Israel criticizes UN vote to list ruins near ancient Jericho as World Heritage Site in Palestine

Source: Associated Press

Israel criticizes UN vote to list ruins near ancient Jericho as World Heritage Site in Palestine

Updated 1:48 PM EDT, September 17, 2023

JERICHO, West Bank (AP) — A U.N. committee voted Sunday to list prehistoric ruins near the ancient West Bank city of Jericho as a World Heritage Site in Palestine, a decision that angered Israel, which controls the territory and does not recognize a Palestinian state.

Jericho is one of the oldest continually inhabited cities on earth, and is in a part of the Israeli-occupied West Bank that is administered by the internationally recognized Palestinian Authority. The listing refers to the Tell es-Sultan archaeological site nearby, which contains prehistoric ruins dating back to the ninth millennium B.C. and is outside the ancient city itself.

The decision was made at a meeting of the U.N. World Heritage Committee in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, under the auspices of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, UNESCO.

Israel’s foreign ministry released a statement Sunday that said the listing was a “cynical” ploy by the Palestinians to politicize UNESCO, and that Israel will work with its allies to reverse what it says are the organization’s “distorted” decisions.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/unesco-israel-palestinians-politics-jericho-d6d17926e7c67ef749ac0aa7d21d9cdd