UN official spurns Netanyahu’s Jewish history lesson offer

A senior United Nations official Saturday brushed aside an invitation from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to a lecture on Jewish history.

Netanyahu offered Friday to host the lecture in response to a recent resolution of the UN’s cultural body condemning Israeli aggressions against Muslims at Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the occupied al-Quds ('Jerusalem'), avoiding mentioning the site’s Israeli name of “Temple Mount.”

The UNESCO resolution refers to Israel as the occupying power at every mention and uses the Muslim Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram al-Sharif without calling it as Israelis name.

Netanyahu had said his lecture, to be delivered by a scholar in the coming weeks, would "educate UN staff and diplomats about the site’s history".

The UN’s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, bristled at the suggestion that UN staff were insufficiently educated.