UNESCO ambassadors received a personal tour from the mayor of Jerusalem and learned the history of the Holy City and its indelible link to the Jewish nation.
Jerusalem’s Mayor Nir Barkat on Tuesday took ambassadors to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) on a private tour of the City of David in Jerusalem’s Old City.
The six ambassadors are in Israel to learn about its history and to encounter the actual facts on the ground following a UNESCO resolution from October that denied the Jewish ties to Jerusalem and the Land of Israel.
A similar UNESCO resolution is slated to be voted on in April and then at the World Heritage Committee in July, and Israel has again engaged in a diplomatic campaign to garner opposition to the resolution.
During the tour, which was organized by the American Jewish Committee (AJC), Barkat showed the ambassadors the remains of the Shiloah Pool and numerous archaeological findings from the City of David, which clearly link the Jewish People to Jerusalem.
These findings strongly contradict UNESCO’s denial of the historical connection between the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.
All ambassadors on this trip represent countries that stood with Israel and voted against the resolutions, the Jerusalem Post reported.
David Be’eri, director and founder of the City of David, and Carmel Shama Hacohen, Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, also joined the tour.
The City of David, an Israel National Heritage site, is located adjacent to the Western Wall and Temple Mount, just outside the Old City’s walls. The earliest findings there date back to the Early Bronze Age (1850 BCE).
“The coin you see in my hands, found in the City of David excavations, is emblazoned with the inscription – ‘For the Liberation of Zion.’ This coin is one of thousands that we find at our feet which unequivocally prove the Jewish and Christian roots in Jerusalem, contrary to the claims made by the latest UNESCO resolution,” Barkat told the ambassadors.”
“Today, we work to fulfill the imperative emblazoned on the coin: Jerusalem, under Israeli sovereignty, is free and open to people of all religions, beliefs, and backgrounds,” he declared.
By: Max Gelber, United with Israel