UN passes resolution erasing Jewish connection to Temple Mount

The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) passed a resolution on Wednesday whereby it referred to the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism, solely by its Arabic name "Haram al-Sharif."

The resolution, one of seven anti-Israel resolutions introduced by the dictatorial government of Cuba pushed through the UN that day, effectively denies the Jewish connection to the site. No other nations faced UNGA condemnations on Wednesday.

The Temple Mount is a hill in Jerusalem which formerly served as the location of the First and Second Temple of Jerusalem. The First Temple is traditionally believed to have been constructed by King Solomon and King David three millennia ago. After being destroyed by the Babylonians, the Second Temple was built in the same location under the rule of the more religiously tolerant Persians in 516 BCE prior to being destroyed 600 years later by the Romans. It served as the core of Judean religious life throughout its existence, and modern Jews still make pilgrimages to the surviving Western Wall of the Temple.  

Today, the site is mostly occupied by the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, which were constructed following the Arab conquest and colonization of the land in the seventh and eighth centuries CE.

Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, said that the UN is demonstrating “contempt for both Judaism and Christianity by passing a resolution that makes no mention of the name Temple Mount, which is Judaism’s holiest site, and which is sacred to all who venerate the Bible, in which the ancient Temple was of central importance.”

One of the resolutions accuses Israel of using "repressive measures" against Syrian civilians residing in the Golan Heights, a disputed territory which Israel has ruled since the Six Day War, and calls on Israel to return the territory to Syria. The resolution was co-sponsored by Syria, which has a history of gassing its own civilians.

“While France, Germany, Sweden and other EU states are expected to support most of the estimated 20 resolutions to be adopted against Israel by December, the same European nations have failed to introduce a single UNGA resolution on the human rights situation in China" and other countries, Neuer continued. China is currently engaging in a genocide of its minority Uyghur population which has been described as "the largest mass detention of a minority community since the Holocaust."

Germany and the Netherlands both voted in favour of most of the resolutions despite the fact that their governments had previously promised to abstain from participating in the UN's habit of disproportionately targeting Israel.

Neuer also pointed to the fact that the UN actively ignores human rights abuses against Israelis by Hamas and other terrorist groups empowered in the Gaza Strip. "Just two weeks after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group assaulted Israeli civilians with a barrage of rockets from Gaza—while the UN’s General Assembly and Human Rights Council stayed silent."