The United Nations Instructional Scientific and Cultural Group brand is pictured on the doorway at UNESCO’s headquarters in Paris. AP File
A United Nations panel selected Sunday to designate the historic West Financial institution metropolis of Jericho as a World Heritage Website in Palestine, a transfer that’s sure to enrage Israel, which dominates the land and refuses to recognise a Palestinian state.
Jericho is without doubt one of the world’s oldest repeatedly inhabited cities, positioned within the Israeli-occupied West Financial institution and managed by the internationally recognised Palestinian Authority.
The choice was made throughout a gathering of the United Nations World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, beneath the aegis of the United Nations Instructional, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation, UNESCO.
Israel left UNESCO in 2019, accusing it of prejudice and undermining its ties to the Holy Land. In 2011, Israel additionally protested UNESCO’s recognition of Palestine as a member state. Nevertheless, Israel stays a signatory to the World Heritage Conference and despatched a delegation to the Riyadh summit.
Through the 1967 Mideast battle, Israel took the West Financial institution, in addition to Gaza and east Jerusalem. Palestinians need all three areas for a future state. The West Financial institution is seen by Israel because the biblical and cultural core of the Jewish individuals.
There have been no severe or substantive peace negotiations in over a decade, and Israel is at the moment led by essentially the most nationalist and spiritual authorities in its historical past, making any transfer towards Palestinian statehood almost unimaginable.
The fashionable metropolis of Jericho is a significant draw for tourism to the Palestinian territories, each due to its historic websites and proximity to the Lifeless Sea. In 2021, the Palestinian Authority unveiled main renovations to one of many largest mosaics within the Center East, in a Jericho palace courting again to the eighth century.