Last week, CRIF, the umbrella representative group of French Jewish institutions, deplored France’s abstention during a vote on a UNESCO resolution that denies the historic Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall in Jerusalem.

The motion had been submitted by various Arab countries to the Executive Board of UNESCO which gathered in Paris, where the UN body in charge of culture and education is headquartered. The motion was backed by 24 states with 6 opposing and 26 abstaining, including France, Italy and Spain.

‘While acknowledging the changing in France’s position, which chose to abstain, the CRIF deplored in a statement that ''once again our country has failed to find a clear voice to recognize the historical reality of the link between Judaism and Jerusalem'’.

CRIF stressed that '‘France must urgently get away from this ambiguous position which makes the French Jewish community suffer’'.

The group commended the firmness of the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Estonia, Germany and Lithuania, which voted against this motion ''that aims once again at falsifying history by denying historical ties of the Jewish people to Jerusalem.''

It pointed out that ‘no European state backed this outrageous motion and that only 24 out of the 58 member states of the Executive Board voted in favour, including all Arab and Muslim members.’'

While affirming the importance of the Old City to all three monotheistic faiths, the resolution stipulates that the Temple Mount is a Holy site for Muslims only. Holy sites are incidentally referred to only by their Muslim names, Al-Aqsa/Al-Haram Al-Sharif.

The day after the vote, the Israeli Minister of Education, Naftali Bennett, accused UNESCO of ‘directly supporting Islamist terrorism’ and announced that Israel would suspend all professional activities with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

In April, a similar resolution was adopted after being backed by 33 member states, including France. This led to a diplomatic crisis between Israel and France. Later, French President François Hollande, and his Prime Minister, Manuel Valls, expressed their regrets for the vote and promised not to support such resolutions again.

Meyer Habib, a member of the French parliament who represents French residents overseas, condemned France for breaking its word: ‘'France has once again missed the opportunity to demonstrate its firmness and credibility. This will weaken our country in the Middle East.’'

He added: ‘'Such an indecisive and lukewarm position is very disappointing knowing that this shameful text once again falsifies history in the most disgusting way and gives in to pressures from an intellectual and diplomatic terrorism carried out by the Palestinian National Authority and many Arab states.’'

Israeli jurist and journalist Ben Dror Yemini had declared that this new vote would allow France to have a moral voice heard and to proclaim the historical truth.

Today, faced with the French abstention, he raisesd a troublesome question: ‘How much longer will a Diaspora and Jewish religious institutions be able to remain in a country that denies the very existence of the link between Judaism and the age-old world centre of spirituality and Jewish History?’''