UNESCO gives 'Palestinians' control over church they defaced
Ignoring the advice of its technical advisory committee, the Secretariat of UNESCO voted on Friday 13-6 with two abstentions to grant an 'emergency' request to make the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem an historic site of the 'Palestinian Authority.' The vote was by secret ballot.
The World Heritage’s technical advisory body, as well it’s the committee’s secretariat both advised the committee prior to its Friday meeting that the application did not meet the necessary criteria to be listed through the emergency procedure. But 13 of the 21 member states on the committee disregarded that advice.
Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, Nimrod Barkan said that it was a mistake for the committee to ignore the technical advice of its own advisers.
There was no link he said between the water damage to the church roof and its placement on the list through an emergency procedure. He noted that nothing prevented the Palestinian Authority from fixing the roof.
The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) blasted the decision as proof that UNESCO is motivated by political objectives and not cultural ones.
"Instead of the Palestinians taking steps to further peace, they are acting in a unilateral way that only distances peace," a statement released by the PMO read. "The world must remember that the church of the Nativity which is holy to Christianity was desecrated by Palestinian terrorists."
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Meanwhile, Gideon Koren, Israel's Vice President of the International Council on Monuments and Sites slammed the decision as "irresponsible." The US Ambassador to UNESCO David Killion also criticized the move, saying he was "profoundly disappointed by the decision."
Am I the only one considering the possibility that the US could be 'profoundly disappointed' but have voted in favor via the secret ballot? The 'Palestinians' defaced the Church of the Nativity in 2002. No comment from the Vatican yet.
Pigs fly: UNESCO REJECTS 'Palestinian' bid to register Church of the Nativity
I meant to post this yesterday and never got to it. In a move that UN Watch's Hillel Neuer describes as 'rare as Haley's comet,' UNESCO's secretariat decided on Thursday to come out against a bid by the 'Palestinian Authority' to use an emergency procedure to make Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity an historic site of 'Palestine.'
“This is the first time in recent memory that a draft resolution circulated by the United Nations – let alone by UNESCO, which recently elected Assad’s Syria to its human rights committee – openly rejected a Palestinian claim or position,” Neuer said. His Geneva-based nonprofit group monitors UN activity.
The secretariat’s resolution echoes a conclusion by the International Council on Monuments and Sites, whose professional staff similarly concluded that the Palestinians should pursue World Heritage registration through regular channels. It, like the secretariat, said that more could be done to improve the technical nature of the application.
The Church of the Nativity is one of the 36 potential new World Heritage sites. A World Heritage Committee of 21 countries is set to debate their inclusion during a meeting that will be held from June 24 to July 6 in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The draft resolution posted by the secretariat on the World Heritage website states that the Palestinians should “resubmit the nomination in accordance with normal procedures for nomination, to allow a proper assessment of integrity, authenticity and conversation, and proper consideration of management arrangements and appropriate boundaries for the property.”
The final decision will be made by a two-thirds vote of the 21 countries that are members of the World Heritage Committee.
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Israel has opposed registering the site under Palestine, until such time as it becomes a state as a result of a negotiated end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It has opposed all unilateral steps toward statehood by the PA.
It does, however, support registering the church as a World Heritage site, and would have wanted to present it to the committee together with the Palestinians as a joint endeavor.
Israel’s position at present is simply to urge the 21 member countries to support the secretariat’s position.
The Palestinians in turn say that the church is endangered and that it is their right to register the site solely under Palestine.
Vatican silent as UNESCO to register Church of the Nativity in 'Palestine'
Israel is working to prevent the 'Palestinian Authority' from registering the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem as a UNESCO historical site of the imaginary state of 'Palestine.' The gory details of the application are here, and it is not certain that the application will be granted at this time. But given how the 'Palestinians' treat Christians generally, and given how they have treated the Church of the Nativity in particular, isn't the Vatican's silence on the issue rather odd? To remind you of how the 'Palestinians' treated the Church of the Nativity:
On April 2, 2002, as Israel implemented its Defensive Shield operation to combat the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure, in Bethlehem "a number of terrorists took over St. Mary's Church grounds and...held the priest and a number of nuns there against their will. The terrorists used the Church as a firing position, from which they shot at IDF soldiers in the area. The soldiers did not return fire toward the church when fired upon [emphasis added]. An IDF force, under the command of the Bethlehem area regional commander, entered the Church grounds today without battle, in coordination with its leaders, and evacuated the priest and nuns."
