Haifa residents demand UNESCO Square be renamed

Haifa residents are demanding that the city’s UNESCO Square be renamed in the wake of a string of anti-Israel resolutions passed by the organization.

Several Haifa residents are demanding that a square in the city center named after the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) be renamed following the organization’s passing of a string of resolutions that deny Judaism’s connection to its holiest sites.

Most recently, UNESCO voted to declare Hebron’s Old City, including the Cave of the Patriarchs, a Palestinian World Heritage Site.

The square in Haifa, an ethnically and religiously diverse city, was named “The UNESCO Square for Peace and Tolerance” in 2008, after the organization added the Baha’i Gardens, situated right above it, to the list of World Heritage Sites.

Nir Shuber, a local activist, told Israel’s Walla news that social media has been abuzz with traffic on the issue. He launched a petition calling to rename the square.

“UNESCO is the last organization that can be described as working towards tolerance and peace,” he stated.

Given UNESCO’s anti-Israel positions, it is not merely a coincidence that in recent years, UNESCO Square has become the location for demonstrations against the Jewish state, Shuber said. He suggested that the square be named after Israel Prize winner Vered Hulda-Gurevich, who had helped disabled IDF veterans and their families, late President Shimon Peres, or late Haifa Mayor Aryeh Gur’el.

In 1975, former Haifa Mayor Abba Hushi changed the name of “The United Nations Boulevard” to “Zionism Boulevard” following the UN General Assembly’s passage of a resolution that equated Zionism with racism.

By: World Israel News Staff
With files from Walla