{"id":73906,"date":"2016-05-23T12:00:08","date_gmt":"2016-05-23T11:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=73906"},"modified":"2016-05-20T17:40:07","modified_gmt":"2016-05-20T16:40:07","slug":"annexing-archaeology-will-unesco-take-on-israel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2016\/05\/annexing-archaeology-will-unesco-take-on-israel\/","title":{"rendered":"Annexing Archaeology: Will UNESCO Take On Israel?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"jonathan_250<\/a>Palestinians to announce a list of heritage sites in urgent need of protection from Israeli violations.<\/em><\/p>\n

19 May 2016 – <\/em>Israel is stepping up its efforts to seize control of Palestinian heritage sites and antiquities in the occupied territories in violation of international law, Palestinian and Israeli archaeologists warned this week.<\/p>\n

The experts echoed criticisms<\/a> levelled against Israel in a recent resolution passed by the United Nations\u2019 cultural agency, UNESCO, that accused Israel of interfering with major holy sites in occupied areas.<\/p>\n

A diplomatic storm over the resolution escalated at the weekend, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced<\/a> that he was rejecting a French peace plan because of France\u2019s support for the resolution. He said it \u201ccast a shadow over the fairness\u201d of the initiative.<\/p>\n

Archaeologists, however, said the UNESCO resolution underestimated the scope of the problem facing Palestinian heritage sites. The Palestinian tourism and antiquities ministry is preparing to announce a list of 14 major sites in the occupied territories that are in urgent need of protection from Israeli activities.<\/p>\n

Under UNESCO rules, Palestine will be able to nominate two of them this year for consideration as world heritage sites, in a fast-track procedure.<\/p>\n

In the running for UNESCO status are two historic monasteries, Mar Saba and Cremisan, near Bethlehem; the important Roman archaeological site of Sebastiya; a section of the River Jordan where Jesus is believed to have been baptised; the Old City of Hebron, where Jewish settlers have installed themselves with help from the Israeli army; and Mount Gerizim, outside Nablus, where a small community of Samaritans resides.<\/p>\n

Transferring antiquities<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ahmed Rajoub, an archaeologist in the Palestinian tourism and antiquities ministry, said Israel was preparing to turn a dozen important heritage sites in the West Bank into Israeli national parks.<\/p>\n

At the same time, Israel\u2019s Antiquities Authority has announced<\/a> plans to transfer important relics and a library of historic books from the Rockefeller museum in occupied East Jerusalem into Israel.<\/p>\n

Rajoub noted that more than half of the occupied territories\u2019 7,000 archaeological sites were located in Area C, which was placed temporarily under Israeli control by the Oslo accords in the 1990s.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe cannot access these areas to protect them or even collect data for UNESCO,\u201d he told Al Jazeera. \u201cThat leaves them vulnerable to damage and destruction by settlers, the Israeli army and looters.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to ministry figures, more than 200 sites have been taken over by illegal Jewish settlements, and 1,000 damaged or destroyed by Israel\u2019s construction of its separation barrier.<\/p>\n

Diplomatic frustration<\/strong><\/p>\n

The issue of Israel\u2019s treatment of Palestinian heritage sites was thrust into the spotlight last month when the UNESCO resolution gained the support of 33 states.<\/p>\n

It calls on Israel to cease its \u201cpersistent excavations\u201d in and around the Old City of Jerusalem; to end damaging activities at Jerusalem\u2019s holy sites, including repeated moves to change the status quo at the al-Aqsa mosque compound; and to remove from Israel\u2019s national heritage list two holy sites in the Palestinian cities of Hebron and Bethlehem, in the occupied West Bank.<\/p>\n

According to the local media, Israeli officials were taken aback<\/a> that states with whom Israel has close ties, including France, India, Russia and China, backed the resolution. Seven countries, including the US, Germany and Britain, voted against.<\/p>\n

A UN official in Jerusalem, who wished to remain anonymous, said Israel was targeting UN staff who spoke out. He told Al Jazeera that the resolution reflected growing diplomatic frustration over Israel\u2019s creation of facts on the ground, especially in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have reached the point where Israel\u2019s annexation of East Jerusalem \u2013 even though everyone is agreed it was done in violation of international law \u2013 has been airbrushed out of the public discourse,\u201d the UN official said. Most of Israel\u2019s anger was directed at UNESCO\u2019s decision to give priority to the Islamic names of holy places in the three Palestinian cities.<\/p>\n

Playing politics<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yonatan Mizrachi, head of Emek Shaveh, an organisation of Israeli archaeologists opposed to the use of archaeology for political ends, said it was not surprising that Netanyahu preferred to deal with the resolution\u2019s terminology rather than its substance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he [Netanyahu] knows 90 percent of the criticisms in the resolution are indisputable, he prefers to play politics,\u201d Mizrachi told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n

