Clinton Condemns ‘Outrageous’ UNESCO Vote on Jerusalem
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on Tuesday issued a strongly-worded condemnation against the United Nations ahead of another planned vote by the UNESCO World Heritage Committee on a resolution on “the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls.”
“It is disappointing and wrong to see that UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee is considering a resolution on Jerusalem that fails to recognize and respect the deep and historic ties of the Jewish people to Jerusalem and its holy sites,” Clinton said in a statement. “Tomorrow’s planned vote follows an outrageous UNESCO vote last week on a similar resolution.”
Twenty-one member states of UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee are scheduled to vote on Wednesday on “The Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls” resolution, which is similar to a resolution passed earlier this month by UNESCO’s executive board.
Clinton, currently leading her Republican opponent, Donald Trump, by a comfortable margin, pledged to stand with Israel against biased actions at the UN if elected president. “I have always stood with Israel to reject these biased actions at the United Nations, and I always will,” she said.
On Monday, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) initiated a bipartisan letter to members of the committee urging them to oppose this attempt to re-write Jerusalem’s history. The letter was also signed by Senators Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY), and Joe Manchin (D-WV); and Reps. Ted Deutch (D-FL), Eliot Engel (D-NY), Nita Lowey (D-NY), Kay Granger (R-TX), and Ed Royce (R-CA).
“Members of the World Heritage Committee should reject this pernicious effort to delegitimize Israel, and vote against this resolution that attempts to rewrite thousands of years of Jerusalem’s Jewish identity, which has been scientifically reaffirmed by the archaeological record,” Cruz said in a statement. “It is long past time for more countries to do the same and put an end to this absurd charade to undermine our close ally Israel.”
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