The party says it’s wrong of UNESCO to say occupation of Jerusalem is ‘illegal’.
The African Christian Democratic Party has come out guns blazing against a resolution taken by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco), saying the body’s resolution was based on lies about Israel.
The 2 May 2017 a Unesco resolution called on Israel to stop all projects in East Jerusalem.
East Jerusalem is needed by the Palestinians as their capital city in future.
The ACDP says calling Israel’s occupation of the city of Jerusalem illegal was biased and “blatantly deceitful”.
“The resolution ignores Jewish and Christian religious and historical ties to the city of Jerusalem,” the party said in a statement.
“[This] is an attempt to change history, and to nullify the teachings of the Bible which has recorded the word Jerusalem about 817 times in both the Old and New Testaments. Jerusalem is mentioned 675 times in the Old Testament, and 142 times in the New Testament,” national leader Kenneth Meshoe said.
“To my knowledge, Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the ‘holy books’ of other religions in the Middle East, except the Torah and other Jewish manuscripts,” he said.
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“The ACDP agrees with the UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights NGO that condemned the ‘hijacking” of UNESCO’s agenda by the Palestinian and Arab states.
“In spite of this deplorable resolution that claims that Jerusalem is ‘illegally occupied’ by the Jews, the truth will never be changed by the lies and deceptions of politicians who are either allergic to truth, or are too weak to stand for their convictions,” said Meshoe.
The resolution critical of Israel occupying Jerusalem was submitted by Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Sudan and passed on 2 May.
It reaffirms “the importance of the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls for the three monotheistic religions”, but then accuses Israel of being engaged in actions that have “altered, or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City”.
The Palestinians welcomed the resolution as a sign of the world starting to stand for the oppressed “in the face of [Israel]’s injustice, occupation and its illegitimate policies”.
(edited by MLM)
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