Later this week, Israel is expected to go before the panel of 18 independent experts overseeing compliance with the United Nations' 38-year-old antiracism treaty -- a hearing that could fuel the debate over an Israeli construction project at a Jerusalem hilltop compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary.
he project has prompted protests among Palestinians and others in the Muslim world.
"To date, approximately 120 places have been declared as holy sites, all of which are Jewish," the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination said in its list of questions, written before the furor over the construction project.
Israel -- whose quadrennial review was postponed in August because of the Lebanon war -- is to appear before the panel Thursday and Friday to answer the questions, which include whether it "has set forth regulations in relation to holy sites of both the Jewish and non-Jewish population."
Yaron Frost, a spokesman for the tourism ministry, said Israel has not given the special designation to any sites -- even Jewish ones -- for nearly four decades. He said non-Jewish sites have "total autonomy."
Two weeks ago, Israeli archaeologists began the salvage dig preceding the construction of a new pedestrian walkway up to the hilltop compound.