Israel Matzav

Israel cancels UNESCO Jerusalem visit

I don't know why we ever agreed to this in the first place, but at least our government has done the right thing for a change and canceled a UNESCO visit to Jerusalem.

"The delegation as a delegation has been postponed," a Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

"The Palestinians violated all the agreements we had with UNESCO: that this was to be a purely professional, not a political visit," he said.  The official said the Palestinians asked to introduce a "slew" of political elements into the visit, with PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Malki characterizing it as a fact-finding commission to investigate Israeli steps in Jerusalem.

The spokesman said that contrary to an agreement brokered in April at UNESCO's headquarters in Paris, the PA was now insisting on taking the delegation to the Temple Mount, and meeting with Palestinian political  personalities, not just "engineers, architects and professional people".

"We have said this was unacceptable" the spokesman said. "Hopefully the delegation is postponed, and not cancelled."

It was not immediately clear whether some of the delegation participants had already arrived in the country.

The agreement in April that paved way for the delegation to inspect preservation and rehabilitation work in the Old City  had Israel allowing it in exchange for a Palestinian agreement to postpone five anti-Israel resolutions pending before UNESCO. According to Israel, the delegation was not to go to the Temple Mount or deal with the issue of the Mughrabi Bridge, leading from the Western Wall Plaza to the Temple Mount.

Read the whole thing.

Isn't it amazing that after 20 years of 'agreements' with the 'Palestinians,' our government is actually still dumb enough to believe that the 'Palestinians' might keep one?

Labels: Jerusalem, Palestinian lies, Palestinians, UNESCO

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:41 PM