WASHINGTON — Hours after UNESCO declared the Tomb of the Patriarchs, in the Old City of Hebron in the West Bank, an endangered Palestinian world heritage site, US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said the move was both “tragic” and an “affront to history,” and that the US would review its ties with the world body as a result of the decision.

On Friday, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passed its second anti-Israel resolution in less than a week.

During the World Heritage Committee’s 41st annual summit, currently taking place in Krakow, Poland, twelve countries voted in favor of the Hebron decision while three opposed it and six countries abstained. Both the US and Israel protested vigorously against the motion.

The voting took place in secret, whereas in the past, votes to inscribe sites onto UNESCO’s World Heritage List are done by a show of hands among all the member states. But three countries — Poland, Croatia and Jamaica — requested a secret ballot, much to the objection of other countries.

“The UNESCO vote on Hebron is tragic on several levels. It represents an affront to history,” Haley said in a statement.

The resolution, she said, would stultify ongoing attempts by the Trump administration to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, a major foreign policy priority for Washington.

“It undermines the trust that is needed for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process to be successful,” she said. “And it further discredits an already highly questionable UN agency. Today’s vote does no one any good and causes much harm.”

She went on, “The United States is currently evaluating the appropriate level of its continued engagement at UNESCO.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded to the motion earlier Friday by calling the measure “another delusional UNESCO decision” and ordered that another $1 million be pulled from Israel’s UN funding to establish a museum showcasing Jewish heritage in Hebron.

Earlier this week, the World Heritage Committee passed a resolution denying Israeli claims to the Old City of Jerusalem. Although the text was much softer than similar resolutions passed in previous years, Israel condemned it strongly.

The United States has made an issue of UNESCO decisions in the past.

After the body admitted the Palestinians as a member state in 2011, former president Barack Obama withdrew US funding from the agency.

While the US is still on UNESCO’s 58-member Executive Board, it no longer has voting rights in its General Conference.</s>Eritrean officials on Saturday claimed "victory" after the U.N. cultural agency unanimously decided to put the African nation's capital city of Asmara on the UNESCO World Heritage list — the result of years of lobbying by one of the world's most reclusive governments.

The decision during a session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Poland appreciated the outstanding values of Asmara's 19th and early 20th century modernist architecture, designed by colonial-era Italian architects and immersed in an African highland environment.

Eritrea's ambassador to France and permanent representative to UNESCO, Hanna Simon, called the decision the result of "years of research, planning and campaigning" and a "victory not just for the Eritrean people but for Africa and the world at large."

Simon stressed that the builders were Eritrean and that "despite the colonial imprint" Asmara belongs to the Eritrean identity and to its "struggle for self-determination, thus being a symbol of pride and achievement for the Eritrean people."

Eritrea fought a three-decade war for independence from Ethiopia and since 1991 has become one of the world's most closed-off nations.

Its government has faced widespread criticism over what a U.N. commission of inquiry last year said are numerous abuses including enslavement, rape and torture. President Isaias Afwerki, in power since 1991, is described by rights groups as increasingly repressive in the Horn of Africa country of about 6 million.

Eritrea has been a major source of migration toward Europe.</s>UN cultural agency UNESCO on Saturday declared the 600-year-old walled city of Ahmedabad as a world heritage city, the first Indian city to make it to the list. The World Heritage Committee of UNESCO met in Karlow, Poland on Saturday night where the decision was made.

“Thrilled to announce! Ahmedabad has just been declared India’s first World Heritage city by UNESCO,” tweeted Ruchira Kamboj, India’s permanent representative to UNESCO.

"The journey began in 2010 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi proffered the dossier of Ahmedabad to UNESCO," Kamboj said in her speech after Ahmedabad’s inscription.

With this title, the Walled City of Ahmedabad has joined Paris, Vienna, Cairo, Brussels, Rome and Edinburgh. Of the 287 world heritage cities across the globe, the only two cities in the Indian subcontinent which enjoy the status are Bhaktapur in Nepal and Galle in Sri Lanka.

