After UNESCO Jerusalem vote, Israel cuts UN funding

[oberliner]

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has accused the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization of attempting to negate his country's claim to Jerusalem. At its Paris headquarters on Tuesday, Israel's independence day, UNESCO's executive board committee passed a resolution declaring the nation's claim to Jerusalem "null and void."

In Israel's latest diplomatic spat, officials summoned Carl Magnus Nesser, Sweden's ambassador to Tel Aviv, to express their "disappointment" after Sweden became the only EU country to vote for the resolution.

The text denounced actions taken by "Israel, the occupying power ... to alter the character and status of the holy city of Jerusalem" and criticized the country's annexation of Jerusalem in 1967 - a move never internationally recognized. The resolution also criticizes Israel's excavations in East Jerusalem and two sites in the West Bank as well as its blockade of the Gaza Strip, calling them violations of international law.

The Palestinian Authority's Foreign Ministry praised the resolution for reaffirming "the centrality of Jerusalem to world heritage, as well as the need to confront the dangers posed by the illegal practices of Israel, the occupying power ... which threaten the cultural and historical integrity of these invaluable sites."

http://www.dw.com/en/after-unesco-jerusalem-vote-israel-cuts-un-funding/a-38678817