Israel slammed the PX Commission of the executive board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) after it adopted resolutions on Wednesday titled “Occupied Palestine,” which declared that the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem are integral parts of “the Occupied Palestinian territory.”
The group also denounced the construction of a security fence and “other measures aimed at altering the character, status and demographic composition of the Occupied Palestinian territory.”
Jordan, Egypt, Sudan, Morocco, Lebanon, Qatar and Oman sponsored the resolutions, approved almost immediately by the commission, which consists of the 59 members of UNESCO’s Executive Committee, which Israel is not part of.
The U.S. withdrew from UNESCO last year, and Israel is following suit.
Nicolas Kassianides, UNESCO’s assistant director-general for external relations, ridiculously remarked at the meeting that the resolutions were adopted following close collaboration between member states, invoking “the spirit of constructive dialogue that enabled us to reach a consensus.”
Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon stated that these latest anti-Israel resolutions served as “further evidence—for anyone who did not understand why the United States and Israel withdrew from UNESCO—that again proves that UNESCO is a body based on lies and biases, and is deliberately acting against us.”
“The state of Israel will not be a member of an organization that is trying to rewrite history and willing to be manipulated by our enemies,” Danon added.
Netanyahu: UNESCO ‘Must Stop Practicing Anti-Semitism’
Israel has long criticized the anti-Israel bias within UNESCO, where Israel and its allies are far outnumbered by Arab countries and their supporters. Since 2009, UNESCO has passed 71 resolutions condemning Israel and only two resolutions against all other countries combined.
Led by Arab countries, the organization has long been hard at work to deny the Jews’ connection to the Land of Israel and steal their history and heritage by dubbing it “Palestinian.”
In 2017, it passed a motion denying Jewish historical and religious ties to Jerusalem on Israel’s Independence Day. Later on, it passed a similar resolution denying any Jewish ties to the city of Hebron.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month declined an invitation from UNESCO to participate in a conference on anti-Semitism, saying that if the organization wants to fight anti-Semitism “it must stop practicing anti-Semitism.”
“While I commend all efforts to combat anti-Semitism, I have decided not to participate in this week’s UNESCO conference on anti-Semitism due to the organization’s persistent and egregious bias against Israel,” Netanyahu stated.
“The mark of anti-Semitism was once singling out the Jewish people for slander and condemnation. The mark of anti-Semitism today is singling out the Jewish state for slander and condemnation,” Netanyahu explained. “If UNESCO wants to remove this mark of shame, it must do more than host a conference on anti-Semitism. It must stop practicing anti-Semitism.”
Netanyahu said that UNESCO “must stop the absurdity of passing resolutions which deny the connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel, between the Jewish people and our eternal capital Jerusalem.”
“No matter what UNESCO says, the Western Wall is not occupied Palestinian territory and the Cave of the Patriarchs—the burial site of Abraham and Sara, Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob, and Leah—is not a Palestinian Heritage Site,” the Israeli premier declared. {eoa}
This article originally appeared at unitedwithisrael.org.
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