US Senator Ted Cruz. Photo: Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – Two Republican lawmakers have introduced new legislation condemning the United Nations cultural body UNESCO, shortly after the US and Israel separately announced their plans to withdraw from the organization due to its anti-Israel bias.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) last Friday introduced a measure that reaffirms “the deep historical connection between the Jewish people and the city of Jerusalem.”

The legislation conveys support for “the Israeli government’s protection of religious freedom for all faiths,” and details archaeological findings throughout Jerusalem that prove the historical Jewish and Christian presence in Israel’s capital.

“The Trump Administration has demonstrated strong moral clarity in deciding to withdraw and continuing to withhold US taxpayer dollars from UNESCO as a result of its relentless hostility towards our close ally Israel,” said Cruz.

Gaetz said UNESCO’s “cruelty, their attempts to erase history, and their anti-Semitism cannot be tolerated any longer.”

In July, UNESCO approved a resolution denying Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem’s Old City as well as a measure declaring Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs, where the biblical Jewish matriarchs and patriarchs are believed to be buried, as an endangered Palestinian heritage site. In October 2016, UNESCO passed two resolutions ignoring all Jewish and Christian connections to Jerusalem’s holy sites.