The committee also added Asmara, the capital of Eritrea, to its list of World Heritage sites on Saturday. Earlier on Friday, it added Hebron-Al Khalil Old Town (Palestine) and W-Arly-Pendjari Complex (Benin, Burkina Faso) to the list. It also added the site of Hebron-Al Khalil to the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger.

“For over 600 years, Ahmedabad has stood for peace, as a landmark city where Mahatma Gandhi began India’s freedom struggle. It has stood for unity with its elegant carvings in its Hindu and Jain temples as well as standing as one of the finest examples of Indo-Islamic architecture and Hindu Muslim art. And beyond this, it epitomizes the United Nation’s objective of sustainable development as it accelerates in its development, chosen to be one of India’s first smart cities, while preserving its ancient heritage,” Kamboj further said.

The nomination of Ahmedabad was supported by about 20 countries including Turkey, Lebanon, Tunisia, Portugal, Peru, Croatia, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, South Korea, Croatia, Cuba and Poland.

“Delighted to know that UNESCO has declared Ahmedabad as World Heritage City. Proud moment for every Indian,” the BJP national president said in a tweet.

Ahmedabad’s journey towards attaining a world heritage tag began in 1984 when the first study for conserving heritage structures was instituted by Ford Foundation. In March 2011, Ahmedabad made it to UNESCO’s tentative list of world heritage sites. In January 2016, it was chosen over Delhi and Mumbai as India’s entry for the title.

Ahmedabad has about 25 ASI (Archaeological Survey of India)-protected structures, hundreds of ‘pols’(housing clusters in the walled city areas of Ahmedabad) that capture the essence of community living, and numerous sites associated with Gandhi, who lived here from 1915 to 1930.</s>The people of Eritrea have long said their capital Asmara is like no other city in Africa, and on Saturday the UN agreed, designating it a World Heritage site.

The proclamation ends a long-running quest by Eritrean authorities to have the city's unique architecture, which includes an art-deco bowling alley with coloured glass windows and a petrol station built to resemble a soaring aeroplane, recognised by the UN cultural body, UNESCO.

It's also a rare example of positive world recognition for the Horn of Africa nation that is a major source of migrants fleeing across the Mediterranean to Europe due to the country's repressive policies.

"The city's recognition as a heritage site of outstanding universal value fills us with tremendous pride and joy, but also with a profound sense of responsibility and duty," said Hanna Simon, Eritrea's permanent delegate to UNESCO.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the World Heritage Committee in the Polish city of Krakow.

A former Italian colony, most of the futuristic designs of the Eritrean capital date back to the rule of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini from 1936 to 1941.

Architects whose designs were unwelcome in conservative European cities found a place in Asmara at a time when about half of the city's population was Italian and the city was known as 'Piccola Roma', or "Little Rome".

While the modernist architecture of other Eritrean cities was destroyed during a decades-long war of liberation from Ethiopia, Asmara's survived and was declared a national monument by the government in 2001, which refers to it as Africa's "City of Dream" (sic).

But efforts to restore the marble facades and Roman-style pillars of the city's theatres and cinemas have been hampered by a shortage of money and local expertise, city authorities say.</s>Image copyright AFP Image caption The Tomb of the Patriarchs is the second holiest site in Judaism and the fourth in Islam

Unesco has designated Hebron's Old City and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the occupied West Bank a Palestinian World Heritage site despite Israeli protests.

A resolution passed by a committee of the UN cultural agency also put them on a list of sites considered "in danger".

The Tomb of the Patriarchs - also known as the Ibrahimi Mosque - is revered by Jews, Muslim and Christians as Abraham, Isaac and Jacob's burial place.

It is the second holiest site in Judaism and the fourth in Islam.

It has been a flashpoint for decades, with several hundred Jewish settlers living in enclaves nearby, surrounded by some 200,000 Palestinians.

Palestinian diplomats had urged Unesco to fast track Hebron's inscription onto the List of World Heritage in Danger, accusing Israel of an "alarming" number of violations that included vandalism, property damage, and other attacks that had an impact on its authenticity and integrity.

Inscription would place the site under international standards of conservation, and would oblige Unesco to review its situation every year, they said.

Rare secret ballot

Israel had rejected the Palestinian allegations and complained that the resolution, which refers to Hebron's "Islamic history", denied a Jewish connection to the city.

