You simply can't make this stuff up.
As you might remember, the 'Palestinians' were elected to UNESCO last year, even though they're not a member on the UN and the charter forbids that sort of thing.
The consequences of that decision just became evident.
The Church of the Nativity, located in Bethlehem, a particularly sacred spot to Christians, is built over the spot where Jesus is supposed to have been born.
Today, UNESCO's World Heritage committee voted to name the church an endangered spot - in 'Palestine', and under the control of the 'Palestinian Authority'.
Normally, there's an 18 month review period for this kind of status, but the rules were bent for the 'Palestinians' and this was immediately brought to a vote:
Palestinian spokeswoman Hanan Ashrawi said the vote was an affirmation of Palestinian sovereignty over the site that marks the place where Christians believe Jesus was born.
Israel angrily denounced the vote, with Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Ilana Stein saying the decision "has turned UNESCO into a theater of the absurd."
"This is a sad day for the World Heritage Committee," she said.
The 21-member committee, meeting in St. Petersburg, Russia, voted 13-6 to include the church and pilgrimage route, located in the Israeli-controlled West Bank, on its list of sites. There were two abstentions.{...}
The U.S. ambassador to UNESCO, David Killion, said the United States is "profoundly disappointed."
The reason the 'Palestinians' gave for the fast tracking was that the Church of the Nativity was in desperate need of repairs - which of course was Israel's fault.
Actually, Bethlehem is in a part of Judea that is totally under the control of the 'Palestinian' Authority since Oslo.
You see, the 'Palestinian' Authority has been in de facto charge of Bethlehem and this Church for a long time already, and what's happened since they took over is worth examining:
One of the first things Arafat and the mafiosos known as the Palestinian Authority did after the Israelis handed them control of Gaza and a large chunk of the West Bank was to adopt Islam as its official religion, put sharia Islamic law codes into place and allow officially appointed Palestinian Muslim imams and clerics to demonize both Christian and Jewish `infidels' in its mosques and the media. And Arafat and the Palestinian Authority took steps to eliminate any Christian majorities where they still existed.
Since the Palestinian Authority took over Bethlehem in 1995 under the Oslo Accords with Israel, Bethlehem has been transformed from a majority Christian city into a Muslim city. The few Christians left in the city now cling to their homes at the sufferance of the majority Muslim population.
In 1996, as an example, Arafat fired Bethlehem's Christian mayor and totally redistricted Bethlehem, redefining its municipal boundaries so that they included many nearby Muslim villages. Overnight the Christian population found itself reduced from an 80 percent majority to a minority, with little control over anything. Arafat placed Christian sites like the Church of the Nativity under the direct control of the Islamist Palestinian Authority rather than under the control of Palestinian Christians.
Bethlehem has gone from an 80% Christian population to less than 8% since the Palestinian Authority took over.
And that was back in 2007, five years ago. There are even less Christians now. And as far a repairs go, sharia demands that dhimmi non-believers get permission before any repairs or restoration are made. As you can imagine, this is a low priority for Muslims, especially in view of the ongoing ethnic cleansing.
Another thing few of the stories covering this mention is the last full scale interaction between 'Palestinians' and The Church of the Nativity.That happened in April of 2002, during the Second Intifada, when about fifty of Arafat's al-Aksa Martyr's brigade thugs who were fleeing from the IDF invaded the Church and took everyone inside hostage.They looted the facilities, desecrated the church and even reportedly used Bibles and hymnals as toilet paper.
One document later captured by the Israelis in Ramallah during the siege of Arafat's headquarters in the Muqatah showed that Arafat's terrorists also extorted money out of Bethlehem's Christians by threatening to destroy the church.
It's important to recognize that to the 'Palestinians', this is a religious victory as well as a political one. That's exactly why the three churches that act as custodians of the site, Greek Orthodox, Armenian and Roman Catholic were so fiercely opposed to this move.
They know what's likely to happen when Muslims have full control over a Christian Holy site.
The real fireworks will start when the 'Palestinians' demand recognition of Jewish and Christian Holy sites in other parts of Judea and Samaria, and in Jerusalem. This is just the beginning.
Actually, Christians themselves should take this as a cue to do exactly what Muslims do in these circumstances to defend what's theirs. I'm afraid that's all that's likely to save the church that sits on the spot where Jesus was born. Unless that happens, one day Christians are going to find that the 'Palestinian' Muslims have turned the Church of the Nativity into a mosque.
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