There was especial annoyance in Israel at the decision to identify what Israelis know as the Western Wall Plaza as \u201cal-Buraq Plaza\u201d \u2013 named for the place where the Prophet Muhammad is supposed to have tethered a steed that carried him from Mecca to Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

A correspondent for the daily Haaretz newspaper observed<\/a> that UNESCO had downgraded the Western Wall to a \u201crevered hitching post\u201d. Last October UNESCO\u2019s Muslim member states narrowly failed<\/a> to pass a statement that the Western Wall was an integral part of the al-Aqsa compound and therefore an Islamic holy site.<\/p>\n

That view was uncontroversial before Israel\u2019s occupation of Jerusalem began in 1967, said Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Palestinian scholar and author of a book examining contested historical claims in the region. \u201cThe Western Wall was considered Islamic property by the British during the Mandate,\u201d he told Al Jazeera, adding: \u201cIt should be for the occupied Palestinian people \u2013 not the occupier \u2013 to name their heritage sites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Excavations banned<\/strong><\/p>\n

Under international law, Israel is prohibited from carrying out excavations or rehabilitation work at heritage sites in the occupied territories. In addition, emergency repairs to sites in Israeli-controlled Area C have to be coordinated with the Palestinian Authority.<\/p>\n

Rajoub said Israel was systematically ignoring these obligations.<\/p>\n

Palestine became a member of UNESCO in 2011, despite vociferous objections from Israel and a retaliatory decision<\/a> by the US to cut its share of funding to the international body.<\/p>\n

So far the Palestinians have secured recognition of three world heritage sites: The Church of the Nativity and the pilgrimage route in Bethlehem, and the ancient agricultural terraces of Battir, a village near Bethlehem.<\/p>\n

Rajoub said the case of Battir, which was accepted in 2014, proved that UNESCO recognition offered some protection. \u201cIsrael had to freeze its plans to build the [separation] wall through Battir precisely because it would have destroyed the terraces,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUNESCO\u2019s support is an important tool to help us to shame Israel and prevent the worst abuses at these sites under occupation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justifying settlements<\/strong><\/p>\n

Threats to Palestinian heritage sites have intensified as Israel has sought either to economically exploit them for tourism or to bolster Jewish nationalist and religious claims to occupied territory, said Hamdan Taha, a Palestinian archaeologist and researcher.<\/p>\n

The economic interests were underscored this week when Israel announced that it would begin removing mines<\/a> by the River Jordan at a site believed to be where Jesus was baptised. Israel has been increasingly trying to attract tourists away from Jordan, which developed its side of the baptismal site several years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIsrael also abuses archaeology to highlight a narrative of Jewish historical connection,\u201d Taha told Al Jazeera. \u201cThat can then be used to justify further Jewish settlement on Palestinian territory.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rajoub said his ministry had also heard that Israel was intending in the next few days to declare the important Roman site of Sebastiya, near Nablus, a national park. Ariel University, based in a Jewish settlement of the same name, would be carrying out excavations there.<\/p>\n

Israel has been stepping up its activities in Jerusalem, too.<\/p>\n

In March, under Israeli government pressure, Jerusalem officials approved<\/a> a plan by Jewish settlers to build a massive visitor centre in the heart of the Palestinian neighbourhood of Silwan, at the base of the Old City walls alongside the al-Aqsa mosque.<\/p>\n

Palestinians fear it will be used to entrench the settlers\u2019 hold over an archaeological site called the City of David which is slowly displacing Palestinian residents. In a sign of the mounting distrust of Israeli activities on and around the al-Aqsa compound, Jordan last month reversed a decision to install CCTV on the holy plaza.<\/p>\n

Palestinian officials had warned<\/a> that Israel would use the cameras to entrench its control over the site.<\/p>\n

________________________________________<\/p>\n

Jonathan Cook is an award-winning British journalist based in Nazareth, Israel, since 2001. He is the author of: <\/em>Blood and Religion: The Unmasking of the Jewish State (2006); <\/em>Israel and the Clash of Civilisations: Iraq, Iran and the Plan to Remake the Middle East (2008); and <\/em>Disappearing Palestine: Israel\u2019s Experiments in Human Despair (2008). In 2011 he was awarded the Martha Gellhorn Special Prize<\/a> for Journalism.<\/em> The same year, Project Censored<\/a> voted one of Jonathan\u2019s reports, \u201cIsrael brings Gaza entry restrictions to West Bank\u201d, the ninth most important story censored in 2009-10.<\/em><\/p>\n

Go to Original \u2013 jonathan-cook.net<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

19 May 2016 – Israel is stepping up its efforts to seize control of Palestinian heritage sites and antiquities in the occupied territories in violation of international law. The experts echoed criticisms leveled against Israel in a recent resolution passed by the United Nations\u2019 cultural agency, UNESCO, that accused Israel of interfering with major holy sites in occupied areas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-palestine-israel-gaza-genocide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73906","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73906"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73906\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73906"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73906"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73906"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}