France pushing for international observers on Temple Mount

As we learned this week, France is drafting a U.N. Security Council presidential statement that proposes stationing international observers on the Temple Mount to ensure ‎the preservation of the status quo at the site. French Ambassador to the U.N. Francois ‎Delattre said during an emergency Security Council meeting that the ‎statement would appeal for calm and restraint, for a revival of the ‎Israeli-Palestinian peace process, and for preserving the status quo on the Temple ‎Mount. ‎

For this presidential statement to pass, it must gain a unanimous vote by the ‎‎15-member Security Council. ‎

The move comes after weeks of unrest and escalating violence, including murders ‎and terror attacks targeting Jews around Israel. The waves of terror are said to have ‎been triggered in part by rumors in the Arab world saying that Israel plans to take ‎control of or even destroy Al-Aqsa mosque. But such rumors have swirled around for decades, ‎and the more probable cause is added Palestinian incitement, from the very top of Fatah ‎to local leaders and Muslim clerics around the world. ‎

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said repeatedly that Israel has not ‎changed and is not changing the status quo on the Temple Mount, and that rumors to the contrary are "nothing ‎but lies."‎

Danny Danon, Israel's envoy to the U.N., reiterated this statement before the Security Council, where he also ‎made it clear that Israel would never accept international forces policing the Temple ‎Mount, as that would in itself change the status quo and do nothing to quell the ‎violence originating from the Arab community. ‎

Riyad Mansour, the Palestinian representative at the U.N., said he wants the council to ‎consider deploying an international force at Al-Aqsa mosque to protect Muslim ‎worshippers in accordance with the French suggestion, and that he sees it as ‎within the responsibility of the U.N. to protect the Palestinian people "in occupied ‎territory, such as East Jerusalem." ‎

I would assume that France, in its explicit effort to "internationalize religious sites," now ‎plans to deploy troops to Mosul, Palmyra, Fathi al-Ka'en, Tal Afar, Al-Qaryatayn and ‎Tripoli -- just six of the many cities where Islamic State fighters have destroyed religious sites in the past ‎few years. If the international community, spearheaded by ‎France, now wants to protect people and religious sites, the focal point should be fighting ‎those who come out and say that their main goal is to erase history, rather than ‎supporting those very forces through a mad mix of hypocrisy and political ineptitude. ‎

Speaking of hypocritical and inept, this week also saw a different push for change, ‎namely the UNESCO resolution submitted by Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Kuwait ‎and the United Arab Emirates on behalf of the Palestinian Authority, declaring that the ‎Western Wall is part of Al-Aqsa. The text, using ‎exclusively Muslim terms for the area and avoiding any mention of Jewish history in ‎Jerusalem, states that UNESCO should affirm "the Buraq Plaza as being an integral ‎part of Al-Aqsa mosque/Al-Haram al-Sharif." Needless to say, Israeli officials, including ‎Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely and UNESCO Ambassador Carmel Shama ‎Hacohen, condemned the proposal, calling it an attempt at "total Islamization" of Jewish ‎holy sites. ‎

There are many absurdities surrounding the UNESCO proposal, but one of the finer ‎points is this: The assertion that the Western Wall is part of Al-Aqsa would allow Muslims to claim that thousands of Jews are "praying at Al-Aqsa." This could be portrayed as a massive violation of the status quo, though in reality it is only a continuation of a nearly 2,000 -year-old tradition... Read more. ‎