The UNESCO Hebron decision matters to Israel and the world

"While the Palestinians have been thwarted on the ground in the West Bank and Gaza to create a state or remove Israel's presence from areas they claim, they have been successful in international forums like UNESCO. The Palestinian Authority successfully sought membership in UNESCO as a state in 2011, as part of a campaign to join numerous UN agencies. It won membership in a vote of 107 to 14, presaging the vote on Friday in which 12 voted in favor of inscribing Hebron and three against. At the time, Israel's ambassador to UNESCO, Nimrod Barkan, condemned the decision...

UNESCO, like other UN bodies, criticizes Israel's actions, and it will continue to do so. Lobbying by Israeli allies or even whittling away at the automatic pro-Palestinian majority hasn't worked. Palestinians will likely use the coming years to try to register more sites, especially those they think will undermine Israel's rule in the West Bank. This could include campaigns regarding Rachel's Tomb, or sites such as Nabi Samwil or even the monastery inside Ma'ale Adumim...

With Hebron, there is an attempt to minimize the Jewish connection to the tomb, as if thousands of years of Jewish connection and the fact that the current building was built as a Jewish site initially, is of less significance...

The Palestinian Authority has exploited UNESCO to declare all three of its sites "in danger," including Hebron, Battir and the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. The Old City of Jerusalem is also on the list of 54 UNESCO sites in "danger." This puts Palestinian sites "in danger" up there with Libya, Mali, Iraq, Congo, Syria and Yemen. The other countries are undergoing vicious wars, and in Iraq and Syria sites have been totally razed by ISIS. ISIS demolished Hatra and blew up parts of Palmyra. Battir, Hebron, Bethlehem and Jerusalem's Old City are not in danger in the way other sites UNESCO lists as "in danger" are. The decision to keep voting them onto the "danger" list is part of a Palestinian campaign against Israel, not an honest weighing of whether these sites face any danger. For instance, the Bethlehem sites are under the control of the Palestinian Authority, yet in 'danger' ostensibly from Israel. This disproportionate claim of 'in danger' is used as a tool to attack and undermined Israel's rule in the West Bank and Jerusalem..."