'UNESCO must stop Israel tampering with Palestinian heritage'

The Palestinian president’s advisor on religious affairs and Islamic relations, Mahmoud Al-Habash yesterday called on UNESCO to immediately intervene and stop Israel from distorting facts and destroying heritage in Jerusalem.

In a press release received by the Anadolu Agency, Al-Habash warned of the risk imbedded in the escalatory step taken by the Jerusalem municipality which put a banner outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque near the Al-Nather Gate identifying the Muslim monument as the Jewish “Temple of Solomon” in Arabic, Hebrew and English.

Al-Habash said that Israel’s tampering with names in the holy city is “a deliberate falsification of history, and heritage and a desperate attempt to disarm the city of its Arab and Islamic character to impose a newly manufactured Jewish character. This is a very dangerous step and will result in tough consequences.”

He added: “Despite Judaisation operations carried out by the Israeli government and its various arms in Jerusalem and the attempts to obliterate the Arab and Islamic landmarks and continued confiscation of land and building settlements, Israel will never change the fact that Jerusalem is the religious, political, and spiritual capital of Palestine and the Jews have no right to it.”