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GOP pressing for US to drop out of UNESCO in the wake of its declaration that there are no Jewish shrines in Yesha.

http://www.nysun.com/foreign/uns-ant...ly-test/87122/

Among those who call on America to withdraw from UNESCO are the presumptive Republican Speaker, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, and Majority Leader, Eric Cantor of Virginia. Other Republicans, including a former United States permanent representative here, John Bolton, urge an even more ambitious reform in the rules that govern funding for international organizations: have America pay only to fund activities that enhance its own national objectives.

Such calls may receive a significant shot in the arm after UNESCO’s executive board voted for five anti-Jewish decisions last month, passing them by large margins. They include a demand that Israel remove from its list of national heritage sites the burial places of Judaism’s three biblical patriarchs – Abraham Isaac, and Jacob – as well as the tomb of one of the matriarchs, Rachel.

UNESCO “urges the Israeli authorities to remove the two sites from its national heritage list,” according to one of the resolutions, which passed on October 21 by a large majority of 44 of the board’s 58 members. Twelve countries, from Europe and Africa, abstained, while only America opposed the measure. Four other measures passed by similar margins, calling on Israel to refrain from archeological activities in several biblical sites, including the Temple Mount.

Israel added the West Bank’s Cave of the Patriarch, near Hebron, and Rachel’s Tomb, near Bethlehem, to its list of national heritage sites back in February to much outcry from Arabs, who said the sites are holy to Muslims. Israel noted that Muslims regularly pray at both sites, unlike Jews who had been barred entry prior to the 1967 War, when Jordan controlled them. Since February, there was no change in the arrangements that govern prayers at both sites.

American diplomats fought to stave off UNESCO’s decisions by telling colleagues in Paris that the exercise – reportedly initiated by Prime Minister Erdogan of Turkey –


See also
http://www.jewishrefugees.blogspot.com/