Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat responded Wednesday to the UNESCO decision to deny the connection between the Jewish nation and Temple Mount.
"By coincidence a papyrus was revealed today with an ancient Hebrew inscription mentioning Jerusalem. This is the first answer I have to give UNESCO.
He added that "I wish the Moslem and Christian worlds that the sites which they hold to be holy and important should be preserved in the entire Middle East in the same way we preserve and maintain the holy sites of all religions in Jerusalem.
"There is no place where Christians feel safer than Jerusalem. There is no place in the world which they connect to more. There is no place where the status quo is upheld better than Jerusalem," said Barkat.
Barkat added that there is no need to get agitated by the UNESCO decision which he termed "political", stating that there was no real intention of determining the truth, but rather the intention was to lambast Israel.
"We need to cooperate with the world, to invite people to see the situation for themselves and to demonstrate how our neighbors - the Syrians, ISIS - preserve holy sites. We are very proud of the way we preserve all the religions in Jerusalem," concluded Barkat