IV 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. RES. 433 
Disapproving of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Or-
ganization (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee Inscription of Hebron 
as a Palestinian World Heritage Site in Danger. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
JULY 11, 2017 
Mr. HASTINGS submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Foreign Affairs 
RESOLUTION 
Disapproving of the United Nations Educational, Scientific 
and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage 
Committee Inscription of Hebron as a Palestinian World 
Heritage Site in Danger. 
Whereas, on July 7, 2017, the United Nations Educational, 
Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), at the 
request of the permanent delegation of Palestine, des-
ignated the ancient city of Hebron as a World Heritage 
Site in Danger; 
Whereas UNESCO’s online report of the resolution’s passage 
refers to the inscription of Hebron as ‘‘Al Khalil Old 
town, Palestine’’; 
Whereas the Cave of the Patriarchs, a shrine in ancient He-
bron holy to Jews, Christians, and Muslims, is recognized 
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•HRES 433 IH 
as the burial place of the Patriarchs and Matriarchs of 
the Jewish people, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, 
Jacob, and Leah, and is the second most holy site in Ju-
daism; 
Whereas the Cave of the Patriarchs sits within a compound 
constructed by Herod, an ancient King of Judea during 
the Second Temple Period over 2,000 years ago, to serve 
as a place for Jewish prayers at the grave sites of the 
Patriarchs and Matriarchs of Judaism; 
Whereas the city of Hebron and the Cave of the Patriarchs 
were conquered 700 years ago by the Mamluks, who con-
verted the Judean compound into a mosque and forbade 
Jews from entering; 
Whereas Jews were prohibited from entering the Cave of the 
Patriarchs until Hebron’s liberation during the 1967 Six- 
Day War, after which it was re-established as a place 
where all religions could worship under certain restric-
tions; 
Whereas UNESCO’s minimization of Jewish connections to 
Hebron and the Cave of the Patriarchs is a politicization 
of world heritage; 
Whereas since ‘‘Palestine’’ was admitted to UNESCO in 
2011, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) has 
been successful in efforts to have UNESCO designate the 
Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem and the Cultural 
Landscape of Southern Jerusalem, Battir as Palestinian 
World Heritage Sites in Danger; 
Whereas the United Nations General Assembly, the United 
Nations Security Council, and other United Nations 
agencies have purposefully and consistently pursued an 
anti-Israel agenda, and have adopted numerous resolu-
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•HRES 433 IH 
tions inherently biased against Israel, most recently in-
cluding— 
(1) United Nations World Health Assembly Agenda 
Item 19, adopted on May 26, 2017, which singled out 
only Israel as a violator of ‘‘mental, physical, and envi-
ronmental health’’, and asserted that Israeli occupation 
was a ‘‘major cause of the problems’’; 
(2) a decision adopted by the UNESCO Executive 
Board on May 2, 2017, which significantly undermined 
Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem and rejected all legisla-
tive and administrative measures taken by Israel in the 
city as ‘‘null and void’’, rejected Jewish ties to the Tem-
ple Mount, the holiest place of the Jewish people, and 
condemned Israeli conduct in Gaza; 
(3) language from the same May 2, 2017, decision, 
which expressed ‘‘deep concern’’ about the effects of at-
tacks on schools and other educational and cultural facili-
ties in Gaza, while notably ignoring the terrorist organi-
zation Hamas’ use of United Nations Relief and Works 
Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East 
(UNRWA) schools to store and fire rockets at Israeli ci-
vilians; 
(4) UNESCO Agenda Item 19, adopted during the 
199th meeting of the Executive Board on April 15, 2016, 
which notably omitted historic Jewish ties to the Temple 
Mount and the Western Wall area in Jerusalem’s Old 
City, condemned Israeli actions taken in response to Pal-
estinian violence, and accused Israel of placing ‘‘Jewish 
fake graves’’ in the vicinity of the al-Aqsa mosque; 
(5) the resolution adopted by the Commission on the 
Status of Women on March 24, 2017, which singled out 
only Israel and expressed ‘‘grave concern about the in-
creased difficulties being faced by Palestinian women and 
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•HRES 433 IH 
girls’’ and ‘‘[deplored] the dire economic and social condi-
tions of Palestinian women and girls’’; and 
(6) United Nations Security Council Resolution 
2334, adopted on December 23, 2016, which condemned 
Israeli settlement activity as a flagrant violation of inter-
national law without distinguishing between Jewish holy 
sites and remote settlements in the West Bank; 
Whereas since its creation in June 2006, the United Nations 
Human Rights Council has passed 67 resolutions con-
demning Israel, more than all other countries combined; 
Whereas the United Nations General Assembly adopted 20 
resolutions at the end of 2016 singling out or con-
demning Israel; and 
Whereas anti-Israel resolutions adopted by the United Na-
tions and its agencies undermine and cause significant 
damage to the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process: Now, 
therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) disapproves of the United Nations Edu-
cational, 
Scientific 
and 
Cultural 
Organization 
(UNESCO) World Heritage Committee inscription 
of Hebron as a Palestinian World Heritage Site in 
Danger; 
(2) rejects any future resolution considered by 
the United Nations General Assembly, United Na-
tions Security Council, or other United Nations 
agencies that is inherently anti-Israel or seeks to im-
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