Western Wall in Jerusalem and Denial From UNESCO

Nadene Goldfoot                                                

Solomon's 2nd Temple rebuilt after Babylonian destruction in 586 BCE by the Jewish returnees from Persia with the good graces of Cyrus who  permitted their return and building plans.

UNESCO, a part of the United Nations, standing for United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, has just come out with a denial that the Western Wall in Jerusalem has had anything to do with the Jewish people!

Such denial only shows who they are partial to, and that is the Muslim community that wants to take over Jerusalem, Israel's capital that goes back in history to King David's Israel of  (1010 BCE to 970  BCE).
                                                                               

Undoubtedly, UNESCO must not know that this wall used to be called the Wailing Wall, or that Jews from 1948 onward were prevented from entering and visiting this wall by the Jordanians whose King Abdullah had taken over this part of the promised Jewish Homeland as promised by the UN's prior group,.League of Nations.  We wailed or cried in 70 CE when the Romans burned down our Temple as well as the city and thousands of Jews were starved and slaughtered to death.
                                                                         

Now called the Western Wall or in Hebrew, kotel maarravi, it was once part of the wall that enclosed Herod's Temple.  Herod  (73 BCE to 4 BCE) was appointed as king of Judah by the Roman senate.  Herod was NOT elected by the Jews, but did rule them and was Jewish himself.  He was the son of Antipater, the Idumean and his mother, Cypros,  was a Nabatean.  Idumeans were converted Jews who were from around Mount Seir, a country also called Edom south of the Dead Sea and were also Semitic but descended from Esau and lived by hunting.  They were traditional enemies of the Israelites and had fought against King Saul and were defeated by King David.  So he was looked at askance and not really trusted or liked at all by the population.  It had been John Hyrcanus who had forcibly converted them to Judaism and Herod was a descendant. As for his mother, Nabateans were people of Arab extraction living in Edom in the 6th century BCE and were nomads who learned to develop agriculture in the desert.  They developed a remarkable Arab-Hellenistic culture, especially in their rose-red rock cut city of Petra which is part of Jordan today.  They were subdued by the Romans in 63 BCE.  Evidently Herod did not have a Jewish mother.    Jews stopped converting actively a long time ago, this being one of the reasons why.
                                   

                                           

His father had been in cahoots with the enemy, the Romans.  His father was very political and had appointed Herod as the governor of Galilee and showed a strong hand by executing dissidents.  The Sanhedrin almost put him to death as he had deserved to be, but he was saved from this with Hyrcanus and Sextus Caesar, governor of Syria  intervening.
                               

                                         

Rabbis had brought in a few extras for prayers 

The Temple was the 2nd Temple of Solomon, which had come into ruin with all the battles from Greeks and Romans in the land.  Herod did remodel it as such a building was the way nations showed their power in those days.
                                                                           

Praying  here is serious, deep meditation under prayer shawls

The 5 lower courses, each over 3 feet high, dated from the time of Herod.  The wall continues over 60 feet underground.  At the West end of the Temple was the HOLY OF HOLIES, where only the high priest could enter.  This part of the wall was regarded as sacred ever since Talmud writing days of the 10th century.  Regular services had been held before it.
                                                                         

Mosque of Omar -also called Dome of the Rock: over 2nd Temple site
built by Caliph Abd al-Malik in about 738 to replace the temporary structure set up by
Caliph Omar 100 years earlier.  It is on the traditional site of Mt. Moriah and is in the
center of the Temple area (al-Harim ash-Sherif) in Jerusalem, Israel.

Solomon's Temple was the place where Abraham prepared to sacrifice Issac. It is where Mohammed ascended to heaven on his horse.  It has become a very holy place to Islam and has been for Judaism. since David's days. 

Since 70 CE and the destruction of our Temple and our city of Jerusalem,  the Romans had the audacity to build a Roman temple on the site over our Temple.  Since the Moslem Period from 632, after Mohammad's death, a mosque has stood over the Roman Temple called the Mosque of Omar.  This is how it is now in Jordanian hands, as exemplified by Moshe Dayan in the 1967 War who allowed Muslim worshippers there. Muslims have not reciprocated to us and do not allow Jews to pray near their own 2nd Temple site.If a Jew is seen moving his lips, he is arrested if caught.
                                                                                                                     

1967 IDF finally at Wall

The area in front of the Western Wall is considered as Moslem property, so a serious fight broke out between Jews and Moslems in 1929, a year of  many attacks that were made on the Jewish population due to the instigation of  the Sherif of Jerusalem, a Muslim who wanted to be king.  There was a paragraph in the Israel-Jordan 1949 Armistice Agreement saying there was the Jewish right of access to the wall but still access was not allowed by Jordan.
                                                                         

The result of the 1967 Six Day War with all the attacking nations against Israel was that Israel won, and so won the right to  visit the Wall now under Jewish sovereignty for the 1st time since the 2nd Temple period.  On Shavuot 1967, the 1st day the Wall could be visited by the Jewish public, 200,000 people went there.  Since then it has been a focal point for Jews from all parts of the world.  It's the first place a tourist wants to go to.  We leave prayers in the cracks of the wall.
                                                                                 

After 1968, excavations in the area directed by B. Mazar, uncovered many remains dating from Temple times.  So UNESCO voting members, DON'T TELL ME WE JEWS DON'T HAVE A CONNECTION TO THIS WALL!

Update: 6:40pm 10/16/16 So far, USA and Japan are not sending money to UNESCO for denying Western Wall's connection to Jews.  (seen on facebook).

Resource: The New Standard Jewish encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosque_of_Omar_(Jerusalem)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNESCO
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4866955,00.html
UPDATE: 10/19/16  https://unitedwithisrael.org/watch-sukkot-priestly-blessings-at-jerusalems-western-wall/?utm_source=pushengage&utm_medium=push_notification&utm_campaign=pushengage