The Pinocchio display that pro-Israel groups will erect near UN headquarters on Thursday. Photo: Artists4Israel.

JNS.org – Pro-Israel groups will erect a giant Pinocchio effigy across from the United Nations headquarters in New York City in protest of the recent resolutions passed by its cultural body, UNESCO, which deny Jewish and Christian connections to Jerusalem.

The Pinocchio display will be put up in Dag Hammarskjold Plaza across from the UN following a “We Stand Together” rally at New York City’s Israeli Consulate Thursday afternoon. The rally is organized by AMCHA-Coalition for Jewish Concerns and co-sponsored by StandWithUs New York and other groups.

Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, said UNESCO through its resolutions not only negates 3,000 years of Jewish roots in Jerusalem, but also “deprecates and belittles” Judaism.

“These are lies that betray UNESCO’s own mandate to ‘contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture.’ Instead of contributing to peace by building bridges between Israel and its Arab neighbors, UNESCO has become a vehicle for fomenting conflict and strife,” Rothstein said.

In October, UNESCO’s Executive Committee passed a resolution that referred to the holy sites in Jerusalem exclusively by their Muslim names, thereby ignoring Jewish and Christian connections to the Temple Mount. UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee passed a similar resolution a few weeks later.