The US had argued that the Tomb of the Patriarchs was "under no immediate threat" and that adding it to the list of sites in danger "risked undermining the seriousness such an assessment by Unesco should have".

It had also warned that the resolution might undermine efforts by US President Donald Trump to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.

Unesco's World Heritage Committee held a secret ballot on the Hebron resolution on Friday at its 41st annual summit in Krakow, Poland. The unusual step was requested by three member states.

Twelve ended up voting in favour, while three opposed it. Six abstained.

"Today, Palestine and the world, through Unesco, celebrate Hebron as part of world heritage, a value that transcends geography, religion, politics, and ideology," a Palestinian foreign ministry statement said.

"This vote celebrated facts and rejected the shameless high-profile political bullying and attempts at extortion."

'City of our fathers'

Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads Israel's Unesco committee, denounced the vote and accused the UN agency of being a "political tool".

"The Jewish connection to Hebron goes back thousands of years. Hebron, the birthplace of King David's kingdom, and the Tomb of the Patriarchs, the first Jewish purchase in Israel and resting place of our forefathers - are our people's oldest heritage sites," he said.

"Unesco's resolution must be rejected, and our efforts to strengthen the city of our fathers increased," he added.

Hebron was divided between Israeli and Palestinian control under a 1997 agreement which saw Israel withdraw from 80% of the city. The Old City, and the tomb, are located in the Israeli sector.

Earlier this week, Israel protested against another resolution passed by the World Heritage Committee that referred to it as the "occupying power" in Jerusalem's Old City, which includes sites sacred to Jews, Christians and Muslims.

The resolution kept the Old City and its historic walls on the List of World Heritage in Danger, and called on the Israeli authorities to "cease the persistent excavations, tunnelling, works and projects" that it stated were "illegal under international law".</s>U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley slammed a vote Friday by the World Heritage Committee of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization designating the Old City of Hebron, and the Cave of the Patriarchs, as ‘a World Heritage Site in Danger,’ registered under the government of the Palestinian Authority.

The draft resolution passed in a secret ballot with 12 approving, 3 opposed and 6 abstentions.

The resolution was passed, said Haley, “despite protests by the United States, Israel and other countries.

“The UNESCO vote on Hebron is tragic on several levels,” Haley said in a statement released by her office.

“It represents an affront to history. It undermines the trust that is needed for the Israeli-Palestinian peace process to be successful. And it further discredits an already highly questionable UN agency.”

She added that the vote “does no one any good and causes much harm.”

In 2011, in compliance with statutory funding restrictions, the United States stopped funding UNESCO after it admitted the Palestinian Authority as a Member State, Haley noted. While the United States is still on the 58-member UNESCO Executive Board, it no longer has voting rights in the UNESCO General Conference.

“The United States is currently evaluating the appropriate level of its continued engagement at UNESCO,” she said.

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder also condemned the decision, calling it “the latest Palestinian attempt to exploit the UN for political manipulation.”

He added that “it demonstrates a severe abuse of the emergency mechanism. “It is disconcerting that UNESCO member states have adopted yet another cynical distortion of reality, a subversive attempt to rewrite history and deem the Old City of Hebron as a Muslim-Palestinian site alone while denying its historic and religious importance to Jews and Christians.”

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations weighed in as well. “[The] resolution on the Cave of the Patriarchs and Hebron disregarded the facts presented in a report by UNESCO’s own independent panel of experts and ignored their recommendation against adding them to the list of World Heritage Sites in Danger at this time,” Conference Chairman Stephen M. Greenberg and Executive Vice Chairman and CEO Malcolm Hoenlein said in a joint statement.

The New York-based Anti-Defamation League likewise condemned the vote, pointing out that the Palestinian Authority had once again showed it is not a serious partner to peace.

“UNESCO unfortunately succumbed to the manipulations of the Palestinian Authority to politicize holy sites,” said Jonathan A. Greenblatt, ADL CEO.

