In Lebanon, 39 cultural sites were urgently placed on UNESCO’s enhanced protection list on April 1st. International law provides for several statuses like this. Their violation can lead to prosecution in the International Criminal Court, especially for war crimes.
In total, 400 historic monuments and iconic sites have been classified in the 18 countries currently affected by conflict in the Middle East.
Targeting active places of worship
According to Joanne Bajjaly, an archaeologist and founder of the Lebanese heritage protection organization Biladi, attacks on heritage are part of Israel’s strategy. Instead of targeting major tourist sites, which have only suffered collateral damage so far, the army is “massively destroying” cultural monuments that are “alive”, meaning they are used daily by the local population. This constitutes an attack on a civilization and is reminiscent of Donald Trump’s recent post on his Truth Social network about the Iranian population. He wrote: “An entire civilization will die tonight.”
Alexandra Xanthaki, the UN rapporteur on cultural property, emphasizes the long-term consequences of such actions: “The destruction of sites with cultural significance is an attack on the identity of a group and threatens its ability to transmit its culture and history to future generations.”
