UNESCO's War on
Jewish Mothers
Breaking Israel News
Latest News Biblical perspective
By Adam Eliyahu Berkowitz October 11, 2018 , 1:51 pm
And then Avraham
buried his wife Sara in the cave of the field of Machpelah, facing Mamre — now
Chevron — in the land of Canaan. Genesis 23:19 (The Israel Bible™)
Rachel’s Tomb as it looked more than a hundred years ago
(right) and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron. (Credit: Breaking Israel
News)
UNESCO has passed
several resolutions attacking the connection between Israel and the Jewish holy
sites, but this week, the Executive Board passed two new resolutions aimed
specifically at the Biblical matriarchs. One rabbi sees this as a continuation
of the Biblical battle between Isaac and Ishmael and a closer look shows how
this is nothing less than an after-the-fact attempt to block the Jews’ return
from exile.
On Wednesday morning, the PX Commission composed of the
59 members of the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted
resolutions 28 and 29, titled “Occupied Palestine.” The resolutions state that
the Machpelah (Tomb
of the Patriarchs in Hebron) and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem are “an integral
part of the Occupied Palestinian territory.” The resolutions were sponsored by
Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, and Morocco.
The stated motive behind the resolutions was to encourage
negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. UNESCO’s assistant
director-general for external relations, Nicolas Kassianides, said at the
meeting that the resolutions enhance “the spirit of constructive dialogue to
enable us to reach a consensus.”
Rabbi Simcha Hochbaum, a
resident of Hebron and tour guide, stated that the
real basis of the UNESCO move was not a political conflict but was, in essence,
an “ongoing spiritual war between the Jews and the Arabs based in the Bible.”
“The battle is over the connection to Abraham as
described in the Bible,” Rabbi Hochbaum told Breaking Israel News,
citing a verse from Genesis.
But Hashem said to Avraham, “Do not be
distressed over the boy or your slave; whatever Sara tells you, do as she says, for it is through Yitzchak that
offspring shall be continued for you. As for the son of the slave-woman, I will
make a nation of him, too, for he is your seed.” Genesis 21:12-13
The rabbi noted that the battle was indirect, with Isaac
and Ishmael never trading blows. In the same way, an indirect battle is being
fought over who will be the continuation of the covenant, with UNESCO being the
proxy champion fighting for the cause of Ishmael.
“The battle between Isaac and Ishmael is still taking
place but with different names,” he asserted. “At this point, when we are just
before the final geula (redemption), nations are choosing which side of
this battle they are on.”
“The connection of the son to the father is through the
mother. In the same way, the real connection to the land is through the mother;
through Sarah and Rachel. The power of prayer and mercy is through the mothers.
This is Ishmael, our half-brother, trying to wipe out the special connection to
our fathers via our mothers.”
“It is through the virtue of the mothers that we returned
to the land,” Rabbi Hochbaum continued. “They are trying to prevent our return,
turn back the clocks by changing history and rewriting the Bible. Our power to
stay in the land comes from the kedusha (holiness) we receive from these
sites. They claim the battle is political but they themselves focus on these holy
sites.”
Perhaps even more significant than the content of the
UNESCO resolutions is the timing. Rabbi Hochbaum noted that they come just
three weeks before Jews around the world read the weekly portion of the Torah
describing Abraham’s purchase of the Machpelah, his first acquisition of
land in the Promised Land.
Avraham accepted
Ephron’s terms. Avraham
paid out to Ephron the money that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites —
four hundred shekalim of silver
at the going merchants’ rate. Genesis 23:16
Every year at that time, tens of thousands of Jews fill
Hebron for the Sabbath to commemorate this purchase.
“If UNESCO wants these resolutions to actually stand,
they will need to erase these verses from every bible in the world, and also
burn it out of our memories,” Hochbaum explained. “For thousands of years, the
evil forces in the world have tried to do this without success.”
The resolutions declaring Rachel’s Tomb – considered the
third holiest site in Judaism – to be exclusively Muslim, came on the first day
of Cheshvan, ten days before tradition teaches that the matriarch Rachel was
born. Thousands of Jews arrive at the spot for celebrations organized by Mosdos Kever Rachel
(Rachel’s Tomb Institution), an organization run by Rabbi Moshe Kluger and his
wife, Bluma. At the end of 2000, when the Second Intifada (in Arabic literally tremor
or shaking) broke out, the tomb came under attack for 41 days. The
Klugers established the organization to facilitate Jewish visitation to the
site.
“If UNESCO thinks the connection between Israel and our
mothers is dead, they should come to Hebron on Chayei Sara or Kever Rachel on
Vayishlach and they’ll see tens of thousands of Jews coming to reconnect,”
Rabbanit Kluger told Breaking Israel News. “Nothing could be more alive,
more powerful, than Israel’s connection with our mothers.”
Thanks to their efforts and the love of the Jews for
their matriarch, more than 100,000 Jews visit the site every year. In six
weeks, Jews will read the section of the Torah describing Rachel’s death and
burial outside of Bethlehem.
In Jewish tradition, Rachel, more than any of the other
Biblical figures, is connected to the exile and return to Zion. It is, for this
reason, she is not buried in Hebron with the other Biblical patriarchs and
matriarchs. According to Midrash (homiletic teachings), Jacob foresaw that
following the destruction of the First Temple the Jews would be exiled to
Babylon. He buried his wife on the road to Babylon to enable them to cry out to
her as they passed her grave, and be comforted. According to the Zohar, when
the Messiah appears, he will lead the dispersed Jews back to the Land of Israel,
along the road which passes Rachel’s grave.
Yishai Fleisher,
the International Spokesman for the Jewish Community of Hebron, accused UNESCO
of aiding the Palestinian Authority in perpetrating a crime of “national
identity theft.”
“In the end, everyone, Jew, Christian and Muslim, will
suffer,” Fleisher told Breaking Israel News. “If you compare the
freedoms that Israeli control ensures with the PA-controlled areas, which are
notoriously off-limits to Jews.”
Fleisher noted that on the Temple Mount, Christians and
Jews are prohibited from praying.
“Even though the Palestinians claim the Tomb of Joseph in
Shechem (Nablus) is holy to Islam, they have burned it down several times and
no tourism is permitted due to Arab violence.”
Fleisher predicted that this religious conflict will
continue so long as the PA incites violence by paying monthly stipends to
terrorists.
In an editorial last year, Fleisher accused UNESCO of
perpetrating fraud.
“Behind the facade of the protection of endangered sites,
UNESCO has become a tool in a nefarious campaign to eradicate the evidence of
Jewish indigeneity in the land of Israel and conversely malign the Jews as occupying
colonialists,” Fleisher wrote in the Jerusalem Post.
“The UNESCO World Heritage Committee has actually become the legitimate arm of
the war against Israel, pushing a jihadist agenda while dressed in a sensible
European suit and tie.”
Fleisher questioned the validity of the international
institution in light of its injustices.
“We must send a clear signal: if the UN and UNESCO cannot
uphold the values and principles necessary to protect world cultures and
heritage sites, let its validity be brought to question – not that of the
Jewish People.”
Fleisher is not alone in his negative assessment of
UNESCO. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last month that, like the
United States, Israel will be withdrawing from
UNESCO at the end of the year.
“In withdrawing from UNESCO in 2017, Israel and the
United States made a clear moral statement that UNESCO’s anti-semitism will no
longer be tolerated,” Netanyahu said at the time, explaining Israel’s decision,
“If and when UNESCO ends its bias against Israel, stops denying history and
starts standing up for the truth, Israel will be honored to rejoin.”
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