Jordan protests ‘Israeli fact faking’ in Jerusalem report to UNESCO

AMMAN — Jordan protested the Israeli Occupation Authorities’ (IOA) report presented to the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, in which the IOA illegally describes tens of Judaisation projects implemented inside the Old City of Jerusalem as “conservation and development projects”.  

Jordan expressed its “shock at the very provocative report”, a statement by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs said, citing a phrase naming Al Aqsa Mosque compound as “Temple Mount” and describing the Hashemite restoration projects at the holy sites as “Israeli archaeological projects”. 

The statement, which was also shared by the Jerusalem Awqaf Council and Administration, the Jerusalem Patriarchate and the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, also rejected the Israeli report, which describes as a process of “conservation” the “Israeli enforced intervention in the maintenance of the Jerusalem churches”, including the Church of Holy Sepulchre. 

Jordan demanded Israel commit to the international law by halting dozens of Judaisation projects in a violation of the pre-1967 status quo, the ministry said.

Jordan also called for empowering UNESCO commissions to be effectively capable of protecting the authenticity and integrity of a highly significant and sacred World Heritage Site, that is subject to — overt and covert — destruction and obliteration to its Islamic and Byzantine character, at the hands of the Israeli Department of Antiquities. 

“Jordan deems these Israeli violations to be dangerous breaches to international law and to the 1994 Peace Treaty between Jordan and Israel,” the statement said.

The ministry explained that Jordan and the majority of world countries “have gone past being ‘concerned’ to becoming  ‘frustrated’ with Israeli violation at the Magharbeh Gate Pathway Site. Israel has promptly moved from illegally interfering with the maintenance work at the site to eradicating the major part in the historic pathway, under the watchful eyes of the UNESCO”.

The statement takes note that the Magharbeh Gate Pathway is only one example of a long list of Israeli flagrant violations in the Old City of Jerusalem.   

According to the Awqaf Ministry’s statement, Jordan expressed deep disappointment that in spite of all these Israeli violations, many states and international organisations are reluctant to use the term “Occupation Authority” when talking about Israel and its policies in Jerusalem and the rest of the occupied Palestinian territories. 

Jordan demanded that the international community “put diplomatic courtesy aside, and not give it priority over the endangered World Heritage of the city of Jerusalem”.