RAMALLAH, July 26 — Palestinian officials welcome UNESCO’s designation of Sebastia near here in the occupied West Bank as a World Heritage Site, and hope it would prevent Israel extending its control at the ancient village.
The Zionist regime condemned it as a political decision.
Sebastia, in the northern West Bank, has archaeological remnants from successive periods dating back at least to the 9th-century BC capital of the biblical Israelite kingdom, through the Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Islamic periods, Crusader and Ottoman eras, according to UNESCO, the United Nations cultural organisation.
Olive trees surround the site, dotting a landscape of Roman columns, ancient walls and stone steps and an amphitheatre. It is traditionally seen as the burial place of John the Baptist.
Palestinian residents of the adjacent village, many of whom rely on tourism for a living, are facing land confiscations after Israel announced a plan to seize about 1,800 dunams (180ha) at the site, which it said is meant to develop the area.
On Friday, UNESCO added Sebastia to its World Heritage List and to the List of World Heritage in Danger, a related mechanism used to flag listed heritage sites that are facing serious threats, to try and safeguard them.
“We hope that this decision will let us preserve Sebastia,” said village deputy mayor Nizar Kayed. He said that Israel’s land seizure decision, announced in late 2025, is part of an Israeli push to expand settlements in the area.
Palestine’s tourism and foreign ministries said on Friday that they hope the UNESCO recognition would mobilise international support against Israeli measures there.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said the UNESCO decision is part of a Palestinian drive to obscure Jewish ties to the land. “No vote in an international organisation can change history,” he said in a statement.
Palestinian officials are also concerned about a new Israeli bill, that has yet to be written into law, that would extend Israeli civil control over ancient sites in the West Bank.
That in effect would strip away oversight of the ancient sites from the Western-backed Palestinian Authority, which under the 1990s Oslo peace accords has exercised limited self-rule in parts of the West Bank.
