UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee named a site within the Gaza Strip — Saint Hilarion Monastery, or Tell Umm Amer — to each its “World Heritage” and “World Heritage In Danger” lists in late July.
The choice, made in the course of the forty sixth session of the World Heritage Committee held in Recent Delhi, India, reflects the traditional monastery’s value and wish for defense, in accordance with UNESCO.
The Committee inscribed the monastery — considered one of the oldest sites within the Middle East, in accordance with UNESCO — to each lists using an emergency procedure set forth within the World Heritage Convention. The procedure allows for accelerated inscriptions for sites which are under threat.
“The continuing conflict within the Gaza Strip, which could pose a threat to this archaeological site, is a situation wherein this procedure is feasible,” a UNESCO spokesperson told CNBC Travel.
The Saint Hilarion Monastery/Tell Umm Amer was home to the primary monastic community within the Holy Land and “was a centre for religious, cultural and economic exchanges” in the course of the Byzantine period, in accordance with UNESCO.
Mohammed Abed | Afp | Getty Images
Up to now, UNESCO said it has not identified any damage to the location, which it’s monitoring remotely using satellite imagery.
What this implies
Because of this of the inscriptions, UNESCO’s 196 “State Parties” — or countries that ratified the World Heritage Convention adopted by UNESCO in 1972 — must avoid directly or not directly damaging the location and assist in protecting it, UNESCO said.
Israel isn’t any longer a member of UNESCO, however it is a State Party, which suggests it’s certain by the terms of the Convention to guard and never damage the monastery, UNESCO told CNBC Travel.
Together with the US, Israel left UNESCO on Dec. 31, 2018, amid allegations of anti-Israeli bias on the U.N. agency which crescendoed after the organization accepted “the State of Palestine” as a member in 2011.
Under the Biden administration, the US formally rejoined UNESCO in July 2023.
Israel has not rejoined UNESCO, though it has sent delegations to the World Heritage Committee’s annual meetings to function non-voting observers, including a much-heralded appearance on the 2023 meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
Use of the emergency procedure
Simultaneous inscriptions to UNESCO’s World Heritage and its “In Danger” lists are somewhat common, a UNESCO spokesperson told CNBC.
Recent examples include Ukraine’s historic center of the port city of Odesa and the archaeological sites of Yemen’s ancient kingdom of Saba, each inscribed in January 2023.
Use of UNESCO’s emergency procedure fast-tracked Saint Hilarion Monastery/Tell Umm Amer’s inclusion onto its World Heritage Lists, a procedure which normally takes a minimum of two years.
Mohammed Abed | Afp | Getty Images
There are currently 1,123 sites on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, but just 56 on its “In Danger” list, which identifies sites which are under threat of war, natural disasters, pollution, overtourism or other problems.
Sites on the “In Danger” list may receive technical and financial assistance for defense and restoration work.
Requests to make use of the emergency procedure for simultaneous inscriptions must come from a State Party, the UNESCO spokesperson said.
Staff renovate a mosaic on the Saint Hilarion Monastery/Tell Umm Amer, a site which dates to 329 AD and consists of two churches, a burial site, a baptism hall, a public cemetery, an audience hall and dining rooms.
Mohammed Abed | Afp | Getty Images
“Palestine first included the location on its Tentative List in 2012,” the spokesperson said, referencing a listing of web sites that countries intend to nominate as World Heritage Sites in the longer term. “In June 2024, [it] submitted the nomination of ‘Saint Hilarion Monastery/Tell Umm Amer’ with the request to process it on an emergency basis.”
The inscription was decided by consensus among the many Committee members, in accordance with the spokesperson.
The forty sixth session of the World Heritage Committee ended Wednesday with 26 latest sites inscribed to UNESCO’s World Heritage List, and the small Micronesian island of Nauru becoming its 196th State Party.