“The international community should be aware that efforts such as the Palestinian campaign to claim holy sites through UNESCO, not only undermines efforts to build Israeli-Palestinian trust, but reinforces the perception among Israelis and Jews around the world that the Palestinians do not recognize the Jewish connection to Israel and are not serious partners to peace.”</s>WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Eritrean officials say the decision by the U.N. cultural agency to put the African nation's capital city of Asmara on the UNESCO World Heritage list is a "victory."

The unanimous decision came Saturday at a session of the UNESCO World Heritage Committee in Poland. The decision appreciated the outstanding values of Asmara's modernist architecture immersed in an African highland environment.

Eritrea's ambassador to France and permanent representative to UNESCO, Hanna Simon, calls the decision the result of years of campaigning and a "victory not just for the Eritrean people but for Africa and the world at large."

Eritrea's government, however, has faced widespread criticism over what a U.N. commission of inquiry has said are numerous abuses including enslavement, rape and torture.

Eritrea is a major source of migration toward Europe.</s>FILE - In this file photo dated Friday, Sept. 23, 2011, President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea addresses the 66th session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters. Eritrean officials on Saturday claimed "victory" after the UNESCO World Heritage Committee unanimously decided to put the African nation's capital city of Asmara onto the World Heritage list, despite widespread criticism of hte government and of Afwerki's rule.</s>Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani and BJP president Amit Shah have hailed the declaration of Ahmedabad as world heritage city by UNESCO.

Ruchira Kamboj, India’s permanent representative to UNESCO, tweeted on Saturday night: "Thrilled to announce!Ahmedabad has just been declared India's first WorldHeritage city by UNESCO."

Thrilled to announce!Ahmedabad has just been declared India's first #WorldHeritage city by @UNESCO#AhmedabadWorldHeritageCity #India pic.twitter.com/QZVAvNbkPH

"Just inscribed as UNESCO world heritage site: Historic city of Ahmedabad #India", UNESCO said in a tweet.

Expressing delight at the announcement, Rupani said in a tweet, "Thrilled to learn that Ahmedabad has been recognised as UNESCO World heritage city, first of its kind in India".

"Delighted to know that UNESCO has declared Ahmedabad as World Heritage City. Proud moment for every Indian," the BJP national president said in a tweet.

Ahmedabad was in the race for the prestigious title along with Delhi and Mumbai.

The walled city of Ahmedabad believed to be founded by Ahmed Shah some six hundred years earlier has 26 ASI-protected structures, hundreds of 'pols' that capture the essence of community living and numerous sites associated with Mahatma Gandhi who lived here from 1915 to 1930.

In 1984, the first study for conserving heritage structures was carried out in the city. A heritage cell was also set up by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).

The city had featured in UNESCO's tentative list of world heritage cities on March 31, 2011.</s>The people of Eritrea have long said their capital Asmara is like no other city in Africa, and on Saturday the UN agreed, designating it a World Heritage site.

The proclamation ends a long-running quest by Eritrean authorities to have the city's unique architecture, which includes an art-deco bowling alley with coloured glass windows and a petrol station built to resemble a soaring aeroplane, recognised by the UN cultural body, UNESCO.

It's also a rare example of positive world recognition for the Horn of Africa nation that is a major source of migrants fleeing across the Mediterranean to Europe due to the country's repressive policies.

"The city's recognition as a heritage site of outstanding universal value fills us with tremendous pride and joy, but also with a profound sense of responsibility and duty," said Hanna Simon, Eritrea's permanent delegate to UNESCO.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the World Heritage Committee in the Polish city of Krakow.

A former Italian colony, most of the futuristic designs of the Eritrean capital date back to the rule of fascist dictator Benito Mussolini from 1936 to 1941.

Architects whose designs were unwelcome in conservative European cities found a place in Asmara at a time when about half of the city's population was Italian and the city was known as 'Piccola Roma', or "Little Rome".

While the modernist architecture of other Eritrean cities was destroyed during a decades-long war of liberation from Ethiopia, Asmara's survived and was declared a national monument by the government in 2001, which refers to it as Africa's "City of Dream" (sic).

But efforts to restore the marble facades and Roman-style pillars of the city's theatres and cinemas have been hampered by a shortage of money and local expertise, city authorities say.
UNESCO declares the old city of Hebron and the Cave of the Patriarchs, both in the West Bank, as world heritage sites.