WARSAW, Poland — Israel has protested a UNESCO vote that called it the “occupying power” in Jerusalem’s Old City which includes sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims. Participants in a UNESCO World Heritage Committee’s session in Krakow, Poland, called on “Israel, the occupying power” to stop “persistent excavations, tunneling, works, projects and other illegal practices” in East Jerusalem and especially in the Old City. They also decided to keep Jerusalem’s Old City and its historic walls on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Danny Danon condemned the vote’s wording as “disgraceful” and stressed that the Old City holds sites “the most sacred” for the Jews. Israel captured east Jerusalem, with sites holy to Jews, Christians and Muslims, in the 1967 Mideast war.

Source: Washington Post July 05, 2017 09:54 UTC