The Fiasco at UNESCO

By DAVID PARSONS  dated 08/07/2012

The latest UNESCO decisions will only whet the Palestinians’ appetite to encroach on more religious sites within Israel.

In Washington they joke that no one is safe so long as Congress is in session, but nothing can compare to the “Flat Earth” society operating within the UN system.

Last week, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization made a series of decisions regarding religious sites in the Holy Land that are both patently absurd and woefully unhelpful in the search for peace and mutual understanding in this fractured region.

First, UNESCO followed up on last year’s admission of “Palestine” as a member state of the world body by listing the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem as a World Heritage site located in this nonexistent country of Palestine.


Incredibly, the traditional place of Christ’s birth and the pilgrimage route leading to it were also added to the list of endangered World Heritage sites.

In pushing for this decree, the Palestinian Authority argued that the Church of the Nativity was in danger because the “Israeli occupation” was preventing them from repairing a leaky roof in the church as well as blocking access to this revered site.

Ahead of the vote, a team of UNESCO experts had visited Bethlehem and determined that the church, in fact, was not endangered and did not even qualify yet for World Heritage status. The Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Armenian Orthodox clerics who oversee the Nativity compound concurred with these findings in a letter sent to UNESCO in April, which urged that the site not be turned into a political football.

Yet a majority of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee did just that at its annual session in St. Petersburg last Friday. Ignoring the pleas of the clergymen and the advice of their own experts, 13 of the 21 member states on the Committee voted to prematurely grant the church World Heritage status and blame Israel for endangering it.

Now Israel was not opposed to listing the Nativity Church as a place of great significance to the entire world. But it did object to the politicizing of the process and to the finding that it is endangered. After all, nothing is stopping the roof repairs and over two million Christian pilgrims managed to safely visit the Church of the Nativity last year.

In another swipe at Israel last week, the UNESCO Committee also endorsed a Jordanian declaration from some 30 years ago that accused Israel of endangering the Temple Mount and walls of the Old City of Jerusalem.

Amman managed to add Jerusalem’s walled city and the Temple Mount to the World Heritage list in 1981 and then to the endangered list in 1982. But according to the Petra news agency, UNESCO has now accepted the Hashemite Kingdom’s claim that it has jurisdiction over these areas and that the Israeli occupation is harming the cultural heritage of the city.

The issue of Jerusalem is back on UNESCO’s agenda because Israel is trying to repair a rickety foot bridge to the Mughrabi Gate, the only access to the Temple Mount compound for Jews and Christians. It has been in danger of collapsing in recent years due to local earth tremors and heavy winter rains, and Israeli authorities have developed plans to replace the wooden bridge with a sturdier structure.

But Jordan has objected, insisting it alone has the right to make the repairs. The Palestinians also exert a claim to being the proper guardian of the Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, yet the PA backed the recent Jordanian effort at UNESCO.

This is because the Israeli plan calls for first conducting an archeological excavation of the embankment underneath the Mughrabi bridge and the Palestinians are afraid even more artifacts will be uncovered there proving the ancient Jewish connection to the area.

So it is clear that the Palestinians are once again manipulating UN forums like UNESCO, where they enjoy automatic majorities against Israel, to further their political campaign to delegitimize the Jewish state. In this instance, they have portrayed Israel as a reckless and uncivilized destroyer of cherished Christian and Muslim holy places, and thus unfit to be included in the family of nations.

In addition, the PA is once again circumventing direct talks with Israel to achieve peace or cooperation at any level and instead trying to impose solutions from the outside.

UNESCO should not be lending itself to such machinations, as this undermines its own stated goal of contributing to the building of peace among nations and peoples through an intercultural dialogue based upon respect for commonly shared values.

Yet UNESCO members have now entrusted a revered church to a Palestinian regime that has compiled a sordid record on safeguarding Christian and Jewish religious sites. For example, PA police stood by in October 2000 while a Palestinian mob looted and razed Joseph’s Tomb in Nablus. Upon orders from PA leader Yasser Arafat, PA security forces also assaulted and forcefully removed Russian Orthodox priests and nuns at monasteries in Hebron and Jericho.

Perhaps the most egregious example of the PA’s lack of credibility when it comes to safeguarding holy sites occurred at the very Church of the Nativity now entrusted to the Palestinians. In a dramatic April 2002 standoff with IDF troops, gunmen from Arafat’s own Fatah faction truly endangered the historic Church by commandeering the building and wiring it throughout with explosives.

In contrast, it cannot be stressed enough that Israel has a far better record on safeguarding and allowing access to holy sites than any other sovereign who has ruled the Holy Land over these many centuries.

Yet the fiasco goes on! And the latest UNESCO decisions will only whet the Palestinians’ appetite to encroach on more religious sites within Israel. In 2010, it was Rachel’s Tomb near Bethlehem. Next, we could see the PA exerting its claim to the Western Wall, which they insist is a Muslim holy site known as the al-Buraq Wall, where Muhammad tied his winged horse in his mythical “Night Journey.” After all, it lies just inches away from the “Israeli occupied” Mughrabi bridge.

The writer is media director for the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem, www.icej.org .

UNESCO Decides Center of Chistianity in "Palestine"

Politics, politics and more politics. With the wanton damage caused to the Chutrch of the Nativity by the Palestinians, sudenly the world body UNESCO has decided it is in danger and should be added to the list of World Heritage Sites under the auspices of "Palestine", a country that does not exist. This is just sick and will do nothing to promote peace in the region 


The UNESCO World Heritage Committee voted in a surprise decision Friday to include the Church of the Nativity, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, as a World Heritage site.



The vote, in the Russian city of St Petersburg, was 13 in favor and six against - with two abstentions - more than the two thirds required for inclusion on the list.


The Church of the Nativity is regarded as the birthplace of Jesus Christ, and is perhaps the biggest tourist attraction in the West Bank.


Palestinians push for Bethlehem UNESCO recognition Palestinians are making a last push to get parts of biblical Bethlehem recognized as an endangered World Heritage site ahead of a decision expected this week. The decision, submitted under emergency procedure once the Palestinians missed the deadline, came as a surprise.


Both the World Heritage's technical advisory body, as well as the committee's secretariat, had said the Palestinian application did not met the necessary criteria to be listed through the emergency procedure.


Salam Fayyad, prime minister of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority government, welcomed the decision, saying it "shows the significance of Bethlehem to the world, and to world heritage."


"This is a victory for Palestine, as well as for justice, rights and human principles," he said.


"It is a welcome recognition by the international community of our historical and cultural rights in this land," Palestine Liberation Organization Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi said.


Israel had objected at the church's being included as a World Heritage site in "Palestine," seeing it as the latest Palestinian attempt to pursue statehood unilaterally through the United Nations, rather than via negotiations.


In October, UNESCO had angered Israel by accepting Palestine as a member, even though it was not a United Nations member state.


"We're not opposed in principle to the Church of the Nativity being a World Heritage Site. That's not the issue. The issue is the politicization of UNESCO," Israeli Deputy Foreign Ministry spokesman Paul Hirschson told the German news agency dpa.


"The issue is the violation of UNESCO's own rules, after its own committee said there was no imminent danger to the Church, so no emergency procedure was needed," he said.


"Instead of taking steps to advance peace, the Palestinians are making unilateral moves which only move peace further away," a statement from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said.


The United States, which like Israel opposed the Palestinian application, was also critical of the result of the vote.


"In the 40 years of the World Heritage Convention's existence, the emergency procedure has been used only four times and only in the most extreme cases, and always consistent with the recommendation of the advisory bodies. This body should not be politicized," U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO David Killion said in a statement.