Does the Israeli state care about the position of any international organisation that dares to oppose its bloody trends? How many condemnations of Israel has the UN Security Council issued over past decades and is still issuing to this day? What has been the effectiveness of these condemnations on international politics? Until when will this rogue state continue on its expansionist track without any regard for international law, conventions or treaties? Such questions will continue to haunt the global conscience. They did not prevent UNESCO, the UN cultural organisation, from breaking the silence and launching its own resounding cry against Israel. It attacked the illusions that Israel has promoted on the basis of an archaic political logic, among which has been the conviction that the lies it utters, though they remain lies, will turn into reality if repeated a thousand times. This strategy is based on a high degree of cynicism, though this does not deceive the international community, as it seeks the reality of the situation and tries to distinguish between the authentic and the fake. UNESCO has recently adopted two resolutions presented by Palestine and Jordan. The content of these is to deny any historical link between the Jews and the holy places of Jerusalem (Al-Quds), especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Perhaps the major goal of these is to protect Palestine's cultural heritage and its unique character, as well as to demand that Israel, the occupying power, return the situation to what it was some 15 years ago when the Jordanian Department of Islamic Endowments oversaw Al-Aqsa affairs and to stop its successive violations. The UNESCO resolutions included a special item regarding the Al-Haram (Sacred) Al-Qudsi as a place for Muslims only and used the Arabic and Islamic names of Al-Aqsa, the Al-Haram Al-Sharif and the Buraq Square. UNESCO has rejected Israeli occupation policies regarding heritage and educational institutions and the full recognition of the historical, religious, cultural and political status of Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, based upon its humanitarian, cultural and political mission that has seen it recently send a fact-finding mission to the city to investigate how Israel has tampered with the Islamic sacred places. In return, Israel imposed tight security measures around the perimeter of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and it has stifled all external participation and refused to cooperate with an organisation that represents the world's conscience when it comes to protecting heritage and culture. This is not the position of Israel towards UNESCO alone, but it is also that of the Jewish state towards any institution it does not like. Let us not forget the slander Israel directed at the French writer Roger Garaudy when he refuted the myths that underlie Israeli politics, or the accusations it threw at the German writer Günter Grass when he condemned Israel for its crimes. UNESCO has now also been attacked by Israel despite this organisation's five-decade history, well-known to international public opinion, of protecting sacred sites. On this occasion, UNESCO simply wanted to inspect Israeli activities in Jerusalem in order that it could issue an opinion on them. The idea was to reawaken the global conscience, such that the issue could be re-examined from a perspective based on justice, the rule of law and historical rights. However, this desire did not change anything for the state that rejects the idea of geographical borders and considers that its borders extend as far as its soldiers' feet. As one of this state's founders, Vladimir Jabotinsky, once put it, “there is no choice other than to wipe out the Islamic spirit from the land of Israel.” This still represents the political and strategic charter of the contemporary Jewish state. The writer is a political commentator.
