UNESCO Panel to Vote on Controversial Jerusalem Resolution

"The UN cultural body's World Heritage Committee is set to vote on a controversial draft resolution challenging Jewish historical ties to the Old City of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount and calling for a return to the 'historic status quo' on the holy site. A similar resolution was adopted by the organization's executive board in April, a move that infuriated Israel.

A revised joint Palestinian-Jordanian draft resolution on 'the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls' was submitted to the 21-member committee which is convening for its annual meeting in Istanbul, Turkey. The text calls for a return of the Temple Mount and the al-Aqsa Mosque to 'the historic status quo,' a status that existed before the 1967 war.

Jews consider the complex, the site of the two biblical temples, to be Judaism's holiest site. Muslims regard the compound - which today houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock - as the third-holiest site in Islam...

The site has been the focal point of violence wracking Israel and the Palestinian territories - including dozens of Palestinian stabbing attacks on Israelis - over the past several months, amid claims by Palestinian leaders that Israel plans to change the status quo on the Temple Mount. Israel has vehemently denied those charges...

The revised draft is expected to be very similar in nature and language to the April resolution which criticized Israel for 'excavations and works' in East Jerusalem, and urged it to stop 'aggressions and illegal measures against the freedom of worship and Muslims' access" to their holy site. The resolution also accuses Israel of 'planting fake Jewish graves in Muslim cemeteries' and of 'the continued conversion of many Islamic and Byzantine remains into the so-called Jewish ritual baths or into Jewish prayer places.'

The April resolution was approved by 33 states of the 58-member body, including Russia, Spain, Sweden, France and Brazil. The latter two have since backtracked, calling their respective votes a mistake. Seventeen countries abstained while six voted against - the United States, Estonia, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

The World Heritage Committee will also issue a decision on whether to keep the Old City on its list of World Heritage sites in danger, which it has been on since 1982..."