Outside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron (Chaim Blaycher/TPS)
An unnamed Arab UNESCO ambassador expressed regret for supporting the agency’s most recent anti-Israel resolution.
The ambassador to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) of an Arab country that does not have diplomatic ties with Israel has apologized to Israel’s UNESCO ambassador, Carmel Shama-Hacohen, for voting for the most recent resolution declaring Hebron’s Old City and the Cave of the Patriarchs to be exclusively a Palestinian World Heritage Site.
“Sorry for today, it was too heated, it is difficult to say it was a secret vote,” the ambassador told Shama-Hacohen in a message through Whatsapp, as originally reported by the Israeli news outlet, Yedioth Ahronoth.
“I know my friend,” replied Shama-Hacohen. “For me, it is like you did it.”
The Arab ambassador apparently conditioned his voting against the resolution so long as it would be by secret ballot. However, when the vote was held out in the open, the ambassador had “no choice” but to vote in favor.
Israel has already responded in protest to the resolution with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement over the weekend that it would cut another $1 million from UN membership payments to be allocated instead for a museum of Jewish heritage in Hebron.
The United States is looking at similar moves of its own, as noted by US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley after the vote.
“The United States is currently evaluating the appropriate level of its continued engagement at UNESCO,” she said after the vote, deeming the resolution “an affront to history.”
Haley added that the resolution only serves to “further discredit an already highly questionable UN agency.”
By: World Israel News Staff
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