UNESCO RESOLUTION IGNORES JEWISH TIES TO TEMPLE, WESTERN WALL:

A resolution adopted last Friday by the executive board of UNESCO, meeting in Paris, does not recognize a Jewish connection to the Western Wall and the Temple Mount and calls Israel an "occupying power." The measure refers to the Western Wall as Al-Buraq Plaza and to the Temple Mount as the Al-Aksa Mosque/Al-Haram Al Sharif. It also criticizes Israel for its decision to build an egalitarian prayer area in the Western Wall Plaza. Israeli PM Netanyahu responded the following day: "UNESCO ignores the unique historic connection of Judaism to the Temple Mount, where two temples stood for a thousand years and to which every Jew in the world has prayed for thousands of years. The UN is rewriting a basic part of human history." Despite being the holiest site in Judaism, the Temple Mount remains under Jordanian jurisdiction. Israeli police, in an attempt to appease the Muslim Waqf which was left in charge of the Temple Mount compound after the 1967 Six Day War, ban Jews from praying or performing any other form of worship at the site. (JTA/INN)