The_Art_Newspaper_-_November_2016

THE ART NEWSPAPER Number 284, November 2016 9

IMA: FRANCOIS LE DIASCORN/GAMMA-RAPHO VIA GETTY IMAGES

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EDWARD TYLER NAHEM

Poetry to honour Paris

victims of November attack

POLITICS

Jerusalem. If there is one place above all where the

70-year-old strife between Arabs and Israelis comes

to a head, it is Temple Mount in Jerusalem. This

was expressed yet again in all its bitterness by the

row over a Palestinian-drafted resolution passed on

12 October by 24 delegates to Unesco, opposed by

six and with 26 abstaining. It was approved by the

cultural body’s World Heritage Committee on 26

October in a secret ballot, with ten states voting in

favour, two opposing and eight abstaining.

The resolution refers to Israel throughout as

the “occupying” power and to the site only as

Haram Al Sharif and not also Bet el Har and Temple

Mount, its Jewish and Christian names, and it

denounces incursions and harassments by Israeli

troops, limitation of access to Muslims wishing to

pray, excavations that allegedly destroy Muslim

historical evidence, suspension of the powers of

the waqf (the Jordanian religious foundation that

has administered the site for centuries) and new

constructions around Temple Mount. It goes on

to deplore Israeli actions at two more holy sites,

which it calls by both their Muslim and Hebrew

names, and the Separation Wall running through

Palestinian territory.

An “inflammatory” resolution?

Nowhere, however, does the resolution deny that

Temple Mount is also a Jewish site, or that the

Western Wall is sacred to Jews; in fact, “the impor-

tance of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls for

the three monotheistic religions” is airmed right

at the start of the resolution.

Yet that was the impression given the next day

by UN Watch, a website with strong pro-Israeli

connnections, which described the resolution as

inflammatory, “erasing Jewish and Christian ties

to Jerusalem and casting doubt on the connection

between Judaism and the ancient city’s Temple

Mount and Western Wall”.

The Israeli prime minster Benjamin Netanyahu

tweeted: “What’s next? A Unesco decision denying

the connection between peanut butter and jelly?

Batman and Robin? Rock and roll?” This went

viral, the accounts of the supposed denial on the

part of the Palestinians of the connection between

Jews and Temple Mount becoming more and more

widespread until, by 21 October, the Italian prime

minster, Matteo Renzi, could denounce the resolu-

tion for saying, “Jerusalem and Jewishness are unre-

lated—a statement as wrong as maintaining that

the sun creates darkness”.

On 14 October, Irina Bokova, the director-

general of Unesco, tried to calm the situation,

saying: “To deny, conceal or erase any of the

Jewish, Christian or Muslim traditions undermines

the integrity of the site, and runs counter to the

reasons that justified its inscription on the Unesco

World Heritage list.” Israel suspended co-operation

with Unesco and began a campaign to persuade

members of the Unesco World Heritage Committee

to vote against the resolution.

Israel’s modern engagement with Temple Mount

began when its troops entered Jerusalem in 1967.

General Moshe Dayan recognised the importance

of the site to Muslims over 1,300 years, and said that

Temple Mount was of largely historical importance

to the Jews but of active religious significance to

Muslims, and so Jews should be allowed into the

precinct but not allowed to pray there. This decision

is enshrined in Israeli law, but is being increasingly

contested by the religious Right in Israel, some of

whom go so far as to lobby for the razing of the

mosques on the site and building of the third

Temple (the first having been destroyed by Nebu-

chadnezzar and the second by Titus).

This latest quarrel with Unesco is against the

background of a long history of UN resolutions over

Palestinian-Israeli issues, in which the Arab coun-

tries unite against Israel.

Anna Somers Cocks

The director-general

of Unesco tried to

calm the situation

Paris. The Institut du Monde Arabe in

Paris (IMA) will honour the victims of the

terrorist attacks in the city last winter

with poetry readings running through-

out the night on 12 November. These

will mark the events of 13 November last

year, when simultaneous attacks orches-

trated by Islamic extremists at the Bata-

clan theatre and at several restaurants in

Paris killed 130 people.

Participants in the poetry night

include the Lebanese artist Zeina Abi-

rached, who will illustrate poems

selected by the French-Lebanese writer

Wissam Arbache; Abirached will draw

images to accompany the verses on a

screen during Arbache’s lecture. Break-

fast is due to be served at 7am, accom-

panied by a reading and performance

by the French artist Brigitte de Malau.

“Poetry is a way of remembering,” the

IMA said in a statement.

The IMA is a forum for talks and sem-

inars exploring sensitive political and

cultural issues linked to North Africa and

the Middle East. Last month, it organised

a conference in collaboration with the

Paris-based, non-profit Roberto Cimetta

Fund, focusing on the plight of artists

in exile. The event aimed to increase

The Institut

du Monde

Arabe (above)

recently hosted

a conference on

artists in exile

“awareness of the current situation of

Arab artists and cultural operators in

exile, particularly among their European

counterparts, in order to promote under-

standing, exchange and engagement”,

the IMA said in a statement.

Ferdinand Richard, the chairman of

the Roberto Cimetta Fund, who chaired

the event, says: “There are so many

images of terror on the television, and

we have no idea what is really happen-

ing in countries such as Syria, where

there are so many good artists.”

Gareth Harris

Row over Temple

Mount in Jerusalem

is reignited

Israel attacks Unesco over pro-Palestinian resolution