Netanyahu offers history lesson to UN staff over resolution

JERUSALEM – Israel's prime minister is offering to personally host a lecture on Jewish history for local U.N. staff.

The proposal follows outrage in Israel over a resolution adopted by the U.N. cultural agency that put the Western Wall in Jerusalem — Judaism's holiest site — in quotation marks and described other Jewish sites as "so-called."

The resolution, sponsored by several Arab countries, was adopted by UNESCO's 58-nation executive board last month. Many view it as an example of anti-Israel bias.

Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday that he was "shocked to hear that UNESCO adopted a decision denying any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, our holiest site."

The Israeli leader expressed disbelief that "anyone, let alone an organization tasked with preserving history, could deny this link which spans thousands of years."