The Church in Bethlehem, the Church of the Nativity, which is the site of Christ's Birth, is an endangered site. UNESCO has claimed it as such and the Palestinians have openly stated this as a victory. If one wants to understand the mindset of the people who really want to take over the area, just read this. There is controversy about this new status.
"We are ecstatic," Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi said of Friday's 13-6 by UNESCO's World Heritage Committee, meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia.
The Palestinians had argued that the shrine faces imminent danger, both because of overdue repairs and Israel's continued occupation of the West Bank.
Israel and the U.S. strongly opposed the emergency bid, arguing that the church is not under threat, a position backed by a U.N. experts committee....The U.S. ambassador to UNESCO, David Killion, said Washington was "profoundly disappointed" by the vote. The U.S. has been trying to block the Palestinian recognition campaign, and withdrew tens of millions of dollars in funding from UNESCO after the Paris-based agency accepted the Palestinians as a state member last year.
Joining UNESCO was part of a wider Palestinian attempt to win global recognition for a state of Palestine in the territories Israel occupied in 1967.
The Catholic Churches in the Holy Land are being used as political footballs. The Vatican has a yearly collection for the churches and holy sites in Israel, but unless Americans come to the fore, some of these will either fall into political hands, and even disappear. The Holy Land has been ignored and because of Muslim violence, Bethlehem has seen a huge exodus of Christians in the past ten years, as families cannot live in peace. I talked with some young men from the area two years ago in Missouri, who were visiting, and they said the situation was deteriorating. But, they had hope, the hope from Christ, whose own birthplace is being used for propaganda.
