Sri Lanka In US – Tel Aviv – New Delhi Axis
By Latheef Farook –October 18, 2016
Latheef Farook
Sri Lanka’s abstention from voting on UNESCO resolution on Israeli atrocities on Masjid Al Aqsa: Insults island’s Muslims and Muslims worldwide
On Thursday 13 October 2016 Sri Lanka, once a strong defender of brutalised Palestinian rights, abstained from voting on UNESCO resolution which deprecated Israeli violations in and around the al-Haram al-Sharif, Masjid Al Aqsa, compound in the occupied Old City of Jerusalem al-Quds.
This shocking U Turn in the island’s once proud and respected neutral foreign policy, insults the island’s Muslims and around 1.5 billion Muslims worldwide who always stood by the island especially during times of adversity though successive governments and the mainstream media failed to recognise or appreciate.
Sri Lanka’s abstention in favour of Israeli atrocities demonstrated the bankruptcy of the crisis ridden Yahapalanaya government’s short sighted foreign policy of blindly aligning with US and thereby being indifferent to all US led European Israeli war crimes on Muslims worldwide.
What was further shocking is that in its drive to please US and Israel, the government has dismissed the Muslim community’s unstinted support which played a decisive role in bringing UNP government to power after losing more than two dozen elections.
In its resolution UNESCO, (UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has strongly condemned “the escalating Israeli aggression, its illegal measures and called on “Israel, the occupying power, to respect the historic status quo and to immediately stop these measures.”
The resolution also criticized the “continuous storming of Haram al-Sharif by the Israeli right-wing extremists and uniformed forces. “The resolution ignored Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, used only Muslim names for the Jerusalem Old City holy sites and was harshly critical of Israel for what it termed “provocative abuses that violate the sanctity and integrity” of the area.
The resolution starts by affirming the “importance of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls for the three monotheistic religions,” but then goes on to accuse Israel — which it consistently calls “the occupying power” — of a long list of wrongdoings. The text “firmly deplores the continuous storming” of the Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram AL Sharif — Muslim names for the Temple Mount compound and the mosque located there — “by Israeli right-wing extremists and uniformed forces.”
