UNESCO to vote on ancient Jericho
If the vote passes, the ancient city will join three other "UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Palestine": the Church of the Nativity and the pilgrimage route in Bethlehem, the cultural landscape of southern Jerusalem and Battir, and the Old City in Hebron.
(TIMES OF ISRAEL) – The United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is set to vote on a proposal later this month that would see ancient Jericho declared as a “World Heritage Site in Palestine.”
According to the agenda for the vote at the UN body’s conference in Saudi Arabia, “Ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan” could be declared as a cultural site during this month’s event.
If the vote passes, the ancient city will join three other “UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Palestine”: the Church of the Nativity and the pilgrimage route in Bethlehem, the cultural landscape of southern Jerusalem and Battir, and the Old City in Hebron.
Likud MK Dan Illouz wrote on X, the site formerly known as Twitter, that he had written to UNESCO head Audrey Azoulay.
“Jericho is first and foremost a city of biblical significance,” Illouz said.
“Blurring this fact is an insult to millions of Jews and Christians all over the world,” he said in a statement.
“Such a decision would constitute a blatant interference by UNESCO in a conflict in which it is not its role to intervene. It is our duty to stop the Palestinian Authority’s subversion, and insist on our right to our land.”
However, Israel is no longer a member of UNESCO.
A 2011 move by UNESCO to include Palestine as a member state led the US and Israel to cease financing the agency.
In 2017, the United States under then-president Donald Trump announced that it was withdrawing from UNESCO, citing financial considerations, the need for reform and the organisation’s “continuing anti-Israel bias”.
Israel also said that it was leaving the UN body.
The United States announced its intention to rejoin UNESCO in June, and the organisation’s 193 member states voted in July to approve the US reentry.
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