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| The Anthedon, Gaza’s ancient port, dates back to the eighth century B.C., when Gaza was a major Philistine city |
Since the Palestinians
were admitted to UNESCO (the UN body charged with preserving the world's heritage), the Palestinians have used it solely as a forum for advancing
their political aims. And now Hamas is bulldozing a world heritage site so that
they can further those same political aims through terrorism...
GENEVA, April 15 - In an urgent letter sent today to UNESCO director-general Irina
Bokova,
UN Watch demanded immediate action to stop the Hamas bulldozing of a 3,000-year-old
harbor in Gaza for use as a terrorist training camp, as reported today by Al
Monitor Palestine Pulse. A copy was also sent to EU foreign
minister Catherine Ashton calling on the EU to take action.
The partial destruction of the ancient Anthedon Harbor – which
includes the ruins of a Roman temple and archaeological remains from the Persian,
Hellenistic, Roman and Byzantine eras—comes exactly one year after the area was
nominated as a World Heritage site.
According the current UNESCO session
timetable, there are in fact four agenda items dedicated exclusively to
Palestinian issues: Items 9, 10, 34,
and 35, while Item 5 includes
a fifth report on this issue. Israel is the only country in the world that is
targeted for specific criticism in this session.
Previous UNESCO resolutions on these five items were rightly described by US Ambassador David Killion as
“highly politicized” and designed to “single out Israel.” The extreme
politicization even prompted Russia to successfully oppose discussion
of these items, despite vehement Palestinian opposition, at the previous 190th
session in October.
UNESCO’s admission of Palestine as a member state in 2011, which
caused the organization to lose almost a quarter of its budget when the US
suspended its contributions, was justified as a measure to help protect world
heritage sites in Palestinian areas.
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