The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) named Ancient Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) as a World Heritage site on Sunday. The vote was initially held at the World Heritage Committee meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, according to reports. UNESCO’s website listed the site as affiliated with the “State of Palestine,” bringing the number of designated Palestinian sites to four.
UNESCO previously designated three other sites in the West Bank as World Heritage sites: the Church of the Nativity, Battir hill terraced landscape of grapevines and olive trees, and the Old Town of Hebron, The Washington Post reported. Israel pulled out of UNESCO in 2019.
Ancient Jericho is considered one of humanity’s oldest-known villages, dating back to 2,600 BCE.
Israeli, Zionist organizations criticize UNESCO decision
In response to UNESCO’s decision, Israel's Foreign Ministry released the following statement:
“Despite the message of the Secretary-General of the UNESCO Heritage Committee, which separates the registration of the prehistoric site from Jewish and Christian sites in the region, and despite the many and sincere efforts of the Secretary-General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay to balance the decision, the Foreign Ministry considers the decision made today as another sign of the Palestinians’ cynical use of UNESCO and the politicization of the organization. Israel will act against its many friends in the organization in order to change all the distorted decisions that were made.”
Prof. Eugene Kontorovich, director of international law at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum, said in response that the UNESCO decision “ethnically cleanses Jews from the history of ancient Jericho – even as the Jews worldwide were busy celebrating Rosh Hashanah, one of the holiest days of the year. The UN agency voted to recognize a Palestinian Authority proposal to recognize Ancient Jericho as a historic site while completely erasing Jews (and Jesus) from its historical record.”
Kontorovich also claimed that the UN organization had “turned a blind eye to the PA’s ongoing destruction of Second Temple Era antiquities in the area. The United States had quit the organization six years ago over its chronic antisemitism, and rejoined just a few months ago – obviously a mistake.”
Shlomo Ne’eman, head of the Gush Etzion Regional Council and chairman of the Yesha Council, stated that “we received additional evidence that the Palestinian Authority continues to fight us using all the means at their disposal, including desperate attempts to involve our history.
“Abu Mazen [Mahmoud Abbas] not only denies the Holocaust, but he denies the whole of Jewish history. It is sad, indeed, to see the nations of the world cooperate with these most blasphemous kinds of claims. It is sad, yet not surprising – it is probably difficult to let go of the antisemitic tradition.”