UNESCO headquarters in Paris
UNESCO headquarters in ParisReuters

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) on Sunday denounced the UN's cultural agency, UNESCO, for considering another anti-Israel resolution.

“Last fall, we led a bipartisan, bicameral effort to members of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) urging opposition to two reprehensible anti-Israel resolutions that denied the historical connection of the Jewish people to Jerusalem, including the Temple Mount and Western Wall,” they said.

“Next week, on Israel’s Independence Day, it is expected that UNESCO’s Executive Board will consider yet another biased resolution that falsely and shamefully demonizes the Jewish State. These anti-Israel resolutions should be unequivocally rejected whenever they are proposed.

“It is long past time for Members of UNESCO to stop being complicit in this intentional campaign to delegitimize Israel and we call upon all members of the Executive Board to vote against the upcoming resolution, or any similar such resolution,” said Cruz and Ros-Lehtinen.

UNESCO is set to vote this week on an anti-Israel resolution which includes clauses denying any Jewish connection to the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem. It also accuses Israel of killing children in Gaza.

The Trump administration has reportedly been busy trying to convince UNESCO member countries to vote against the resolution.

Last year, the cultural agency passed a series of resolutions which attempted to erase the connection of the Jewish people to the holy places in Jerusalem and to present those places as holy to Muslims only.

Those resolutions maintained that the Western Wall and Temple Mount will be referred to by their Arabic names and the Hebrew terms for the sites will only appear in quotation marks in UN references.

UNESCO Secretary General Irina Bokova was among those who spoke out at the time against the agency’s executive board decision to adopt the anti-Israel resolution.

Last week, Bokova spoke to the World Jewish Congress’ 15th Plenary Assembly in New York, pledging to defend the rightful links of all three monotheistic religions to Jerusalem.