A draft UN resolution speaking of the Temple Mount solely as an Islamic holy site, by referencing it only by its Muslim name of al-Haram al-Sharif, was approved by 138 member states at the General Assembly last week.
It was one of seven pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel resolutions that the General Assembly’s Fourth Committee in New York has passed in the past week.
The resolution was titled “Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including east Jerusalem.”
The text did affirm the connection between Jerusalem and three monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – but the exclusively Muslim reference in the text to the Temple Mount, the location of the ancient Jewish Temple and the holiest site in Judaism, is viewed as an attempt by UN member states to delegitimize and erase that well-known history.
Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, called the passage in the text “a disgrace,” adding that “no resolution passed here will change the eternal connection between the Jewish people and the holiest site of our faith – Har HaBayit, the Temple Mount.”
“For years, the Palestinians have promoted language that includes only the Muslim term of Haram al-Sharif and purposely excludes the Jewish name – Temple Mount,” he said.
Nine countries, including Israel, voted against the resolution. The others were Australia, Canada, Guatemala, Hungary, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru and the United States.
Hungary’s opposition marked a dramatic change in policy for the country. Last year it supported the text, which similarly had the al-Haram, al-Sharif reference.
Sixteen countries abstained this year, three more than last year: Austria, the Czech Republic, Sao Tome Principe, Serbia, Slovakia and Uruguay, who supported the resolution last year were among them, as was Malawi, which was absent from the vote last year. Papua New Guinea, that had opposed the text last year, softened its stance this year and abstained.
The other abstaining countries were Belarus, Cameroon, Colombia, Honduras, Kiribati, Solomon Islands, Togo, Uruguay and Vanuatu.
The number of countries that supported the text dropped by 19 from 157 last year.
The UN resolution passed as the Trump administration has increased its efforts to underscore Israel’s link to Jerusalem. This has included pushing UN member states to relocate their embassies from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as a sign of affirmation that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, something that most of the international community is loath to recognize.
To date, only the US and Guatemala have moved their embassies to Jerusalem, but a number of others have promised to do so, such as Honduras, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Kosovo, Serbia and Malawi.
“A growing number of countries are moving their embassies to Jerusalem, our united and undivided capital,” Erdan told the UN.
“Unlike this chamber, which is detached from reality, a growing number of nations are acknowledging that Jerusalem is the undeniable capital of the Jewish people and the Jewish state,” Erdan said.
Some of the countries that have spoken of relocating their embassies, such as the Dominican Republican and Brazil, nevertheless supported the resolution, as did 23 European Union states.
Erdan said that their “support has emboldened the Palestinians to not only deny the Jewish connection to these sites, but to deny Muslims access to them, too, while threatening violence. By supporting these resolutions you share responsibility for this behavior.”
A German representative, who spoke on behalf of the European Union, said that in spite of the support of many of the member states, the EU opposed using solely al-Haram, al-Sharif to describe the Temple Mount. He stressed the “need for language on the holy sites of Jerusalem to reflect the importance and historic significance of the holy sites for the three monotheistic religions.”
It was almost precisely the same statement the EU made last year, along with the same warning that it might pull its support from the resolution unless that language was changed. “The future choice of language may affect the EU’s support of this resolution,” the German representative warned.
The Palestinian representative thanked the member states for their support, which is the “clearest answer to the hostile, undiplomatic statement and false accusations and distortions made by the Israeli representative in this hall.”
She added that the resolutions were “fully in line with international law.”