Arab countries are softening their attempts to hurt Israel in UNESCO, it seems. A resolution which is supposed to go up for vote in the organization at the beginning of May and which has been unofficially distributed reveals a significant diplomatic breakthrough on the part of the Israeli Foreign Ministry at one of the toughest fronts Israel faces in the UN.
After a series of resolutions which attempted to erase the connection of the Jewish people to the holy places in Jerusalem and to present those places as holy to Muslims only, Arab countries have decided to take a step back on the sensitive issue affecting Jews worldwide.
The new resolution, which will go up for a vote in the course of a meeting on “Jerusalem, Gaza and Judea and Samaria,” has cut out significant portions of anti-Israel content existing in previous resolutions.
In the past two weeks, a concerted effort by the Foreign Ministry and the delegation in Paris has taken place to soften the resolution, while, during the moments leading up to the vote, the Prime Minister himself is expected to lead the diplomatic struggle.
Israel’s Ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama Hacohen, said that “when we’re talking about anti-Israel resolutions spearheaded by Arab countries, you only count your accomplishments when you’re leaving the building after the vote. It’s better to get a draft of the resolution which doesn’t directly harm [our claims to] the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, which are the heart of the Jewish people, but [neither] do we intend to sit quietly when they stab us in other places, even if they are less sensitive.”
He added that “the State of Israel has decided to put an end to the obsession and incitement within international organizations, even if it takes years - and until then, to raise the price that initiators and participants [in anti-Israel activity] pay. There is no doubt that, with the new administration in Washington headed by President Trump and Ambassador Haley, the goal which, until recently, appeared to be a fantasy has become an achievable goal.”
“In any event,” he concluded, “we will work in the coming month around the world and around the clock to continue and explain the truth, of today and of history, and we will expect - but won’t build upon - the reasonableness of our neighbors.”