Some days ago I blogged on the inclusion of the Nativity church of Bethlehem in the next UNESCO’s World Heritage List and I mentioned the move was more important that it could seem at first sight.
Well. It didn’t take Israel much time to put pressure on UNESCO to forget about this idea. As Maan reports:
A representative of the Palestinian Christian community warned on Wednesday that Israeli officials were working to prevent the inclusion of Bethlehem’s Nativity Church on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites.
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Palestinian Authority officials nominated the site for inclusion on the World Heritage list earlier this year, after Palestine won full membership of UNESCO in October.
Dmitri Dilani, who is also a member of the Fatah revolutionary council, said Israeli officials have argued against Palestine’s submission on technical grounds.
An Israeli official told The Jerusalem Post that while Israel believes the church is worthy of inclusion on the list, it opposes the Palestinian Authority’s politicization of the process.
Politicization of the process? That’s why Israel is preventing UNESCO to include the site in its list? And obviously this is not politicization…
Anyway, we should congratulate the Israeli officials who said that. It’s probably the first time since 1948 they didn’t use the always useful anti-semitism argument to oppose anything that comes from Palestine.
Small steps will bring us forward.
[من فلسطين] 