Thursday morning the United States withdrew from UNESCO, The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. While the press release cited the organization’s anti-Israel bias, in truth the organization is both anti-Semitic and anti-Christian as it denies the history of both faiths as related in their scriptures
The release issued by State Department SPOX Heather Nauert says in part:
On October 12, 2017, the Department of State notified UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova of the U.S. decision to withdraw from the organization and to seek to establish a permanent observer mission to UNESCO. This decision was not taken lightly, and reflects U.S. concerns with mounting arrears at UNESCO, the need for fundamental reform in the organization, and continuing anti-Israel bias at UNESCO….Pursuant to Article II(6) of the UNESCO Constitution, U.S. withdrawal will take effect on December 31, 2018. The United States will remain a full member of UNESCO until that time.
In recent months, the Paris-based UNESCO declared the Old City of Hebron an endangered Palestinian world heritage site. It has also passed several resolutions ignoring Jewish and Christian ties to Jerusalem It’s time for Christians throughout the world to wake up and smell the hummus. The Arab world is trying to deny Christians a connection to your holy sites (does that make you feel Jewish?).
Keep in mind that these ancient sites couldn’t be Palestinian Heritage sites because there was never a Muslim nation of Palestine. Neither Jerusalem nor Hebron were ever part of a Palestinian state because there never was a Palestinian state.
After the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 CE, the Romans punished the Judeans (Jews) for revolting a second time in sixty years by changing the name of their country from Judea to Syria Palaestina (after the ancient enemy of the Jews, the Philistines who were destroyed a thousand years before). At the same time, they changed the name of the holy city of Jerusalem to Aelia Capitolina (literally Capitoline Hill of the House of Aelius).After the Romans threw out many of the Jews, the holy land was ruled by the Byzantine Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and finally the British Mandate.
The Romans threw out many of the Jews, the holy land was ruled by the Byzantine Empire (also known as the Ottoman Empire, and finally the British mandate before the holy land once again became the Jewish State in 1948. Note during the period of the British Mandate both Jews and Muslims living in the holy land were called Palestinians.
During the period of 135 CE through 1948 when Jordan occupied Jerusalem, there were large populations of Jews in Jerusalem. In fact beginning with the earliest information available (1844), there were more Jews in Jerusalem than any other faith.
Source: Manashe Harrel, “The Jewish Presence in Jerusalem through the Ages” in Sinai and Oestericcher, eds., Jerusalem, John Day, 1974.
Not only do the ancient Greek, Roman and Muslim text describe Jerusalem as Jewish and the place where Solomon’s Temple stood, more recently the Official 1925 Supreme Moslem Council (Wakf) Guide Book To Al-Ḥaram Al-Sarif, recognized the presence of the Jewish Temples atop the Mount. Shown below is paragraph two on page four, which says, “It’s [the Temple Mount] identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute.” Now 90 years later the head of the Wakf is disputing it.
But according to UNESCO it’s a Palestinian historical site, not only ignoring the Temple Mount’s Jewish history but ignoring what it says in the Christian Gospels which pre-date Islam. For example, in Mark 12:40 and Luke 20:47 Jesus accused the Temple authorities of thieving and this time names poor widows as their victims, going on to provide evidence of this in Mark 12:42 and Luke 21:2. Dove sellers were selling doves that were sacrificed by the poor who could not afford grander sacrifices and specifically by women. Note: Luke refers to the writer of the Gospel of Luke, NOT the last Jedi.
According to Mark 11:16, Jesus then put an embargo on people carrying any merchandise through the Temple—a sanction that would have disrupted all commerce. In in the Gospel of John 2:15-16 Jesus refers to the Jerusalem Temple as “my Father’s house”, thus, making a claim to being the Son of God.
He poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables; and to those who were selling the doves He said, “Take these things away; stop making My Father’s house a place of business.”
Overturning The Money Changer Tables
As for UNESCO’s Hebron decision, it should be abhorrent to any person whose faith believes in what non-Jews call “The Old Testament.” The piece of land housing the Cave of the Patriarchs was the first land owned by Jews in the Holy Land. It was purchased nearly four millennia ago by Abraham, as a burial place for his wife Sarah.
As described in Genesis chapter 23, before Abraham purchased the land that became the Cave of the Patriarchs, he rejected the Hittites’ offer to receive the land as a gift. He even overpaid for the land so there would never be a doubt or a complaint that it is a Jewish-owned territory. Eventually, Abraham, his son Isaac and daughter-in-law Rebekah, His grandson Jacob and one of his wives Leah, and great-grandson Esau’s head (long story) were also buried in the cave.
Hebron had been a Jewish city since biblical times through today (with a break from 1929-1967). The Jews had owned that cave and land in the city land until they were massacred and forced out by Arab terrorists in 1929. For most of that time, the majority of the population were Jews. From that 1929 massacre until the Six-Day-War in 1967, Hebron was a Jewish city occupied by the Arabs.
Hebron’s Arab occupation began on a Friday evening in August 88 years ago when a group of Arab terrorists massacred the Jews of the city while the British (who ruled over the Holy Land) knew what was happening but didn’t lift a finger to prevent the carnage.
Just as their action regarding the Temple Mount, UNESCO’s decision to recognize the Cave of Patriarchs as a Palestinian heritage site is a falsification of history. It is not simply an issue of the UN being anti-Israel. UNESCO’s recent decisions stem from hypocrisy, Antisemitism, and Anti-Christianity. It is a denial of both Jewish and Christian Faith.