Alwaght-The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) voted to inscribe Al Khalil’s (Hebron) Old City and Ibrahimi Mosque in the occupied West Bank on the World Heritage in Danger list on Friday, despite Israeli regime and US opposition.
The resolution, filed by the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, Ministry of Tourism, Al Khalil municipality, and Al Khalil rehabilitation committee, argued that Al Khalil’s Old City urgently needed protection from Israeli violations in the area that harmed the exceptional international value of the site.
Friday’s vote asserted that Al Khalil’s Old City and the mosque will be registered in UNESCO's World Heritage List, and also stated that the two sites are to be recognized as being in danger, meaning that each year UNESCO's World Heritage Committee will convene to discuss their cases.
"Just inscribed on @UNESCO #WorldHeritage List & World Heritage in Danger List: Hebron/Al-Khalil Old Town," the organization said on its official Twitter feed.
Among world’s oldest cities
Al Khalil is said to be one of the oldest cities in the world, dating from the Chalcolithic period or more than 3,000 years BC, the UNESCO resolution said.
The occupying Israeli regime usurped the West Bank in the 1967 war in a move considered illegal by the United Nations. Al Khalil’s Old City, which is under full Israeli regime’s military control, is home to some 30,000 Palestinians and around 800 Zionist settlers who live under the protection of the regime’s forces.
The Palestine Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a press release that UNESCO had made “the only logical and correct decision,” describing the move as a “victory for tolerance and diversity.”
“This vote celebrated facts and rejected the shameless high-profile political bullying and attempts at extortion,” the ministry said, and argued that Al Khalil’s Old City and the mosque have been “under threat due to the irresponsible, illegal, and highly damaging actions of Israel, the occupying power, which maintains a regime of separation and discrimination in the city based on ethnic background and religion.”
Israeli exclusionary ideology rejected
“Inscribing Al Khalil as World Heritage under threat rejects the exclusionary ideology that fought this inscription based on prejudice and the rejection of others,” the statement continued, and expressed gratitude for member states that approved the decision for “(promoting) tolerance, preserving world heritage, and (rejecting) the toxic tirades of exclusivity and exclusion."
A statement released by the Palestinian Minister of Antiquities and Tourism Rula Maaya stressed the importance of the “historic event” that she said confirmed the Palestinian identity of Al Khalil and the Ibrahimi mosque, which “by its heritage and history, belongs to the Palestinian people.”
Maaya said the recognition would help protect the site from the “ongoing Israeli violations and continued attempts to Judaize the site," and said the vote also represented a rejection of Israeli claims over the Ibrahimi mosque, which is known to Jews as the Tomb of the Patriarchs.
Palestinian authorities have planned to introduce the site for consideration on UNESCO’s World Heritage List for years, but recently decided to fast track the site’s application owing to routine Israeli regime’s violence in the Old City, which Palestinians have claimed threatens the integrity of the Ibrahimi Mosque, and instead propose the area as an endangered site.
The Ibrahimi Mosque, where the Prophet Abraham is believed to be buried, has been a focal point of violence for decades, as the site is holy to both Muslims and Jews and has been a prime site for Israeli settler activities in the area.
The holy site was split into a synagogue and a mosque after US-born Israeli settler Baruch Goldstein massacred 29 Palestinians inside the mosque in 1994. Since the split, Muslim worshipers have been denied access to the site during Jewish holidays and vice versa in effort to prevent violence from erupting.
Israeli regime isolated
The resolution’s ultimate passage followed intense diplomatic efforts lead by Tel Aviv and Washington in opposition to inducting Al Khalil to the heritage list. October last year UNESCO also adopted a resolution, reaffirming the right of the Palestinians to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in the al-Quds (Jerusalem). The decisions by UNESCO point to increasing international isolation of the Israeli regime while the Palestinian cause gains support worldwide.
