The UN’s cultural agency UNESCO has moved to try to calm tensions with Israel after the country’s cut cooperation with it on Friday. <br /><br /> Israel froze ties after the UN body adopted a highly critical draft resolution of Israeli actions at holy sites in east Jerusalem, a decision the head of UNESCO later tried to clarify. <br /><br /> Michael Worbs, UNESCO’s Executive Board Chairman said: ‘‘The board has 58 members, governments by the way. So in the end, 24 members of the board voted in favour of this decision, which shows it is a very divisive issue. And the origin of this division is not from inside UNESCO, it’s from the real world, I would say.”<br /><br /> But several politicians in Israel, including the prime minister, have accused the UN agency of denying Judaism’s connections to holy sites in Jerusalem. <br /><br /> ‘‘With this absurd resolution, UNESCO has lost what little legitimacy it had left, but I believe that the historical truth is much stronger and will prevail,” Benjamin Netanyhu said. <br /><br /> The row was sparked after the draft text repeatedly referred to the site, known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the al-Aqsa compound by only its Muslim name. <br /><br /> The motion also accused Israeli security forces of agression towards Muslims at the site which has been a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence.<br />
