political horizon of peace.”
There were no signs of conciliation from the Israelis or Palestinians.
While
Mr. Netanyahu welcomed Mr. Ban, he blamed President Mahmoud Abbas of
the Palestinian Authority for the violence, describing him as a
fomenter.
“In
recent weeks Israelis have been deliberately run over, shot, stabbed
and hacked to death, and in large part this is because President Abbas
has joined ISIS and Hamas in claiming that Israel threatens the Al Aqsa
Mosque,” said Mr. Netanyahu, referring to the Islamic State terrorist
group. “This, Mr. Secretary, is a total lie.”
Mr.
Abbas and his associates have responded by describing Palestinians as
the victims of Israeli occupation and humiliation, saying that far more
Palestinians than Israelis have been killed and wounded in the violence.
“Palestinians,
many of them children, are killed, wounded, arrested and harassed and
intimidated every day while their property is seized, demolished or
bombed,” the Palestinian Mission to the United Nations said in a
statement distributed while Mr. Ban was meeting with the Israelis.
At
least eight Israelis have been killed by assailants using mostly
kitchen knives, but also guns. At least 22 suspected Palestinian
assailants have been fatally shot, and more than 20 Palestinians have
been killed by Israeli security forces.
Mr. Ban planned to meet with Mr. Abbas on Wednesday.
In
a video message aimed at Israelis and Palestinians, Mr. Ban urged
leaders on both sides to “demonstrate in both words and deeds that the
historic status quo of holy sites in Jerusalem will be preserved.”
The Al Aqsa site is administered
by a Muslim religious trust under Jordanian custodianship. Israel
maintains a ban on non-Muslim prayer at the site. But pressure by
nationalist religious Jews for access, including some calls for building
a new temple, has aggravated Palestinian fears that the Israelis will change the current arrangement.
Israel has repeatedly called such fears unfounded and inflammatory, and has said it will keep the status quo.
The Palestinians have sought an international protection force around the contested area, but that proposal has been rejected by Israel and by the United States, its chief ally.
Seeking
ways to defuse the tension, Secretary of State John Kerry was scheduled
to meet with Mr. Netanyahu on Thursday in Berlin, and with Mr. Abbas in
Jordan over the weekend.
Correction: October 21, 2015
An earlier version of this article referred incorrectly to the Western Wall. It is one of the holiest sites in Judaism, not the holiest site. (The holiest is the Temple Mount.) The error was repeated in a picture caption.
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