Israel's ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama Cohen, reached an agreement with the ambassador of an Arab country which does not conduct diplomatic relations with Israel to vote against the UNESCO resolution claiming that the Cave of the Patriarchs is a Palestinian heritage site.
The ambassador however conditioned his support on the vote being taken in a secret ballot, but in the end there was no secret ballot and therefore he did not vote against, claiming later in a text message to Shama Cohen that "I had no choice."