Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton A. Klein released the following statement:

The ZOA strongly praises the Czech Republic’s Chamber of Deputies (parliament) for overwhelmingly passing a resolution: recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel; condemning the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)’s anti-Israel resolutions that deny the rights of Jews to Jerusalem; and urging the Czech government to stop payments to UNESCO.  It was especially meaningful that the Czech parliament passed this resolution on Jerusalem Day (May 25). 

Special thanks to Christian-Zionist Vladimir Kalos of the Christian Embassy for leading this effort; Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman for his involvement in Jerusalem Day celebrations at St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague; Czech Chamber of Deputies deputy chairman Jan Bartosek for condemning UNESCO’s “permanent, biased and hostile stance” against member state Israel and UNESCO’s “unacceptable politicization”; Czech MP Jana Cernochova for aptly declaring that “the only possible sanction against [UNESCO] is that we stop supporting it financially” and for urging that Czech contributions should not be paid unless UNESCO gives up its hostile stance on Israel; Czech MP Daniel Korte for criticizing UNESCO for focusing on Jerusalem rather than on ISIS’s destruction of heritage sites, and for criticizing UNESCO for not protesting against Arabs who damaged Jewish heritage sites; and Czech Republic President Milos Zeman for his warm Jerusalem Day greetings to the Israeli embassy in Prague.  (See “Czech Parliament Recognizes Jerusalem as the Capital of Israel,” by Itamar Eichner, Ynet News, May 24, 2017; and “Czech Parliament Denies UNESCO Resolution on Jerusalem,” Prague Daily Monitor, May 24, 2017.)

ZOA President Morton Klein said:

“During Israel’s War of Independence (1948-1949), when Israel defended herself from six Arab nations’ invading armies, Czechoslovakia was one of the only nations that sold badly needed arms to the fledgling, newly reborn Jewish State.  The Czechs have once again demonstrated their brave moral leadership and friendship to the Jewish people.”

As Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu said regarding the Czech Parliament’s resolution: “This is the correct, worthy and courageous decision that others should copy.” (See “Czech Parliament Recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s Capital, Condemns UNESCO,” by JNS.org, Algemeiner, May 25, 2017.)