UNESCO’s Director-General Irina Bokova has broken ranks with the international body she heads, criticising this week’s 24-6 vote to designate the Temple Mount and its Western Wall as a purely Muslim religious site.
“As I have stated on many occasions, and most recently during the 40th session of the World Heritage Committee, Jerusalem is the sacred city of the three monotheistic religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam,” she said Friday. “It is in recognition of this exceptional diversity, and this cultural and religious coexistence, that it was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list.”
“The heritage of Jerusalem is indivisible, and each of its communities has a right to the explicit recognition of their history and relationship with the city. To deny, conceal or erase any of the Jewish, Christian or Muslim traditions undermines the integrity of the site, and runs counter to the reasons that justified its inscription on the UNESCO World Heritage list.”
Read the article in the Australian Herald.