(Joshua Sharf/JNS.org) The pro-Israel education group StandWithUs and the International Legal Forum have started a petition at Change.org that urges the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to stop denying the connection between Jews and their holy sites. The petition states that UNESCO “is obligated to promote and educate about religious tolerance. UNESCO’s denying the Jewish connection to Jerusalem and its holy sites violates UNESCO’s own mandate by erasing the heritage of millions of people and violating their religious and cultural rights.”The move comes in response to a recent UNESCO resolution that refers to the Temple Mount only by its Arab name, “Haram al-Sharif.” The location was the site of both the First and Second Jewish Temples, a fact that goes unmentioned in the UNESCO resolution. The resolution also refers to the Western Wall Plaza—the last remnant of the Second Temple—by its Arabic name.

UNESCO’s measure calls both Hebron and Bethlehem “integral” parts of “Palestine.” Hebron is the site of the Cave of the Patriarchs, considered by both Muslims and Jews to be the burial tomb of Abraham and Sarah, and by Jews to also be the final resting place of Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and Leah. Bethlehem, the birthplace of Jesus, also contains Rachel’s Tomb. Israel, the resolution claims, is “planting Jewish fake graves in other spaces of the Muslim cemeteries.”