Nikki Haley urges UNESCO against 'wasted' focus on Hebron vote

"US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley urged the secretary-general of the UN and the head of its cultural agency to oppose efforts to have the Tomb of Patriarchs in Hebron be inscribed as a Palestinian world heritage site.

On Friday, two days before the UNESCO World Heritage Committee's conference started in Poland, Haley addressed a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova, expressing her opposition to the Palestinian attempt to have the Old City of Hebron declared a 'world heritage site in danger.' A vote on the issue is scheduled for this Friday.

'The Tomb of the Patriarchs, which is sacred to three faiths, is in no immediate threat. Such a designation risks undermining the seriousness such an assessment by UNESCO should have,' Haley wrote.

'Many precious sites - from the Democratic Republic of Congo to Libya to Iraq to Syria - are under real and imminent threat of destruction today. They urgently demand UNESCO's full and immediate attention, which should not be wasted on this sort of symbolic action,' the ambassador wrote.

'As the United States is engaged in trying to increase the chances of a peace deal that is in the best interest of both Israelis and Palestinians, this effort at UNESCO... is particularly ill-timed and unfortunate,' Haley went on. 'I hope you will join the United States in opposing this measure.'

UNESCO has come under fire by Israel, the US and other nations for a series of moves deemed anti-Israel, most recently in May, when its executive board ratified a resolution denying any Jewish legal or historical Israeli links to Jerusalem and calling Israel an 'occupying power' in its capital..."