Israel and Palestine 'work together'

World Heritage site Old City of Jerusalem has given the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) proof that Israelis and Palestinians can work together in protecting the endangered site.

Announcing its adoption of a landmark decision to reaffirm the “universal value” of the Old City of Jerusalem yesterday, UNESCO said this was the first time that Israel and Palestine had worked together to protect the Old City of Jerusalem. This decision also is the first taken by Israelis and Palestinians to “work together constructively towards achieving consensus on this important and highly complex matter,” UNESCO Executive Board chairman Zhang Xinsheng said.

He added: “the ability of the parties involved to achieve what, at the outset seemed unachievable, demonstrates UNESCO’s unique ability… to build bridges, generate solidarity, and, most especially, to help in our own way towards building a harmonized world, thus creating greater peace and relieving tensions in the Middle East.”

The contention over the Old City of Jerusalem began in February when Israel started a construction project in the World Heritage site. This action prompted the Islamic Waqf (religious authorities) of Jerusalem to call on UNESCO to intervene, citing the work illegal since under international law no action should be undertaken in an occupied city.

The Old City of Jerusalem was captured by Israel in the 1967 war. The Waqf had feared the excavations would destroy the last vestiges of an old Muslim quarter demolished after 1967, UNESCO said.

The United Nations agency said it dispatched a technical team to the site in late February. The UNESCO team found ‘after a four-day investigation that although Israeli archaeological work for an access pathway in the Old City does not threaten the Al-Aqsa Mosque and complies with professional standards, Israel should at once stop excavations and consult on a final plan with Muslim religious authorities and other parties.”

Yesterday’s UNESCO announcement also suggested that the Bureau of the World Heritage Committee hold an urgent and informal meeting in early May to follow up on the findings of the technical mission, and also requested that the World Heritage Committee make certain that its decisions are properly implemented.

Source: UNESCO

24 April 2007