by TOVAH LAZAROFF and JORDANA HORN, Jerusalem Post
The United Nations should not erase 4,000 years of historic Jewish connection to the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb just to score a political point, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu told the organization's Secretary General Ban Ki-moon when the two men met Monday evening in New York.
“The Jewish nation has had a deep connection to [these two sites] for close to 4,000 years,” Netanyahu told Ban, as he urged him to change a recent statement by the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization which said that the two West Bank biblical sites were an integral part of “occupied” Palestine. UNESCO also listed the sites first as Muslim mosques, Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi and Bilal Bin Rabath. It only spoke of them secondarily by their Jewish names.
“More than a billion people recognize this connection which is documented in the Bible,” Netanyahu said. Don’t “distort historical facts” for political gain, he told Ban. “It will only harm the UN’s standing and the manner in which serious people treat it around the world,” Netanyahu said.
Earlier in the week, Israel said that it would not cooperate with UNESCO decisions and actions with regard to these sites.
Moving onto other topics Netanyahu told Ban of his intention to withdraw from the northern part of Ghajar village located on the Lebanese border in the Golan Heights. Upon his return to Israel, he plans to ask the Security Cabinet to approve a withdrawal plan that is based on Israeli conversations with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon.
According to a spokesperson from the Secretary General’s office, the two men also discussed Iran and the ongoing efforts to move the Middle East peace process forward.
"The Secretary-General emphasized that it was vital to break the current diplomatic stalemate, resume negotiations and produce results," the spokesperson said. "He expressed concern at theresumption of the settlement activity and recent announcements of further settlement construction in East Jerusalem."
In addition Ban "expressed hope for further measures by the Government of Israel to ease the movement of people and goods to and from Gaza," the spokesperson said.
The two men met for under an hour shortly after Netanyahu arrived in New York from New Orleans, and almost immediately prior to the Secretary General's departure for Asia.
Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports: Israel’s ambassador to the United NationsAmbassador Meron Reuben on Monday said “life might be easier” if the world body didn’t exist, although “whether we like it or not, we have to partake in its deliberations.”
“Israel cannot be seen to be outside the United Nations,”Reuben told JTA in New York on Monday morning, calling the UN “the most important multilateral organization in the world.”
Reuben was speaking just hours before he was scheduled to hold his first face-to-face meeting with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu since his appointment by Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Netanyahu was against the appointment, so the career diplomat took the post on an interim basis.
“The hypocrisy of the United Nations makes Israel the scapegoat for everything,” said Reuben, who also serves as Israel’s ambassador to Colombia. “We have learned, unfortunately, to live with this, but I hope it won’t go on forever.”
Reuben said that in recent years, Israel had made some positive strides at the UN. He noted the passage three years ago of the first Israeli-sponsored resolution, the rising number of Israelis who hold UN positions—15 in the official hierarchy and 65 in affiliated organizations—and the establishment of an official UN day of remembrance for the Holocaust.
“It’s good that people around the world see what Israel has to offer,” Reuben said.
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