U.N. Sends Expert, at Israel’s Request, to Inspect Sinai Monastery

Prof. Gerard Garitte of the University of Louvain, Belgium, left Paris for the Sinai Peninsula on an official mission for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to verify the present condition of ancient manuscripts stored in the St. Catherine Monastery. The request for an expert survey came to UNESCO from the Government of Israel following a number of published reports that the Monastery’s priceless documents had been damaged by Israeli forces in the recent conflict. The Monastery dates from the Third Century.