UNESCO Foreign Affairs Committee endorses resolution on Jerusalem’s Old City

AMMAN —  The Foreign Affairs Committee, affiliated with the Executive Board of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), unanimously endorsed a resolution concerning the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls as part of its 210 session. 

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Daifallah Fayez said that adopting this important decision was a result of Jordan’s collaboration with Palestinian and the Arab and Islamic groups at UNESCO, the Jordan News Agency, Petra, reported.

The resolution and its appendices reaffirm Jordan’s stance towards the Old City of Jerusalem and its walls along with the Islamic and Christian holy sites, highlighting the one-sided Israeli violations against these historical sites. 

The resolution also demands Israel cease its provocative activities, which target Al Aqsa Mosque/Al Haram Al Sharif and underlines the illegitimacy of Israel’s attempts to distort the Arab identity of East Jerusalem.

The resolution consolidates UNESCO’s previous 18 Jerusalem resolutions which expressed Israel’s failure, as the occupying power, in stopping its excavation and building of tunnels, rendering them all as illegal in accordance with international law. 

In a report presented at the session, UNESCO’s director general pointed to the letters sent by Jordan and Palestine to the organisation in relation to violations at the Old City of Jerusalem. 

The resolution called for an urgent appointment of a permanent representative to monitor all activities, which fall under the UNESCO’s specialties, in the Old City of Jerusalem and dispatching a UNESCO monitoring mission to Jerusalem to identify violations of Israel, the occupying power, in accordance with international law, according to Petra.