The World Heritage Committee adopts 3 decisions to preserve and protect Palestinian sites registered on the Heritage List
New Delhi, (ST) – On Tuesday, at its 46th session held in the Indian capital, New Delhi, the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted 3 decisions regarding the preservation and protection of Palestinian sites registered on the World Heritage List in Danger.
Wafa News Agency reported that these sites include the Old City of Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and its walls, the Old City of Al-Khalil (Hebron), and the site of Palestine, the Land of Olives and Grapes, the cultural landscape of the agricultural terraces south of Al-Quds, Battir which is located west of the city of Bethlehem.
The decisions confirmed that these sites remain on the World Heritage List under threat due to the Israeli occupation authorities’ repeated practices and violations of the World Heritage Convention and other relevant agreements, and the impact that these violations have on the exceptional universal values of these sites.
The resolution on the city of Al-Khalil and its annex condemned the continuing and illegal practices of the occupation authorities in the Old City and the Ibrahimi Mosque, excavations and road-building operations for settlers, and the resulting forms of deprivation of freedom of movement and freedom of access to places of worship, which aim to impose a new reality and change the social and cultural character of the Ibrahimi Mosque and the Old City.
The resolution also called on “Israel”, the occupying power, to end these violations in compliance with the provisions of the UNESCO conventions and its resolutions related to this matter.
Raghda Sawas