The area is in the West Bank, which Israel captured along with Gaza and East Jerusalem in the 1967 war. Jericho is administered by the Palestinian Authority, which nominated the site.
“The natural resources and strategic location of ancient Jericho/Tell es-Sultan made it…a major node of human development over thousands of years,” the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities wrote in the commission’s brief. ing. “Today’s inhabitants drink water from the same springs and water the same fields as the ancient inhabitants of Jericho.”
The city is one of the world’s oldest continuously inhabited places, with permanent settlements dating back to the 9th millennium BC. Excavations there have unearthed traces of a Neolithic population and materials from the early and middle Bronze Age.
But Israel, which has nine World Heritage sites on its list, opposed the designation on Sunday.
in statement The Foreign Ministry said the decision was another sign of “the cynical use of UNESCO by the Palestinians” and the “politicization of the organization,” Israeli media reported.
Israel withdrew from UNESCO in 2019 after the agency listed the temple in the Biblical city of Hebron as a Palestinian World Heritage Site as “at risk.” Known as the Tomb of the Patriarchs, this site is located in Hebron’s Old City and dates back to the 1st century AD. It is important in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Israeli officials have accused UNESCO of downplaying the Jewish connection to the Holy Land. However, Israel remains a party to the World Heritage Convention and has sent a delegation to the conference in Riyadh on 10 September.
The delegation was led by the Director of the Israel Antiquities Authority and was the first official visit by an Israeli official to Saudi Arabia. The two countries are in talks to normalize relations with support from the United States.
Other Persian Gulf states, including Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, have also established diplomatic relations with Israel. But Riyadh stalled, insisting that Israel and the Palestinians first agree to a two-state solution.
UNESCO designations have long been complicated by politics and conflict. The agency’s role is to identify, protect and preserve sites of natural or cultural significance. The selection process has also been criticized in other regions, including Syria and Kashmir.
In the Palestinian Territories, UNESCO had previously designated three other sites. It is the Church of the Nativity and the Bethlehem pilgrimage route. Battir hill landscape with vines and olive trees. and the old city of Hebron.