That same day, "More than 100 Palestinian gunmen...[including] soldiers and policemen, entered the Church of the Nativity on Tuesday, as Israeli troops swept into Bethlehem in an attempt to quell violence by Palestinian suicide bombers and militias." The actual number of terrorists was between 150 and 180, among them prominent members of the Fatah Tanzim. As the New York Times put it, "Palestinian gunmen have frequently used the area around the church as a refuge, with the expectation that Israel would try to avoid fighting near the shrine" [emphasis added].
And in fact this was the case. The commander of the Israeli forces in the area asserted that the IDF would not break into the church itself and would not harm this site holy to Christianity. Israel also deployed more mature and more reserved reserve-duty soldiers in this sensitive situation that militarily called for more agile, standing-army soldiers.
On the other hand, the Palestinians did not treat it the same way. Not only did they take their weapons with them into the Church of the Nativity and fire, on occasion, from the church, but also reportedly booby-trapped the entrance to the church.
On April 7, "one of the few priests evacuated from the church told Israeli television yesterday that gunmen had shot their way in, and that the priests, monks and nuns were essentially hostages....The priest declined to call the clergy 'hostages,' but repeatedly said in fluent English: 'We have absolutely no choice. They have guns, we do not.'"
Christians clearly saw the takeover as a violation of the sanctity of the church. In an interview with CWNews, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican's Undersecretary of State and the top foreign-policy official, asserted that "The Palestinians have entered into bilateral agreements [with the Holy See] in which they undertake to maintain and respect the status quo regarding the Christian holy places and the rights of Christian communities. To explain the gravity of the current situation, let me begin with the fact that the occupation of the holy places by armed men is a violation of a long tradition of law that dates back to the Ottoman era. Never before have they been occupied - for such a lengthy time - by armed men." On April 14, he reiterated his position in an interview on Vatican Radio.
On April 24, the Jerusalem Post reported on the damage that the PA forces were causing:
Three Armenian monks, who had been held hostage by the Palestinian gunmen inside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, managed to flee the church area via a side gate yesterday morning. They immediately thanked the soldiers for rescuing them.
They told army officers the gunmen had stolen gold and other property, including crucifixes and prayer books, and had caused damage.... One of the monks, Narkiss Korasian, later told reporters: "They stole everything, they opened the doors one by one and stole everything.... They stole our prayer books and four crosses...they didn't leave anything. Thank you for your help, we will never forget it."
Israeli officials said the monks said the gunmen had also begun beating and attacking clergymen.
When the siege finally ended, the PA soldiers left the church in terrible condition:
The Palestinian gunmen holed up in the Church of the Nativity seized church stockpiles of food and "ate like greedy monsters" until the food ran out, while more than 150 civilians went hungry. They also guzzled beer, wine, and Johnnie Walker scotch that they found in priests' quarters, undeterred by the Islamic ban on drinking alcohol. The indulgence lasted for about two weeks into the 39-day siege, when the food and drink ran out, according to an account by four Greek Orthodox priests who were trapped inside for the entire ordeal....
The Orthodox priests and a number of civilians have said the gunmen created a regime of fear.
Even in the Roman Catholic areas of the complex there was evidence of disregard for religious norms. Catholic priests said that some Bibles were torn up for toilet paper, and many valuable sacramental objects were removed. "Palestinians took candelabra, icons and anything that looked like gold," said a Franciscan, the Rev. Nicholas Marquez from Mexico.
A problem that arose during the siege again shows Christian fear of Muslim domination. Two Palestinian gunmen in the church were killed, and the PA wanted to bury them in the basilica. "With two Muslim bodies inside the Church of the Nativity, Christianity could be facing an absolute disaster in Bethlehem," said Canon Andrew White, the special representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Middle East. "It would be catastrophic if two Muslim martyrs were buried in the church. It could lead to a situation like that in Nazareth," he said. Only after intensive mediation efforts were plans to bury the bodies inside abandoned.
Given this history of 'Palestinian' mistreatment of the Church of the Nativity, isn't it odd that the Vatican is silent as UNESCO plans to put the 'Palestinians' officially in charge of the church?
