WASHINGTON D.C. – Representative Paul A. Gosar, D.D.S. (AZ-04) issued the following statement in response to the United Nations’ vote to categorize the holiest Jewish temple in Jerusalem as belonging to Islam and Christianity.

“The recent vote by the United Nations disavowing Jewish historical ties and exclusivity to the Temple Mount—the holiest and most sacred Temple in Judaism—is an outrageous act of religious persecution. This is a transparent effort, supported by 129 nations but opposed by the United States, to rewrite history, cleanse the holy area of its religious ties to the Jewish faith and deny that Israel has roots to the Middle East.

No one can simply “vote” to erase historical and religious events.  This vote, coming during Hanukkah, is particularly ill conceived.  At its core, this is religious and ethnic cleansing and its purpose is to give validity to a false claim that the Temple is an Islamic holy site.  It is not and it never should be.

The Jewish Temple, located in the heart of Jerusalem’s Old City, is holy ground to Jews and it belongs solely to their faith.  I object to any effort to ethnically cleanse the Jewish people from their sole historic claim to this land and temple.

It remains an abomination that a mosque was allowed to be built over this temple. The United Nations should be finding ways to dismantle and move that mosque, which is an affront to all religions,” concluded Congressman Gosar.

Background:

On December 3, 2021 the United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution 129-11 that disavowed Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and referred to it solely by its Muslim name of al-Haram as-Sharif.  This is part of a push by the Palestinian Authority and the Arab states across the United Nations to rebrand Judaism’s most holy site as an exclusively Islamic one.

A story on the United Nations’ vote can be seen here.