CAIRO: The Israeli government on Wednesday announced it would end its cooperation with UNESCO over a mosque at a West Bank shrine believed to be the tomb of the Biblical Rachel. It comes after the two sides continued to fight over the site and UNESCO's insistence on it being part of the country's heritage list. Deputy Foreign Minter Dany Ayalon told the Israeli parliament that the UN cultural organization should withdraw its “recognition” of the shrine as a mosque “before Israel would resume its cooperation with it.” The government has argued that UNESCO is adopting Palestinian and Arab political terminology by calling the shrine “Bilal bin Rabah Mosque.” Israel argued that until the mid-1990s, it was known by all religious groups as “Rachel's Tomb.” Ayalon told Israel Army Radio that he thought such statements would be a hindrance to peace and understanding between the two peoples. For Palestinian archaeologist Hassan Abdallah, fighting over a name is irrelevant. “This is an ancient site that now has a mosque there and both Jews and Muslims find it a peaceful location, so for the Israeli government to end relations with UNESCO over it, shows that they are trying to usurp the language of culture,” he told Bikya Masr. Last month, UNESCO adopted five proposals initiated by Arab member states regarding holy sites in East Jerusalem and the West Bank, much to the anger of the Israeli government. One of them was Rachel's Tomb just outside the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem. Referring in its statement to the structure as both the “Bilal bin Rabah Mosque/Rachel's Tomb,” the UNESCO board voted 44 to 1, with 12 abstentions, to reaffirm the site was “an integral part of the occupied Palestinian territories and that any unilateral action by the Israeli authorities is to be considered a violation of international law.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this year sparked Arab anger when he put a number holy sites in the occupied territories on Israel's list of national heritage sites that the government wants to renovate. Rachel's Tomb was on that list, prompting Arab member states, including Jordan, to push for the UNESCO executive board decision. BM
