A UNESCO funded project reproduced a statue of a lion, the third project of its kind the organization has supported, leading at least one rabbi to conclude that the real goal of the political organization is to promote an agenda that has always stood as Israel’s nemesis: idolatry. The Lion of al-Lāt is an ancient statue, almost 11 feet tall and weighing 15 tons, which stood in the temple of pre-Islamic goddess al-Lāt in Palmyra, Syria. In June 2015 the statue was severely damaged, along with many other artifacts at the historic site,
by the Islamic State (ISIS) after it captured Palmyra. The statue was eventually removed to the National Museum of Damascus where it underwent reconstruction. Part of the reconstruction of the lion statue was performed using high-intensity laser projection equipment adapted for large-scale 3-D printing in stone by the Institute for Digital Archaeology (IDA) in Oxford. Much of the Lion project was underwritten by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) through its Heritage Emergency Fund and by the European Union. READ MORE
