(Optional) This text will appear in the inbox preview, but not the email body.
“The passage of this resolution will be seen by many as encouraging and validating more Palestinian terror attacks on Israeli civilians”
– Rabbis Marvin Hier and Abraham Cooper
Today's vote by UNESCO erasing the Jewish identity of the Western Wall was denounced by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. The vote was led by Algeria,Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Sudan with 24 countries voting in favor of the resolution, 6 countries against and 28 abstaining.
Dr. Shimon Samuels, SWC Internationals Relations Director was at UNESCO during the vote - he spoke to ambassadors before and after the voting took place.
No European countries backed the resolution and important nations including India and Argentina abstained. Diplomats of many of those nations were lobbied by theSWC in advance of the vote.
Dr. Samuels will soon represent the SWC in Paris at the World Heritage Committee where similar resolutions will be presented - the SWC is the onlyJewish organization represented at the World Heritage Committee, the arm of UNESCO which seeks to protect key historic, cultural and religious sites around theworld.
Photo: Dr. Samuels at the World Heritage Committee meeting in Instanbul earlier this year
The SWC will keep you updated on these and related developments in the weeks to come.
Heritage Committee where similar resolutions will be presented - the SWC is the onlyJewish organization represented at the World Heritage Committee, the arm of UNESCO which seeks to protect key historic, cultural and religious sites around theworld. 