"The United Nations Organization for Education, Science and Culture is expected next week to pass another resolution on Jerusalem that an Israeli official has denounced as "the most extreme and problematic text" ever proposed.
At first blush, the short text appears harmless from an Israeli perspective, devoid of any incendiary claims or designations. And yet, Jerusalem opposes it because it cites previous UN resolutions on Middle Eastern affairs, thus legitimizing more problematic formulations 'through the back door,' Israel's ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama Hacohen, said.
The resolution, sponsored by Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Sudan, consists of only four paragraphs. Two recall previous resolutions, one calls for their implementation and future discussion, and one reaffirms 'the importance of Jerusalem for the three monotheistic religions.'
UNESCO has passed 'less elegant' resolutions in the past, Shama Hacohen acknowledged, but nonetheless condemned next week's draft as 'the most extreme and problematic text we have ever seen.'
In a letter to fellow UNESCO envoys, a copy of which was obtained by The Times of Israel, he argued that the text's brevity and lack of offensive language against Israel was misleading. Rather, he said, the resolution is 'based on politicization and hateful propaganda against UNESCO's core mandate and own sake, as well as against the Jewish People and the State of Israel.'...
The draft, which is scheduled to be voted on April 11 at the Executive Board's 204th session in Paris, 'enhances the dangerous politicization [of UNESCO] and brings it to its climax by recycling, copying, pasting and reaffirming all offensive previous resolutions,' he said...
UNESCO's Executive Board consists of 58 member states, including more than a dozen Arab and Muslim states..."