Alwaght- A top UN cultural organ has called on the Israeli regime to respect the al-Aqsa Mosque Compound which continues to be desecrated by Israeli regime troops and Zionist extremists.
In a statement, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Chief Irina Bokova has called for dialogue, tolerance and peace after the Israeli regime reacted angrily following the UN body's adoption of a resolution on “Occupied Palestine” on Thursday.
" Jerusalem (Al-Quds) is a Holy Land of the three monotheistic religions, a place of dialogue for all Jewish, Christian and Muslim people, nothing should be undertaken to alter its integrity and authenticity" said Irina Bokova.
The UNESCO resolution stated that the Temple Mount and holy sites in Al Khalil (Hebron) and Beit Lahm (Bethlehem) are an “integral part of Palestine.” The organization also criticized Israel, “the occupying power,” for planting fake graves in Muslim cemeteries.
Two tourist destinations, the Cave of the Patriarchs in the heart of the old city of Al Khalil and Rachel's Tomb in Beit Lahm, are named in the paper as “Palestinian sites.” The draft decision by the UNESCO executive board on occupied Palestine was released April 11.
UNESCO “reaffirms that the two concerned sites located in… Hebron and in Bethlehem are an integral part of Palestine” and “disapproves the ongoing Israeli illegal excavations, works, construction of private roads for settlers and a separation wall inside the Old City of… Hebron, that harmfully affect the integrity of the site,” the statement says.
UNESCO slammed Israeli attacks on Muslims in the Temple Mount, which it only refers to by its Arabic name, Al-Haram Al-Sharif, and its holy site, Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The organization “strongly condemns the Israeli aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims’ access to their Holy Site Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al Sharif, and requests Israel, the Occupying Power, to respect the historic Status Quo and to immediately stop these measures,” the statement says.
Al-Aqsa Mosque became the flashpoint for bloodshed in 2015, amid mounting tensions over the holy site. UNESCO called on Israel to stop “banning Muslims from burying their dead in some spaces and by planting Jewish fake graves in other spaces of the Muslim cemeteries.”
The UN agency also criticized “the continuous Israeli blockade of the Gaza Strip,” which causes an “intolerable number of casualties among Palestinian children," as well as "the attacks on schools and other educational and cultural facilities and the denial of access to education.”
The UNESCO resolution was approved by 33 states, including France, Russia, Spain and Sweden.
Seventeen countries abstained while six voted against including the United States, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.
Israeli regime authorities have reacted with anger to the UNESCO document.
“This is yet another absurd UN decision,” the regime's extremist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, as cited by Zionist media.
Meanwhile, in an opinion piece published early February, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon wroth that, “The time has come for Israelis, Palestinians and the international community to read the writing on the wall: The status quo is untenable."
"Keeping another people under indefinite occupation undermines the security and the future of both Israelis and Palestinians,” he said.
On Monday also, Ban slammed Israeli regime's illegal settlement construction in the occupied Palestinian lands and said Tel Aviv’s land grab polices are an obstacle to peace.
“I once again reiterate that settlements are illegal under international law and undermine” efforts to find a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Ban told the Security Council in a regular briefing on Monday.
The UN chief further expressed concerns over demolitions of Palestinian homes by Israeli regime as well as ongoing violence in the occupied West Bank and said peace seems “more distant” than ever under the current circumstances.
Muslims regard the compound — which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock — as the third-holiest site in Islam after Masjid al-Haram in Mecca and Masjid al-Nabawi in Medina.
Since last October, about 210 Palestinians have been killed in what is regarded as the third Palestinian Intifada (uprising) that erupted over Israeli regime's plans to change the status quo of the al-Aqsa Mosque.
