Editorial

Hebron’s new status

From a political perspective, the Unesco listing is bound to help the Palestinians

Editorial July 08, 2017

A Palestinian man holds up a sign in support of the Palestinian request for UN membership during a protest at an Israeli army checkpoint in the centre of the divided West Bank city of Hebron, on September 14, 2011. PHOTO: AFP

The UN cultural agency has been caught in a whirlpool of contentious claims by Israel following its decision to recognise the Old City of Hebron (in the West Bank) as an endangered world heritage site on Friday. For the Palestinians the move is more than just a diplomatic and moral victory as it recognises the outstanding universal value of a city inhabited by more than 200,000 Palestinians and a few hundred odd Israeli settlers. Israel is not amused however and is seething with anger over the Unesco resolution which was adopted by secret ballot at the World Heritage Committee meeting in Krakow, Poland. Tel Aviv has lambasted the legitimacy of the decision and attacked the international body as irrelevant and biased. Such recognition, it claims, amounts to denying and possibly erasing Jewish history in the city. One of its diplomats even described the resolution as an attempt to sever ties between Hebron and Israel.

It’s a crying shame that Israel made no mention of the alarming number of violations that have taken place in this city where Arab homes have been vandalised and properties damaged by settlers. If truth be told, the resolution was pushed through earlier than planned mainly because of the steadily rising number of Israeli settlements.

From a political perspective, the Unesco listing is bound to help the Palestinians as it will elicit greater interest and support from the international community. Though Hebron may be famed for the Tomb of the Patriarchs and is home to several Muslim and Jewish religious sites, it is a troubling emblem of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Another clear benefit is that Hebron, one of the world’s oldest cities, would be entitled to the allocation of immediate assistance from the World Heritage Fund and gain the attention of the global powers. Israeli plans for settlement building could suffer as a result.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 8^th, 2017.

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