UN anti-racism panel probes Israeli holy sites policy
Israel is expected later this week to go before the panel of 18 independent experts overseeing compliance with the United Nations’ 38-year-old anti-racism treaty — a hearing that could fuel the debate over an Israeli construction project at Jerusalem’s disputed hilltop compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
The project has prompted protests among Palestinians and others in the Muslim world.
“To date, approximately 120 places have been declared holy sites, all of which are Jewish,” the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said in its list of questions, written before the recent furore over the construction project.
Israel, whose quadrennial review was postponed in August because of the Lebanon war, is to appear before the panel on Thursday and Friday to answer the questions, which include whether it “has set forth regulations in relation to holy sites of both the Jewish and non-Jewish population”. Two weeks ago, Israeli archaeologists began the salvage dig ahead of the construction of a new pedestrian walkway up to the disputed hilltop compound, which is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The archaeological dig is taking place about 60 yards away from the Al-Aqsa mosque and gold-capped Dome of the Rock — an area considered the third-holiest in Islam.
It is also Judaism’s holiest site, having housed the biblical Jewish temples.
Jews have gathered for centuries to pray outside the compound at the Western Wall, a remnant of the ancient compound.
Israel’s government has also been asked to explain if it discriminates between Jewish citizens and what it calls its “Arab sector” in how it provides housing, education, public services, land rights and legal protection against acts of violence.
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