UN general assembly votes to call Temple Mount in Israel solely by Muslim name, ignoring Jewish ties to site

On Wednesday, The United Nations General Assembly voted to approve a resolution that ignores the Jewish ties to the Temple Mount, a holy site in the city of Jerusalem, opting to call it solely by its Muslim name of al-Haram al-Sharif.

The assemble voted 129 for, 11 against, with 31 nations abstaining on a text referred to as the "Jerusalem resolution," according to The Jerusalem Post.

The resolution is reportedly part of a push by the Palestinian Authority and Arab states within the UN to rebrand the Jewish faith’s holiest site as a solely Muslim one.

The UN stated that "Also adopted was a resolution titled 'Jerusalem,' in which the Assembly reiterated its determination that any actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City of Jerusalem are illegal.  

"Recalling the 2015 Security Council press statement on Jerusalem, in which the Council called for upholding unchanged the historic status quo at the Haram al-Sharif, the Assembly stressed that a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the question of the City of Jerusalem should take into account the legitimate concerns of both the Palestinian and Israeli sides," the UN continued.

The United States, with opposed the resolution, said the removal of inclusive terminology for the site, which is sacred to the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths was of "real and serious concern."

"It is morally, historically and politically wrong for members of this body to support language that denies" both the Jewish and Christian connections to the Temple Mount and al-Haram al-Sharif, the US envoy told the UN general assembly.

The location within Jerusalem's Old City is regarded as the holiest site for the Jewish faith, and Islam's third holiest site.

Support for the resolution has dropped since its last approval by the General Assembly in 2018. Despite amendments being made dropping the number of times al-Haram al-Sharif is mentioned from two to one, the number of countries that abstained has more than doubled from 14 to 31.

All European countries previously supported the text. This time around, a number of countries voted against, or opted to abstain.

Voting against the text was the US, Canada, Czech Republic, Guatemala, Hungary, Israel, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, and Palau.

Voting to abstain was Cameroon, Columbia, Croatia, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Germany, Haiti, Honduras, India, Kenya, Lithuania, Madagascar, Netherlands, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Romania, Rwanda, San Marino, Slovakia, Slovenia, Togo, Tuvalu, Ukraine, UK, and Vanuatu.

A British envoy said that "the resolution adopted today refers to the holy sites in Jerusalem in purely Islamic terms without recognizing the Jewish terminology of Temple Mount."

"The UK has made clear for many years that we disagree with this approach – and while we welcome the removal of the majority of these references, we are disappointed that we were unable to find a solution to the final reference," the envoy said.

"The UK has therefore moved our vote today from a 'yes' to an 'abstention.' If the unbalanced reference had been removed, the UK would have been ready and willing to vote 'yes,'" he noted.

"This should not be misunderstood as a reflection of a change in UK policy toward Jerusalem. Instead, it is an important signal of our commitment to recognizing the history of Jerusalem to the three monotheistic religions," he added.

The EU welcomed the amendments made by the Palestinian Authority and Arab groups, but noted that both names should be used when referring to the site.

"The EU reiterates that whenever referring to the Temple Mount/al-Haram al-Sharif in the Jerusalem resolution, both terms, ie, Temple Mount and al-Haram al-Sharif should be used," an EU representative said.

The same is true for any text relating to Jerusalem, he said. "The EU calls on all sides not to deny the historical ties of other religions to the city of Jerusalem and its holy places, thus trying to delegitimize their history."

Palestinian Ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour expressed his gratitude towards those that approved the text, stating that it was "an appropriate and needed resolution to give hope and support to our people."

Mansour noted that it pushed back at attempts to transform the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into a "religious confrontation," according to The Jerusalem Post.

He also called upon the Un to accept Palestine as a member state, and urged the international body to hold Israel accountable for its redials to withdraw to lines drawn before 1967.

"We will never accept to continue living under occupation in an apartheid system; we deserve freedom and dignity in our homeland," Mansour said.

Gilad Erdan, Israel's Ambassador to the UN accused Palestinians of attempting to erase Jewish history.

"The hypocrisy of these resolutions is truly outrageous. A resolution about Jerusalem that does not refer to its ancient Jewish roots is not an ignorant mistake, but an attempt to distort and rewrite history!" Erdan said in a speech to the assembly ahead of the vote.