Maan publishes whiny rant about Church of the Nativity terrorists
Ten years ago on Thursday, a group of 'Palestinian' terrorists gave up their hostages in Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity and were deported to Cyprus, from which they were distributed among various European countries. They had been there for more than a month - from April 2 to May 10, 2002.
After a decade in exile, deportees say they have been abandoned by the Palestinian Authority and all political factions. They have not been allowed to return to their families in the West Bank.
Deportees had planned to demonstrate on Thursday but canceled the protest to stand beside prisoners on hunger strike, spokesman for the group Fahmi Kanan said at a press conference on Monday.
Instead, deportees will go on a 3-day hunger strike on Thursday in solidarity with detainees in Israeli jails, Kanan said.
As to Maan's account of what happened in the church... it's a bunch of lies. Here's a brief summary of what really happened:
On April 2, 2002, as Israel implemented its Defensive Shield operation to combat the Palestinian terrorist infrastructure, in Bethlehem "a number of terrorists took over St. Mary's Church grounds and...held the priest and a number of nuns there against their will. The terrorists used the Church as a firing position, from which they shot at IDF soldiers in the area. The soldiers did not return fire toward the church when fired upon [emphasis added]. An IDF force, under the command of the Bethlehem area regional commander, entered the Church grounds today without battle, in coordination with its leaders, and evacuated the priest and nuns."
That same day, "More than 100 Palestinian gunmen...[including] soldiers and policemen, entered the Church of the Nativity on Tuesday, as Israeli troops swept into Bethlehem in an attempt to quell violence by Palestinian suicide bombers and militias." The actual number of terrorists was between 150 and 180, among them prominent members of the Fatah Tanzim. As the New York Times put it, "Palestinian gunmen have frequently used the area around the church as a refuge, with the expectation that Israel would try to avoid fighting near the shrine" [emphasis added].
And in fact this was the case. The commander of the Israeli forces in the area asserted that the IDF would not break into the church itself and would not harm this site holy to Christianity. Israel also deployed more mature and more reserved reserve-duty soldiers in this sensitive situation that militarily called for more agile, standing-army soldiers.
On the other hand, the Palestinians did not treat it the same way. Not only did they take their weapons with them into the Church of the Nativity and fire, on occasion, from the church, but also reportedly booby-trapped the entrance to the church.
On April 7, "one of the few priests evacuated from the church told Israeli television yesterday that gunmen had shot their way in, and that the priests, monks and nuns were essentially hostages....The priest declined to call the clergy 'hostages,' but repeatedly said in fluent English: 'We have absolutely no choice. They have guns, we do not.'"
Christians clearly saw the takeover as a violation of the sanctity of the church. In an interview with CWNews, Archbishop Jean-Louis Tauran, the Vatican's Undersecretary of State and the top foreign-policy official, asserted that "The Palestinians have entered into bilateral agreements [with the Holy See] in which they undertake to maintain and respect the status quo regarding the Christian holy places and the rights of Christian communities. To explain the gravity of the current situation, let me begin with the fact that the occupation of the holy places by armed men is a violation of a long tradition of law that dates back to the Ottoman era. Never before have they been occupied - for such a lengthy time - by armed men." On April 14, he reiterated his position in an interview on Vatican Radio.
On April 24, the Jerusalem Post reported on the damage that the PA forces were causing:
Three Armenian monks, who had been held hostage by the Palestinian gunmen inside Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, managed to flee the church area via a side gate yesterday morning. They immediately thanked the soldiers for rescuing them.
They told army officers the gunmen had stolen gold and other property, including crucifixes and prayer books, and had caused damage.... One of the monks, Narkiss Korasian, later told reporters: "They stole everything, they opened the doors one by one and stole everything.... They stole our prayer books and four crosses...they didn't leave anything. Thank you for your help, we will never forget it."
Israeli officials said the monks said the gunmen had also begun beating and attacking clergymen.
When the siege finally ended, the PA soldiers left the church in terrible condition:
The Palestinian gunmen holed up in the Church of the Nativity seized church stockpiles of food and "ate like greedy monsters" until the food ran out, while more than 150 civilians went hungry. They also guzzled beer, wine, and Johnnie Walker scotch that they found in priests' quarters, undeterred by the Islamic ban on drinking alcohol. The indulgence lasted for about two weeks into the 39-day siege, when the food and drink ran out, according to an account by four Greek Orthodox priests who were trapped inside for the entire ordeal....
