The Executive Committee of UNESCO, the Paris-based United Nations body in charge of education and culture, voted a Palestinian-initiated resolution which denies all connection between Jews and Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

There were 26 abstentions, incuding France, 24 supported the initiative, and six voted against the resolution, the US, UK, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Estonia, and German.

Not a single European nation voted for the resolution.

The resolution proposal, which condemns Israel on several issues regarding Jerusalem and its holy sites, was advanced by the Palestinians alongside Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar and Sudan.

The resolution asserts that Jerusalem is holy to the three monotheistic religions: Judaism, Islam and Christianity. However, it includes a special section dealing with the Temple Mount, which says the site is sacred only to Muslims and fails to mention that it is sacred to the Jews as well. In fact, it mentions neither the Hebrew term for the site – Har HaBayit – nor its English equivalent, the Temple Mount. The site is referred to only by its Muslim names – Al-Aqsa Mosque and Haram al-Sharif.

France, which had promised in May that it would oppose any new such resolution after supporting it in April, at first was going to vote for the resolution saying that Jews have no connection to Jerusalem, but it was convinced to abstain from voting in the end. The same for Sweden, Slovenia, India, Argentina, and Togo.

Israel had sought the Holy See's help in forestalling the UNESCO resolution, arguing that it will also harm Christians.

Israel's permanent delegate to UNESCO, Ambassor Carmel Shama Hacohen, declared : "Israel and the Jewish people don't require UNESCO's or any other country's confirmation of the special connection between the Jewish people and the State of Israel and Jerusalem in general and the holy sites therein like the Western Wall and the Temple Mount in particular."

He went on : "There is no connection of another people to another place in the world that comes close to the strength and depth of our connection to Jerusalem from a religious, historical and national perspective, a connection that has stood the test of 2,000 years."