Palestine says Israeli withdrawal from UNESCO “evasion of responsibilities over Jerusalem’’

The Palestinian government said the Israeli decision to withdraw from the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is an attempt “to evade from its responsibilities to implement UNESCO resolutions towards Jerusalem and Alaqsa mosque.”
The government said this on Thursday in a statement following its weekly cabinet meeting in Ramallah city.
“Israel’s withdrawal from the UNESCO must not mean that it is exempt of its obligations under UNESCO resolutions and its cooperation with its committees,” said the statement.
“Jerusalem is subject to escalating schemes against it, especially after the UNESCO resolutions that came to serve justice to the Palestinian inalienable rights,” said the statement.
The statement urged the UNESCO to investigate the Israeli “attacks” against Jerusalem’s history, including the holy Alaqsa mosque, the old city and its gates and to expose the plans of the underground tunnels and their possible consequences.
Israel declared on Tuesday that it has withdrawn from the UN organisation, alongside the U.S., accusing it of working against it.
The U.S. declared it was going to withdraw from UNESCO last October, a year after the organisation adopted a resolution that states that the Islamic and Christian sites in the old city of Jerusalem have nothing to do with Jewish heritage.
Israel immediately said it will boycott the UNESCO in response.
Palestine has been accepted as a full member of the UNESCO since November 2011 with the support of 107 votes in favour, 14 against and 52 abstentions.
Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of their future independent state, while Israel wants all Jerusalem to be its eternal capital.
Israel annexed East Jerusalem in the 1967 war and declared the whole city as its eternal indivisible capital in 1980, but the move has not been recognised by the international community. (Xinhua/NAN)