OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — UN cultural agency’s resolution criticized Israel excavations in and around Jerusalem’s Old City.
The UNESCO resolution, tabled by several Arab countries and approved on Tuesday, calls on Israel, as the “occupying power,” to cease “persistent excavations, tunneling, works and projects in east Jerusalem,” which the Palestinians claim as the capital of their future state.
The Old City is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, their third holiest site after Makkah and Medinah in Saudi Arabia.
Israeli archaeological excavations and other infrastructure projects in the Old City have long stoked tensions.
The UNESCO resolution reaffirmed “the importance of the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls for the three monotheistic religions,” while saying that Israel is taking actions that have “altered, or purport to alter the character and status of the Holy City.”
Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast war and annexed the area in a move that has not been recognized internationally.
The resolution, submitted by Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Sudan, was approved by 22 member states, with 10 voting against and 23 abstaining.
Elias Wadih Sanbar, the Palestinian ambassador to UNESCO, said Tuesday’s resolution was part of efforts to “stop giving a kind of blank check to an occupier that is acting with total illegality and impunity. — AP
