UN declares year of solidarity with Palestinians

UN declares year of solidarity with Palestinians 

Israel Chris Emb Jeru. 17-Jan-14 

UN declares year of solidarity with Palestinians 

The United Nations declared an “International Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian people” on Thursday. "The UN is used as a tool in the service of Palestinian propaganda. Instead of trying to end the campaign of Palestinian incitement against Israel, the UN provides a stage for Palestinian productions for the media," said Ron Prosor, Israel's envoy to the UN. "While the Palestinians seek UN solidarity, they continue to educate an entire generation to hate Israel and deny the connection between the Jewish people to their homeland. It's time to stop the hypocrisy and ask, where is solidarity with the victims of terrorism in Israel and their families?" 

“This will be a critical year for achieving the two-state solution, bringing an end to the occupation that started in 1967, and securing an independent, viable and sovereign State of Palestine living in peace and security with the State of Israel where each recognizes the other’s legitimate rights,” UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon Ban said in a statement earlier in the day. 

 “I call on all members of the international community and, in particular, Israelis and Palestinians, to work together for justice and a durable peace,” Ban added. “Israel and Palestine need to live-up [sic] to their commitment to a negotiated two-state solution and resolve all permanent status issues.” 

In related news, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has delayed the opening of an exhibition at its Paris headquarters chronicling the 3,500 year old Jewish ties to the Land of Israel. “UNESCO is deeply committed to the successful outcome of the peace process in order to achieve stability in the region and we have a responsibility in ensuring that current efforts in this regard are not endangered,” wrote director-general Irina Bokova on Wednesday to the exhibit’s cohost, the Los Angels-based Simon Wiesenthal Center. Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Wiesenthal Center, replied that if the exhibit doesn’t open it will “confirm to the world that UNESCO is the official address of the Arab narrative in the Middle East.” 

“Let’s be clear,” Hier wrote in his letter to Bokova, “the Arab Group’s protest is not over any particular content in the exhibition, but rather the very idea of it – that the Jewish people did not come to the Holy Land only after the Nazi Holocaust, but trace their historical and cultural roots in that land for three-anda- half millennia. If anything will derail hopes for peace and reconciliation among the people of the Middle East, it will be by surrendering to the forces of extremism and torpedoing the opening of this exhibition – jointly vetted and co-organized by UNESCO and the Simon Wiesenthal Center.” 

The exhibit, entitled “People, Book, Land: The 3,500-year relationship of the Jewish People with the Holy Land,” was planned and researched for over two years, with the cooperation of Hebrew University of Jerusalem Prof. Robert Wistrich. The panels in the exhibit were approved by UNESCO in advance and the exhibit was set to open next week. But a tidal wave of protest against the exhibit came from 22 Arab governments and various anti-Israel NGOs, leading to the delay. 

“We regret that such an important exhibition has been undermined by inappropriate considerations,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor, “and we hope a solution can be found to enable UNESCO to hold the exhibit as originally planned.”