Israel suspends cooperation with UNESCO over West Bank holy site

Wed, 03 Nov 2010

Jerusalem - Israel said Wednesday it was suspending its cooperation with UNESCO because it had described as a mosque a West Bank shrine said to be the tomb of the Biblical matriarch Rachel.

Deputy Foreign Minter Dany Ayalon told the Knesset, Israel's parliament, that the UN cultural organization should withdraw its "recognition" of the shrine as a mosque before Israel would resume its cooperation with it.

Israel alleged that UNESCO had blindly adopted modern Palestinian and Arab political terminology by describing the shrine - which until the mid-1990s had been known by both Jews and Muslims only as "Rachel's Tomb" - as "Bilal bin Rabah Mosque."

Such statements, Israel Army Radio quoted Ayalon as saying, were counterproductive to peace and understanding between the two peoples.

In its biannual session late last month, the UNESCO board adopted five proposals initiated by Arab member states regarding holy sites in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

One of them was Rachel's Tomb just outside the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem.

Referring in its statement to the structure as both the "Bilal bin Rabah Mosque/Rachel's Tomb," the UNESCO board voted 44 to 1, with 12 abstentions, to reaffirm the site was "an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories and that any unilateral action by the Israeli authorities is to be considered a violation of international law."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year sparked Arab anger when he included holy sites in the occupied territory in a list of Israeli and Jewish national heritage sites that his government wants to renovate.

Rachel's Tomb was on that list, prompting Arab member states, including Jordan, to push for the UNESCO executive board decisions.

Israelis maintain that Rachel's Tomb was traditionally referred to also by Muslims as "Qubat Rachel" in Arabic, although the complex also included a Muslim prayer house adjacent to a Muslim cemetery.

They charge that the name "Bilal bin Rabah Mosque" only came into use following Arab-Israeli riots in 1996 and was coined by Palestinians for political reasons.

The UNESCO executive board had also expressed "deep concern" over "ongoing Israeli excavations and archaeological works" at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's walled, historic Old City.

Source: Earth Times.
Link: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/news/351792,west-bank-holy-site.html.