The Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALECSO) strongly condemns the outrageous aggressions repeatedly perpetrated by the Israeli occupation authorities and settlers, especially those affecting Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi and the Old City of Hebron, through the deliberate disfiguring of this religious site by installing an electric elevator inside it, as part of a plan to confiscate the lands of the Ibrahimi Mosque and use them for Judaization and settlement projects.
These unjust and escalatory acts constitute another episode in the series of Israeli assaults against the Palestinian people and the occupation authorities’ attempts to usurp the Palestinians’ exclusive right to manage this site, internationally recognized as a Palestinian property, to impose a fait accompli, and to continue their campaign of displacement against the Palestinian people.
Expanding Israeli control over the Ibrahimi Mosque constitutes a blatant threat to the integrity of this valuable monument, inscribed by UNESCO on the World Heritage List as a Palestinian property in danger. In the face of this flagrant violation, the international community, and especially UNESCO, is called on to assume its historical responsibility and to promptly act to condemn and denounce the repeated Israeli aggressions. It is also called on to take the needed decisions in order to deter these serious crimes and protect cultural heritage in Palestine, and in all other conflict areas, from all dangers and violations that are criminalized under international law and all relevant UN conventions and resolutions.
ALECSO expresses its full support for all international efforts and initiatives aimed at standing against all acts of looting and destruction targeting cultural heritage in Palestine as well as in other countries, such as Syria, Libya and Yemen, which are ravaged by armed conflicts, and where ancient cities, archaeological sites and historical monuments are in real danger of disappearing. ALECSO also expresses its willingness to actively engage in international campaigns aimed at saving, restoring and rehabilitating universal cultural heritage in danger, thereby contributing to the preservation of the memory of Humankind and to the promotion of peaceful coexistence among civilizations.
