A report by Shimon Samuels and Alex Uberti

Over the past decades, we have participated in UNESCO World Heritage Committee (WHC) sessions – from St. Petersburg to Manama, Cracow, Doha, Bonn, Phnom Penh, Riyadh, Mumbai and Paris – defending the integrity and protection of sites of outstanding universal value from a historical and cultural point of view. Our scope is to ensure the transmission to future generations of responsibilities and principles set by the World Heritage Convention. This year’s 48th WHC session will be held in Busan, South Korea, at the end of July.

Since the Palestinian Authority entered the WHC, it has de facto transformed Jewish and Christian heritage sites into battlefields, with the apparent goal of grabbing historical locations and symbols and erase their identity. The cases of ancient Jericho, of the Church of the Nativity, of Rachel’s Tomb or of the Qumran Caves and the Dead Sea Scrolls are but some of the past claims, part of which were safeguarded from defilement.

Here are several other sites on the PA wish-list:  https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/palestinian-2026-heritage-grabbing-frenzy/

THE ADMINISTRATIVE SITUATION

This year’s object of contention is apparently the archaeological site of Sebaste/Samaria, which sits about 12 km north-west of the Palestinian city of Nablus and some 20 km from the “Green Line” in what is called “the West Bank” by most, or ancient “Judaea-Samaria” by historians and a growing number of people.

As per the Oslo Accords signed between the State of Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) regarding the interim situation of the West Bank:

The city of Nablus........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)