US: Israel's national heritage plan 'provocative'
The US has bashed Israel for jeopardizing the Middle East peace process by designating two shrines in the occupied West Bank as Israeli "national heritage sites." Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that Tel Aviv was planning to include Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron Al-Khalil in a "national heritage plan." US State Department spokesman Mark Toner on Wednesday said Washington viewed the move as provocative and unhelpful to the goal of getting the two sides back to the negotiation table. Toner said Washington had conveyed its displeasure with the move to senior Israeli officials. AWIP/Irish4Palestine: Israeli "Heritage Sights": Hamas lawmaker Samira Al-Halaiqa warned Sunday that Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to annex the Ibrahimi Mosque in Al-Khalil and Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque in Bethlehem to the list of Jewish religious sites is a declaration of war on Muslims. + One Friday Morning in Occupied Palestine – The Ibrahimi Mosque Massacre 25.02.1994.