The United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is set to vote on resolutions related to Palestinian sites in the cities of Jerusalem and al-Khalil in July.
The agenda of the 41st session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee which will be held in Kraków city in Poland between 2nd and 12th July 2017 will include a re-voting on a previous resolution filed by Jordan on the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls according to Anadolu agency’s reporter.
The Committee will consider requests for the inclusion of new sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List and examine the state of conservation of sites already included on the List as well as many other issues related to the implementation of the World Heritage Convention.
The World Heritage Committee consists of representatives from 21 of the States Parties to the Convention concerning protecting the world cultural and natural heritage elected by the General Assembly of the States Parties to the Convention.
The UNESCO Executive Board adopted on 26th October 2016 a resolution affirming that Jerusalem is an “occupied city” and demanding Israel the occupying power “to halt its activities” in the city.
Jerusalem Post newspaper reported on Tuesday quoting Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO Carmel HaCohen that Israel wants the resolution to be reversed.
With each new UNESCO session the resolutions voted on in the previous years are confirmed so Israel hopes to succeed in changing the states’ positions on these resolutions.
HaCohen said that Palestine requested including the Ibrahimi Mosque in al-Khalil in the UNESCO list of endangered sites.
He pointed out that Israel prevented a team from the UNESCO from conducting a field trip in al-Khalil before the vote.
According to Jerusalem Post Israel’s Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely said that she spoke with foreign ambassadors based in Israel about the pending al-Khalil vote.
She claimed that the Jewish holy sites are being “Islamized”.
The UNESCO Executive Board adopted in 2010 a resolution stipulating that the Ibrahimi Mosque in al-Khalil and Bilal Ibn Rabah Mosque in Bethlehem are an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories and that any unilateral action by the Israeli authorities constitutes a violation of the international law the UNESCO conventions and the United Nations and the Security Council resolutions.
44 states voted in favor of the resolution 1 state voted against and 12 states abstained.
