A Battle Over History: Palestinians Ask the U.N. to Recognize Jewish Heritage Sites as Palestinian

The Palestinian Authority has approached UNESCO and submitted a list of Jewish heritage sites in Judea and Samaria that it is asking to have recognized as Palestinian sites. That is according to a report published today (Sunday) in Israel Hayom.

According to the report, following the Palestinian move, the organization "Guardians of Eternity," a coalition of groups working to protect Israel’s antiquities, appealed to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and called for a fundamental change in Israeli policy: moving from "putting out fires" to taking full responsibility for the national heritage sites in Judea and Samaria.

The Palestinians submitted to the U.N. a list of 23 sites, including Jewish national heritage sites from the biblical, Hasmonean, and Second Temple periods. Among them: Tel Shechem, ancient Hebron, Tel Gibeon, the Hasmonean Palaces, Jerusalem’s ancient water system including Solomon’s Pools and the aqueducts, Herodium, the southern Jordan Valley, and broad areas in the northern Judean Desert, including parts of the Hasmonean desert fortresses.

As previously reported, UNESCO has in the past recognized five sites as Palestinian heritage sites: Tel Jericho, the Old City of Hebron, the terraces of Battir, the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and Saint Hilarion Monastery in the Gaza Strip.

At "Guardians of Eternity," officials are warning that the Palestinian move could be used as a political tool to detach Jewish heritage sites from their historical and national context. They say that international recognition of the sites as Palestinian could cement a distorted perception that sites clearly identified with Jewish history are not part of Israel’s heritage.