Jerusalem mayor: Would UNESCO deny Muslim link to Mecca?

13 October 2016, 7:11 pm

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Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat calls the UNESCO vote disconnected from reality, and questions whether the cultural body would apply the same logic to other religious sites, including Mecca.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat seen on top of the Tower of David Museum, on April 14, 2015. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

“I was outraged to hear of UNESCO’s vote today, which denies thousands of years of Jewish connection to Jerusalem’s Western Wall,” Barkat writes in a statement released to the media.

“Would UNESCO vote to deny the Christian connection to the Vatican? Or the Muslim connection to Mecca?”

He adds: “The UNESCO vote claims that there is no connection between the Jewish people and the Western Wall. In fact, it is the UNESCO vote that has no connection to reality.”