The Orthodox priests and a number of civilians have said the gunmen created a regime of fear.
Even in the Roman Catholic areas of the complex there was evidence of disregard for religious norms. Catholic priests said that some Bibles were torn up for toilet paper, and many valuable sacramental objects were removed. "Palestinians took candelabra, icons and anything that looked like gold," said a Franciscan, the Rev. Nicholas Marquez from Mexico.
A problem that arose during the siege again shows Christian fear of Muslim domination. Two Palestinian gunmen in the church were killed, and the PA wanted to bury them in the basilica. "With two Muslim bodies inside the Church of the Nativity, Christianity could be facing an absolute disaster in Bethlehem," said Canon Andrew White, the special representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury in the Middle East. "It would be catastrophic if two Muslim martyrs were buried in the church. It could lead to a situation like that in Nazareth," he said. Only after intensive mediation efforts were plans to bury the bodies inside abandoned.
But 60 Minutes blames Israel for the situation of Christians in the 'Holy Land.'
Monday will mark ten years since a group of terrorists from our peace partner's al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade took over Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity, one of the holiest places for Christianity. After a month-long standoff, which featured ISM members sneaking into the church to resupply the terrorists, the IDF flushed out the terrorists. 13 of them were deported to European countries, while 26 more were deported to Gaza. I posted an extensive account of the siege and its aftermath here.
YNet reports that some of the terrorists are behaving like choir boys, begging to come back, and mouthing those words that every Israeli wants to hear (but should not believe): Violence is not the way.
Yassin al-Harimi claims that he is a new man. A decade after he walked out of the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem, when the world's eyes were all trained on it, the oldest of the Palestinians who were deported by Israel, a man who waited for the IDF's troops among dozens of Palestinians armed to the teeth with explosives, no longer believes that violence is the right path.
"The Al-Aqsa Intifada and the armed struggle were the Palestinian leadership's biggest mistake," he told Ynet on Sunday from his Amman residence. "I'm against an armed struggle – I support peace."
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"In the last decade most of us haven't done anything special, we mainly hope that one day we can go back to our homes," Samed Halil, who was deported to Gaza and who moved to Jordan after the Hamas takeover told Ynet.
"I think things have completely changed, it's a different era. The whole idea of an armed struggle against Israel is completely over. I no longer think it's the solution – we had experience with it and we realized it wasn't the right thing."
Halil notes that the deportees still keep in touch, mainly by phone but surprisingly, the people they are no longer in contact with are people in the al-Aqsa Brigades who remained in the West Bank.
"I'm different from the man I was then and believe in a popular struggle through peaceful methods. Dialogue between the two sides must be supported as well as the possibility of negotiations in accordance with the conditions stated by the Palestinian Authority within the 1967 borders."
Al-Harimi expresses similar statements. "The armed struggle is not in the interests of the Palestinian people. We need to continue with the struggle through non-violent means in order to obtain peace with the Israeli people and I hope that when there are negotiations it will enable us to come back.
Of course, they don't all feel that way. Read the whole thing. But I suspect that one of the reasons the IDF was willing to agree to deportation in the terrorists for Gilad trade was because of this experience.
'Palestinians' to gain control of Joseph's tomb and other Judea and Samaria sites
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that now that the 'Palestinians' have joined UNESCO, they will seek control of Joseph's tomb, the Church of the Nativity and other religious sites in Judea and Samaria.
Significant religious sites throughout the West Bank, including the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem and Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, will be among the first to be pushed forward for world heritage status now Palestine has been granted membership of UNESCO.
A Palestinian Authority spokesman there were many sites and shrines in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip that until now had been unprotected because of a lack of recognition and funding.
''Now we will be able to protect them and make sure they are known around the world,'' he said. ''We believe that becoming a member of the UNESCO is an overdue right for a country that has such a significant amount of heritage sites.'' Advertisement: Story continues below
Tourism - particularly religious tourism - is a hotly contested issue between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The authority claims agreements such as the 1994 Paris Protocol severely restrict tourism and therefore economic development in the Palestinian territories.
I guess the 'Palestinians' aren't worried too much about abrogating the Oslo Accords, which govern the current arrangements. Hmmm.
