Susanne Posel
Occupy Corporatism
July 3, 2012
From the Pyramids of Egypt, to the Everglades National Park, the UN’s UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has acquired the greatest monuments and natural lands for themselves under the guise of protecting places that are “unique and diverse”.
In 1972, the international treaty entitled Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage created World Heritage Sites, with a mission to:
- Ensure UN control over priceless lands and monuments across the globe by having nations sign the treaty
- Establish conservation and use of these site as defined by UN guidelines
- Establish UN control by employing management, reporting systems, technical assistance and training
- Provide propaganda to encourage public support for the UN’s allocation of priceless lands and monuments
UNESCO has claimed 944 properties around the world. The States Parties is charged with identifying potential sites that the UN would be interested in possessing. With regular reports, the States Parties advise the World Heritage Committee in their crucial work and “enable it to assess the conditions of the sites, decide on specific program needs and resolve recurrent problems.”
UNESCO have named the Church of the Nativity in the city of Bethlehem in Palestine one of its World Heritage Sites (WHS). These sites are deemed by the UN as having “outstanding universal value” and are essentially owned and managed by the UN.
The city of Bethlehem is located on the West Bank and five miles south of Jerusalem. Just recently the UN granted the nation of Palestine membership into UNESCO. This status is unapproved by the US government who believes that the Palestinian government must come to a peace treaty with Israel regarding the Palestinian Territories before they can be granted full membership into the UN.
Bethlehem, located on the West Bank and five miles south of Jerusalem, has incredible religious significance to many cultures.
Nada Atrash, architect and head of the research and training at Bethlehem’s Center for Cultural Heritage Preservation, explains that this site is the “oldest surviving Christian Church in the world”.
Atrash has been lobbying for quite some time to have this site designated by the UN as a WHS. Atrash says the Palestinian addition to UNESCO’s WHS program “as a Palestinian dream, and as a reward of 11 years of work in the field of preserving the cultural and natural heritage in Palestine.”
Because of the high traffic and tourism, the Church of the Nativity also represents a great source of revenue for the UN under UNESCO. Through development and capitalization of this tourist attraction, Atrash hopes that the Church of the Nativity will boost Bethlehem’s place in the world’s tourism lobby. “We are mainly seeking to extend the stay of the visitors, who usually drop (in) to Bethlehem for few hours to visit the church and leave without visiting the town. We hope that this inscription would contribute to both the promotion of the site and its protection.”
Because of UNESCO’s relationship with Palestine, the US and Israel have cut their funding to the UN organization.
Under UNESCO management, administrative responsibilities will be directed between three religious authorities: the Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Roman Catholic churches.
Riyad Malki, Palestinian Foreign Minister, was happy to have the Church of the Nativity entered into the hands of the UN. Malki said: “The victory of Palestine in international organizations is the beginning of the end of the Israeli occupation.”
Hanan Ashrawi, member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s executive committee and head of the Department of Culture and Information, approved of the UN’s vote. Ashrawi said: “Now we are responsible for our cultural and historical sites as part of human civilization as a whole. Politically it is important, because it is the beginning of the loosening of the control of the Israeli occupation on our land, on our lives, on our culture and at all attempts of confiscation and distortion of our cultural heritage and reality.”
Yigai Palmor, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson asserts that the UN’s vote to allow Palestine into UNESCO was a direct oppositional move against the Israeli government. “This is a real theater of the absurd. The Palestinians have stepped over the regular procedure of UNESCO and distorted the usual proceeding in order to vote a decision that has nothing to do with world heritage sites and even less to do with this site, the Church of the Nativity.
The only purpose of this unprecedented voting procedure was to turn the commission into a propaganda tool against Israel. This should be denounced by all member countries of UNESCO; otherwise this will not be the Palestinians’ last word.”
The Church of the Nativity is the latest allocation of sites round the world that are now controlled by the UN. There are over 944 properties under the control of the UN World Heritage Committee.
