A world heritage site under threat: Palestinians fight to reclaim UNESCO land seized by Israel
The demonstration in Al-Makhrour
Jessica Buxbaum reports in The New Arab on 15 August 2024:
On July 31, Israeli settlers escorted by soldiers with the Israeli Civil Administration, the military body governing the occupied West Bank, raided the Kisiya family’s land in Al-Makhrour, a lush valley near Bethlehem, and forcibly evicted the Palestinian Christians.
Since then, the family, along with Palestinian, Israeli, and international activists, have continuously returned to their land to demonstrate against the eviction and reclaim their home.
“[The settlers] are trying now to use the war and [with] all eyes on Gaza and the demonstrations happening in Israel,” Alice Kisiya, 30, told The New Arab. “So they’re taking advantage of this situation to steal more lands,” she adds. On the day of the eviction, the Israeli army declared an area adjacent to the Kisiya land a closed military zone. While their land wasn’t included in the order, the army used it to bar the family from their land.
The Israeli military did not respond to The New Arab’s inquiries.
UNESCO land under threat
Al-Makhrour was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014.
“It’s because of the continuous inhabitation of humans for thousands of years,” Mazin Qumsiyeh, a Bethlehem University professor and director of the university’s Palestine Institute for Biodiversity and Sustainability, told The New Arab when explaining the UNESCO label.