Amman: The Lower House Palestine Committee commended the unanimous adoption by the World Heritage Committee of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) of a resolution to keep the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Passed during UNESCO's 48th session, the committee said the step represents "renewed" international condemnation of the Israeli occupation's policy, aimed at Judaizing the holy city and scrapping its Arab and Islamic identity.
According to Jordan News Agency, in a statement issued Thursday, the committee noted the move shows all Israeli attempts to impose a fait accompli by force will fail to grant Israel any legitimacy, adding that Jerusalem will remain an occupied Arab and Islamic city, regardless of the extent of the policies of repression, falsification, and settlement.
The committee urged the Muslim countries, the international community, the United Nations, and UNESCO to take "practical and deterrent" measures to compel Israel to cease its escalating violations, work towards implementing Jerusalem-related international resolutions and counter attempts to steal history and impose a demographic and geographic reality.
On a related front, the committee condemned the Israeli authorities' step to allow thousands of extremists to storm the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform Talmudic rituals, raise the occupation flags, and erect tents inside the mosque.
The MPs considered these practices a blatant act of aggression and a provocation of the feelings of more than two billion Muslims worldwide, and a dangerous escalation aimed at imposing a temporal and spatial division of the Al-Aqsa Mosque under the pretexts and myths of the "alleged temple." Al-Aqsa Mosque, with its entire area of 144 dunams, is the exclusive Islamic right of Muslims alone, and the occupation has no sovereignty or legal or historical right over this holy site, the MPs pointed out.
The committee noted any attempt to alter the existing historical and legal status quo constitutes a flagrant violation of international law and an unacceptable aggression against Islamic holy sites, which will fail to change the reality of Jerusalem and its established identity.
The committee also stated Jerusalemites' "steadfastness and resilience" will remain the invincible barrier against Judaization and displacement projects, adding that the occupation's schemes will fail despite its escalation policies.
The committee said Israeli escalation will fail to alter identity of Jerusalem or "erase Al-Aqsa Mosque from the conscience of the Arab and Islamic nation and the holy city will remain a symbol of truth, history, and dignity.