United Nations votes to call Temple Mount in Israel by its Muslim name

The United Nations General Assembly voted on Wednesday to approve a resolution that ditches Jewish ties to the Temple Mount, which is a holy site in the city of Jerusalem. The assembly chose instead to officially call it by its Muslim name, al-Haram al-Sharif.

On a text known in the Assembly as the “Jerusalem Resolution,” 129 voted for the resolution and 11 voted against, with 31 nations abstaining. The push is apparently coming from the Palestinian Authority and Arab states within the UN to rebrand the holiest site in the Jewish faith as a Muslim one solely.

The UN noted, “Also adopted was a resolution titled ‘Jerusalem,’ in which the Assembly reiterated its determination that any actions taken by Israel, the occupying Power, to impose its laws, jurisdiction and administration on the Holy City of Jerusalem are illegal.”

The Assembly added, “Recalling the 2015 Security Council press statement on Jerusalem, in which the Council called for upholding unchanged the historic status quo at the Haram al-Sharif, the Assembly stressed that a comprehensive, just and lasting solution to the question of the City of Jerusalem should take into account the legitimate concerns of both the Palestinian and Israeli sides.” 

The location discussed in Jerusalem’s Old City is known as the holiest site pertaining to the Jewish faith, as well as Islam’s third holiest site. The United States opposed the resolution and said the removal of more inclusive terminology for the site, which has ties to the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim faiths was of “real and serious concern.”

The U.S. envoy spoke to the UN, saying, “It is morally, historically, and politically wrong for members of this body to support language that denies” Jewish and Christian ties to the Temple Mount and al-Haram al-Sharif.

The number of those in support of the resolution has dwindled since it was last approved in 2018 by the Assembly. Even though amendments were made decreasing from two to one the number of times al-Haram al-Sharif is noted, the number of abstaining countries has increased from 14 to 31, more than double the original number. While all European countries had previously supported the resolution, several voted against this time, or chose to abstain.