Occupied Jerusalem: Israel is adding two key West Bank holy shrines to its list of national heritage sites, the prime minister said on Sunday, staking a claim that angered Palestinians, who want Israel out of the West Bank.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, addressing a session of his Cabinet at a heritage site in the Israeli Galilee, said the two sites were late additions to the list, reflecting pressure from colonists and other nationalists to widen the heritage category to include Old Testament sites in the West Bank.
One of the sites, is the Al Ebrahimi mosque.
Hebron is a focus of violence because it is the only place in the West Bank where Jews live among Palestinians. About 500 Israeli colonists, some of them extremists, live in enclaves near the disputed holy site, guarded by Israeli soldiers who control part of the city where about 170,000 Palestinians live.
The other new heritage site is the traditional Dome of Rachel on the outskirts of Bethlehem, about 20 kilometers north of Hebron. Israel's West Bank wall juts into Bethlehem to put the site under Israeli control. The 30-foot-high concrete wall is a constant irritant to Palestinians there, who reject Israel's claims that the wall is meant to keep out attackers and consider it a land grab.
Altogether, about 150 sites are on the national heritage list. Netanyahu convened his Cabinet at Tel Hai, location of a legendary 1920 battle between early Jewish colonists and Arabs.
Netanyahu, who angered colonists by agreeing under US pressure to slow colony construction, said the two West Bank sites must be preserved because they show Israel's ancient ties to the land.
"Our existence here doesn't just depend on the might of the military or our economic and technological strength," Netanyahu said. "It is anchored first and foremost in our national and emotional legacy."
Palestinian National Authority spokesman Gassan Khatib condemned the decision and warned it could take the Israel-Palestinian conflict in a dangerous direction.
"We believe that this particular violation is very dangerous because it might add to the religious nature of the conflict," Khatib said. Palestinians claim the West Bank as part of their future state.
Netanyahu spokesman Mark Regev said the list was not meant to draw borders. "The purpose of the list ... is to single out sites that are of great importance to the Jewish people," Regev said.
