Forty United Nations Ambassadors from around the globe visited the City of David in ancient Jerusalem on Friday (Feb. 1) as the guests of Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Danny Danon.
The Ambassadors toured the 3,000-year-old archaeological excavations of ancient Jerusalem together with Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon, Israel Prize Recipient and Founder of the City of David Foundation David Be’eri and Vice-President of City of David Foundation Doron Spielman.
The visit comes just weeks after the United States and Israel left the The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) over its ongoing anti-Israel bias and denial of the historical connection of ancient Jerusalem to Jews and Christians.
Ambassador Danny Danon explained the specific significance of the visit to the City of David to his colleagues.
“I have brought 40 United Nations Ambassadors here to the City of David; to see where it all began,” he said. “Three-thousand years ago, this is where King David established his capital city. The land of Israel is our ancestral homeland and Jerusalem is our eternal capital.
“We will continue to bring United Nations Ambassadors, diplomats and staffers here to the City of David, because there is nowhere better on earth than the City of David to demonstrate the Jewish people’s historic connection to Jerusalem. At UNESCO our history became a point of debate and was later denied. It is easy to theorize from afar, but here in the City of David the archaeology shows a clear and indisputable reality.”
“The archaeological facts that have been uncovered in City of David demonstrate the Jewish people’s deep connection to Jerusalem, our historic and modern-day capital. Attempts by discriminatory and biased organizations like UNESCO will never succeed,” Doron Spielman, Vice-President, City of David Foundation told his guests.
The City of David is Israel’s largest active archaeological site, situated upon the ancient city of Jerusalem. It is the place recorded in the Bible upon which King David established Jerusalem as the united capital of Israel 3,000 years ago, and which remained the seat of the Davidic dynasty for centuries thereafter. The City of David is an Israeli National Heritage Site with more than half a million visitors annually, where some of the most compelling personalities and seminal events of the Biblical period unfolded; rich with significance to Jews and Christians alike, deeply influencing the development of western civilization; and continuing to serve as an inspiration in the lives of millions.