France Respects 'Existing, True' Right of Israel to Jerusalem - PM

France would never deny Israel's right to Jerusalem, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said in a letter sent to Shmuel Rabinovitch, the Rabbi of the Western Wall and the Holy Sites of Israel on Monday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — In April, UNESCO's executive board released and then adopted a resolution, calling Israel "the Occupying Power" and urging it to "stop all violations against Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif [the Arabic name of a holy site in East Jerusalem]."

At the same time the resolution did not include the Israeli name of the site, known as Temple Mount, nor did it reference its role in Jewish culture. France is among the 33 countries that voted for the resolution. Jerusalem protested the resolution and the French vote on it.

France will never deny the "existing, true" Jewish historical right to Jerusalem, Valls was quoted as saying by The Jerusalem Post. "Unfortunate and clumsy formulations befell the language of UNESCO's decision to the point of insult. I believe that this should have been avoided and that the vote should not have happened."

On May 11, Valls condemned the UNESCO resolution.

In the letter to Rabinovitch, he added that Jerusalem "symbolizes the unification of the three major monotheistic religions."

Palestinians have been vying for the recognition of their independent state, proclaimed in 1988, in the territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government refuses to recognize Palestine as an independent political and diplomatic entity, and continues to build settlements on the occupied land, despite objections from the United Nations.