Palestine drops bid to register new UNESCO heritage site

Palestine is backing down from plans to ask UNESCO to place an ancient West Bank village on its World Heritage in Danger list, a year after the UN scientific and cultural agency voted to include Bethlehem’s Nativity Church. 

Residents of Battir, southwest of Jerusalem, which is home to an ancient Roman irrigation network in continuous use for centuries, expected the Palestinian delegation to nominate the farming village for inclusion on UNESCO’s rosters during its annual convention, which opens Sunday in Cambodia.

Experts in Battir and Bethlehem who helped draft the application told Ma’an that the Palestinian delegation in Paris received a completed file in January. It should have submitted it by a February deadline but did not.

‘Missing a great chance’

The decision to put off the nomination angered Palestinian experts and local officials who had selected Battir based on imminent threats they said its cultural sites faced from”Israel”.

The Battir municipality is locked in a court battle with the Israeli occupation army to re-route the barrier, and they hoped the global attention from a successful vote might even the playing field.

“Palestine is missing a great chance by not submitting the file,” according to Battir mayor Akram Bader. “We are in court against the wall.”

Bader said the Palestinian leadership neglected an opportunity to offer “protection against Israeli violations” as well as boost the economic, cultural and historical value of the village.

UNESCO’s 21-member World Heritage committee meets once a year to discuss the management of existing heritage sites and to consider nominations for new ones. It was at this conference in June 2012 that the agency narrowly voted to accept Palestine’s first submission, the Nativity Church, over the objections of Israel and the United States. Palestinian officials said they would submit Battir in 2013.

The village sits upon the slopes of two rocky, green hills where its farmers still use a 2,000-year-old Roman irrigation system that runs down the sides of both hills.

Giovanni Fontana Antonelli, a cultural programs specialist for UNESCO, called the Palestinian Authority’s decision “very inexplicable” and charged that it could “jeopardize the site forever.”

Antonelli, who helped prepare the application in December and January, said that UNESCO’s recognition would have made it “more difficult for Israel to grab that land.”

He also said it would have become a natural tourism destination. “People in Battir (could) start to have small businesses there instead of migrating,” he said.

Nada Atrash, head of research and development at the Cultural Heritage Preservation Center in Bethlehem, agreed that the nomination “would help Palestine but at the same time add to its responsibilities.”

Atrash, who was also involved in preparing the application, says the nomination “will not stop vandalism” because UNESCO can only issue statements and condemnations.

She said it was up to the Palestinian people to protect their land, but she hoped the Palestinian leadership would reconsider the application.

B.N