Israel's Ambassador to UNESCO Carmel Shama refused to treat the vote as a diplomatic failure, saying that the number of countries who supported Israel or abstained was a "significant victory."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Tuesday's “absurd” 22-10 UNESCO vote disavowing Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem still represents a positive diplomatic change: more states abstained or supported Israel than voted against.

It’s the first time that such a resolution at UNESCO has had this little support.

Speaking to the diplomatic corps stationed in Israel, Netanyahu pointed out that “the number of countries who support this absurd UNESCO resolution is getting smaller.

“A year ago 32 states [supported the anti-Israel resolution], a half year that number dropped to 26, and now it is 22,” he said.

Netanyahu said that with determined effort it will be possible to whittle that number down further, “because there is no need for these types of votes in the UN.”

The premier also related to the vote even before it took place, saying at the International Bible Quiz that there was no nation in the world to whom Jerusalem was more holy than to the Jewish people.

“I know that today there is a vote in UESCO that will try to deny that simple truth, we reject UNESCO,” he said. Throughout Jewish history, he added, Jerusalem was “the heart of the people, the place to which everyone turned to, went to, and prayed toward.”

For the last week, Israel had been nervous that it would lose European support, particularly given that the 11 EU states on the board had meet with the Arab states to work on a common language.

Israel’s Ambassador to UNESCO had lashed out at Germany, fearing its push for a common stance among the EU member states must weaken support among those nations for Israel.

The United States and six of the European Union countries voted against it: Italy, UK, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Greece and Germany. Paraguay, Togo and the Ukraine also opposed it.

Some 23 countries abstained, including Estonia, France, Slovenia and Spain. Three were absent altogether.

Among the countries that opposed the measure were: Russia, Iran, South African, Japan and Brazil.

Israel’s Ambassador to UNESCO Carmel Shama said that the number of countries who support Israel or abstained was a “significant victory” given how little support the Jewish state typically has in the United Nations.

He said that the Arab states who had amended the text in hopes of receiving wider European support were in shock when they arrived at the UNESCO building to discover that only one EU country, Sweden, would support the resolution.

“The Israeli flag flying on the Temple Mount and the streets of Jerusalem” as well as the rest of the country was the best response to the attempt by the Arab state to disclaim Jewish sovereignty in Jerusalem, Shama-HaCohen said.

In the plenum he told the Arab states, “You lose again and Israel wins.”

“You might think you won today but actually you lost again and continue to lose with every passing day, as you insist on fighting medieval wars in a modern age.”

“Here we are and we are here to stay,” he said.

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Politics-And-Diplomacy/UNESCO-disavows-Israeli-sovereignty-in-Jerusalem-in-22-10-vote-489538

An aerial view of Jerusalem.
Israel’s Ambassador to UNESCO Carmel Shama Hacohen (L), draped in an Israeli flag, at the UN cultural agency’s Paris headquarters on May 2, 2017
Israeli C-130 transport planes fly over Jerusalem during celebrations marking Israel’s 69th Independence Day on May 2, 2017.

The entrance to Rachel’s Tomb, near the West Bank town of Bethlehem

facts about jerusalem