Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman (Yisrael Beytenu) responded on Friday to UNESCO World Heritage Committee's decision to recognize the Cave of the Patriarchs (Me'arat Hamachpelah) as a Palestinian heritage site and hand it over to a convicted terrorist.
"UNESCO is a politically biased, embarrassing, and anti-Semitic organization which makes scandalous decisions," Liberman said. "None of the decisions made by this irrelevant organization will harm our historical rights to the site, nor our right to our land. Our rights are thousands of years old."
"I hope that together with our great friend the United States, we will manage to halt funding to this organization. This resolution proves once again that the Palestinian Authority does not want peace - it wants to incite and slander, and to ruin Israel's international image."
MK Sharren Haskel (Likud) said, "UNESCO's declaration is ridiculous. UNESCO chose again to serve Palestinian propaganda and lies. For thousands of years, the Jewish nation has been connected to the Cave of the Patriarchs and our ancestors' city of Hevron."
"No resolution can rewrite history. UNESCO's credibility is questionable, and pathetic decisions like this one turn UNESCO into an irrelevant and unimportant organization."