Israel fears endangered World Heritage status could thwart Hebron takeover

‘Israel is refusing to give visas to a team of investigators with UNESCO who are scheduled to visit Hebron’s Old City in the occupied West Bank.
The visit was to take place ahead of a July vote by the UN educational and cultural organization to consider the Old City an endangered World Heritage Site.
Calling the move “principled and strategic,” Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama Hacohen, said the UN team’s visit was based on “lies that plot against Israel.”
The UNESCO team was to provide its findings to the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the body that considers which sites should be placed on the the World Heritage in Danger list.
Hacohen said the group was denied entry to Israel because in the past UNESCO had overruled the council’s recommendations against placing sites in the occupied West Bank on the endangered list. It would be “a shame to waste the time and money,” Hacohen said, for the team to go to Hebron.’
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