Dar Al-Ifta hails UNESCO’s listing of ‘Hebron’ a heritage site

CAIRO – 9 July 2017: The Islamophobia Monitoring Observatory at Egypt's Dar Al-Ifta welcomed UNESCO’s decision to add Hebron’s Old City in Jerusalem to the list of heritage sites, according to a Saturday statement.

The observatory called for maintaining the ancient city the way it was before the occupation in 1967.

The UNESCO vote took place at the annual summit, in Krakow, Poland, on Friday.

Twelve countries on the world heritage committee voted in favor of the Palestinian request to name Hebron a heritage site, while three voted against it and six abstained.

The project was prepared by Jordan and Palestine and submitted by Arab countries, the statement read, adding that Israel has tried to pressure the member countries to fail the decision.

The Palestinian Authority controls most of Hebron, under the Oslo Accords of the 1990s. However, an enclave around the historic core is still under Israeli military control. Hebron is the largest Palestinian city in the occupied West Bank with a population of some 200,000.

The UNESCO committee confirmed the illegitimacy of any change made by the Israeli occupation in Jerusalem since 1967, and it called for Israel to return all stolen antiquities.