After UNESCO voted to approve a resolution that ignores Jewish ties to the Temple Mount, a group of evangelical Christians called upon members of the faith community to mail Bibles to the organization's leadership in Paris.
According to the Times of Israel, in an appeal on its website, the International Christian Embassy in Jerusalem urged "Christians all over the globe to take a Bible, use a highlighter and mark some of the many passages where it speaks of 'Jerusalem' and the 'Temple,' and then mail it to the UNESCO headquarters in Paris."
The call also states, "We are hoping to inundate UNESCO with tens of thousands of Bibles to drive home the message that Jews and Christians have a much more genuine, historic connection to Jerusalem and the Temple than Muslims. Please join us in demanding that UNESCO abandon, once and for all, these blatant attempts to rewrite history. You will not only be standing with Israel but also defending the Christian sites as well."
Thus far, hundreds of bibles have already been mailed and that thousands were on the way, according to ICEJ.
As earlier reported, the controversy arose last week when UNESCO members voted to approve a resolution, "The Old City of Jerusalem and Its Walls," that referred to the Temple Mount and Western Wall, the sites of millennia-old Jewish and Christian history, solely by their Muslim names. Eight countries abstained and two opposed, while one country was absent from the 21-member Heritage committee.
In a statement released by the organization, ICEJ Executive Director Dr. Jürgen Bühler condemned the move and said, "Most of us view these diplomats as being principled and well-educated. But apparently, some of them forgot their history lessons and we are sending them Bibles to refresh their memory. Even worse, some of these representatives are deliberately trying to erase the Jewish and Christian bonds to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem and other revered sites in the Land of Israel. Hopefully, our campaign will give our nations' envoys at UNESCO the courage to stand up to the anti-Semites in their midst."
Former Republican presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson also criticized the decision and said it stemmed from blatant "anti-Israel" bias.
"Jews and Christians around the world should be morally outraged by UNESCO's theft, robbing them of their history and denying their connection to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall," Carson wrote in an op-ed published by the Independent Journal Review on Monday.
"UNESCO's adaptation of this virulently anti-Semitic and anti-Israel resolution is an outright abomination," he added.
Shortly after the passing of the resolution, Israel announced the discovery of an ancient papyrus fragment with Hebrew text, proving the Jews' claim to the Holy City.
At the time, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu emphasized the importance of the ancient find, saying it was written in Hebrew and not in any other language, and it mentioned Jerusalem by name.
"This letter is 2,700 years old and ... written in Hebrew -- not Arabic, not Aramaic, not Greek, not Latin - Hebrew," Netanyahu said while giving a speech at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel Hayom reported. "UNESCO just received a letter from the past, which explains, in Hebrew, our bond to Jerusalem and its centrality to our people."
Netanyahu also called the decision to pass a resolution declaring that the Jews are not connected with the Temple Mount and the Western Wall "bizarre."
He said denying the Jews' link to these holy sites is like saying "China has no connection to the Great Wall of China, and Egypt has no connection to the pyramids ... I believe that the historical truth is more powerful, and will prevail."