UNESCO asked to declare terror attack site a World Heritage site
As part of its drive for 'statehood,' the 'Palestinian Authority' has asked UNESCO to declare Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity a World Heritage site. It would be the first World Heritage site in the 'Palestinian territories' (That's the Washington Post's and the AP's determination - I'm glad to see they admit that Rachel's tomb is not part of the 'Palestinian territories'. Yes I screen captured the page).
The Palestinians say they asked UNESCO in January to place the Church of the Nativity on its list of the world's most important cultural sites.
No sites under Palestinian control are on the list because Palestinians do not have a state recognized by the U.N.
Palestinian officials say they hope the site's overwhelming cultural significance will sway member states to approve the request. A decision is expected in mid-2012.
Tourism Minister Khouloud Daibes said Monday that the request is part of the Palestinian campaign to build their state.
The quasi-Islamist 'Palestinian Authority' demanding World Heritage status for the Church of the Nativity is rich.
And for those who have forgotten, while the terrorists hid in the Church of the Nativity, the Church's Christian owners and the church itself suffered. This is from a recent interview with one of the siege's leaders, Jihad Jaara, who is now in exile in Ireland:
Over 200 nuns and priests were trapped in the church after Israeli hostage negotiators failed to secure their release.
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WND: Again, the church siege took place in front of the world media. There is plenty of video footage of the condition the church was in when the ordeal finally ended. It was a big mess. And the priests afterwards told reporters your group seized church stockpiles of food and "ate like greedy monsters" until the food ran out while civilians inside went hungry. They say you also guzzled beer, wine, and Johnny Walker scotch that your group found in the priests' quarters. Israel says it even found over 40 explosive devices inside.
JAARA: It is not a secret that inside the church there was a very serious lack of food. I don't remember that there were such problems as you describe. Still, we were 250 persons inside the church who suffered from the fact that the Israeli army prevented any food supply and we were obliged to eat the weeds of the gardens in the church. We did not blackmail the religious to give us their food. They kindly and with much generosity offered us to share their food with us.
As for the conditions in which we left the church, it is true there was a lot of dirt but it is normal to the conditions in which we were living. Thirty-nine days without any water and any possibility to move because of the snipers who were placed all around the church.
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WND: Israel says it found documents after the siege that imply your group attempted to extort Church officials for money in exchange for their assured safety. Is this accurate?
JAARA: This argument is very funny. The officials of the church whom you say we tried to extort were the only ones who gave us money before our exile to Gaza and Europe. This is a very noble position that we will not forget. Secondly, why should we have needed this money during the siege? Were there malls inside the church [for us to shop in]? We did not know if we were going to survive the whole operation or not. So why should we need this money?
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WND: Explain why Christians accounted for upwards of 90 percent of Bethlehem for years until the Palestinian Authority took control of the city in 1995. Immediately Christians started fleeing the city. Now the population is about 20 to 25 percent Christian. Just what caused the vast majority of Bethlehem's Christians to flee right after the Palestinians took control?
JAARA: This is the responsibility of the Israeli occupation and the Israeli cruelty. The Israeli occupation defaced Christian monuments and sites and this was part of the reasons that incited Christians to leave. The Christian emigration is not a new phenomenon. Muslims leave places too. I reject your attitude that makes a separation between Muslims and Christians.
WND: I am not referring to Israeli reports. I have personally talked to scores of Christians in Bethlehem who say they feel threatened by the Muslim population. Many were afraid to even give me their names for fear of Muslim retaliation. Should Christians in Bethlehem be afraid?
JAARA: I say that all these things are rumors and arguments that Israel brings in order to separate between the two communities hoping that these thoughts will infiltrate our society. Problems can take place between a Muslim family and a Christian one, yet this happens between neighbors all over the world. It is not in any way a planned aggression against Christians. It is true also that when there is a case of a Christian girl who gets married with a young Muslim it is a very sensitive affair that may create some tension but it is very natural now all over the world that couples from different religions get married. It is the occupation that feeds this tension.
If it's designated a World Heritage site, will that stop them from trying to turn it into a mosque?
I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
Ignoring the advice of its technical advisory committee, the Secretariat of UNESCO voted on Friday 13-6 with two abstentions to grant an 'emergency' request to make the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem an historic site of the 'Palestinian Authority.' The vote was by secret ballot. 
