UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova defended the Jewish historical links to Jerusalem as she addressed the World Jewish Congress (WJC) plenary assembly in New York.

She pledged to defend the rightful links of all three monotheistic religions to Jerusalem and declared that the “recognition, use and respect” for the names of the holy sites in the city is “paramount.”

UNESCO is the UN’s world heritage organization.

“The Al Aqsa Mosque / Al-Haram al-Sharif, the sacred shrine of the Muslims, is also the Har Habayit – or Temple Mount – the holiest place in Judaism, whose Western Wall is revered by millions across the world, a few steps away from the Saint Sepulchre and the Mount of Olives holy to the Christians,” Bokova said.

“The outstanding universal value of Jerusalem, and the reason why it was inscribed on the World Heritage list, lies in this synthesis, which is an appeal for dialogue not confrontation.”

“To deny, conceal, or erase any of the Jewish, Christian or Muslim traditions runs counter to the reasons that justified its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage list,” Bokova told the World Jewish Congress delegates.

Last year, UNESCO, which is headquartered in Paris, adopted a controversial resolution that deletes Jewish ties to Jerusalem’s holy sites.

At the centre of the controversy was the resolution’s exclusive use of Arabic terms to describe parts of the site deliberately airbrushes out the Jewish connection to the site of the Second Jewish Temple – destroyed in 70 AD.

Alexander Oscar, president Shalom, the organization of Jews in Bulgaria, said Irina Bokova, who is from Bulgaria, ‘’did everything she could’’ to persuade the members of the UNESCO Executive Board to not vote on the anti-Israel resolutions.

In her address, Bokova also launched a new policy guide for educators on teaching about the Holocaust, genocides and mass atrocities. She described the guide as an important tool to promote education and the history of genocide as a tool for peace.

“With this innovative and one of a kind policy guide, UNESCO speaks to the next generation of leaders, of teachers, of citizens around the world. We must empower future generations with the lessons from the Holocaust, equip our children and grandchildren with the tools they need to vanquish intolerance and hate, bigotry and anti-Semitism, racism and prejudice.”