Culture Ministry: Adding West Bank Islamic sites to Jewish heritage a forgery

[ 18/10/2010 - 09:29 AM ]

GAZA, (PIC)-- The Ministry of Culture in Gaza said the decision to add two mosques in the West Bank to the Jewish heritage list is “falsification of facts and an obliteration of Islamic landmarks and monuments”.

The ministry said in a statement it issued Sunday evening that Israel clearly ignores the heritage of the indigenous Palestinian people, who are an essential part of the components of Palestine’s national civilization and identity.

UNESCO, the UN’s educational, scientific, and cultural organization will discuss on Monday a decision to include the Ibrahimi Mosque and the Bilal ibn Abu Rabah Mosque in the West Bank to Israel’s list of Jewish heritage centers, in a step that would provoke the sentiments of Arabs and Muslims in general and Palestinians in particular.

The decision takes away from the Islamic heritage in a desperate attempt to forge and change its firm reality over history, the culture ministry said, adding that the Ibrahimi and Ibn Abu Rabah Mosques are Islamic endowments and two prominent landmarks of the Palestinian and Muslim people.

The Gaza ministry said it fully opposes the unjust decision, commenting that “continued attempts by occupation authorities to judaize the holy sites are doomed to failure.”

The ministry called on UNESCO to shoulder its responsibilities in preserving the holy sites in Palestine and protecting them against obliteration and forgery, also calling on the organization to uphold laws prohibiting violations against Islamic monuments.

In its statement, the culture ministry also called on Arab and international cultural organizations to oppose and take a decisive stand against the decision, and to take action to protect the culture and identity of the indigenous Palestinian people.

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