The United States said on Friday it was reviewing ties with UNESCO after the UN cultural agency declared the Old City of Hevron to be an “endangered Palestinian heritage site.”
Nikki Haley, the U.S. Ambassador to the UN, said the UNESCO decision was an "affront to history" and "further discredits an already highly questionable UN agency."
"Today's vote does no one any good and causes much harm," said Haley in a statement.
"The United States is currently evaluating the appropriate level of its continued engagement at UNESCO" following the vote, she added.
12 countries voted in favor of Friday’s resolution while three opposed it and six countries abstained.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu slammed the vote as "another delusional decision" and ordered to cut an additional $1 million from the membership funds that Israel pays to the UN.
The money will instead be transferred to the establishment of "The Museum of the Heritage of the Jewish People in Kiryat Arba and Hevron" and to additional heritage projects related to Hevron.
Haley has been very critical of the UN and its anti-Israel bias. Before Friday’s vote, she sent a letter to UNESCO Secretary General Irina Bokova in which she stated that the Palestinian Authority was lying when it said that the Cave of the Patriarchs, one of the holiest sites in Judaism, was in danger of being destroyed by Israel.
She has previously blasted an anti-Israel report released by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which offered to “advise and support” efforts to create a “blacklist” database of companies operating in Judea, Samaria, the Golan Heights, and eastern Jerusalem.
Haley said the report “reeks of anti-Israel bias” and added, “Not only does it undermine the credibility of the Human Rights Council on human rights issues, but it once again highlights the unfair bias of the UN when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
