Saint Hilarion Monastery in Gaza listed as UNESCO World Heritage in Danger

"New inscription on the World Heritage List and on the UNESCO List of World Heritage in Danger: Monastery of Saint-Hilarion/Tell Umm Amer, in Palestine", reported on World Heritage is currently meeting in New Delhi.

“This decision recognizes both the exceptional universal value of this site and the duty to protect it in the face of imminent dangers,” explains the UN organization in a press release.

“Given the imminent threats to this heritage in the context of the ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, the World Heritage Committee has resorted to the emergency procedure provided for in the procedures of the World Heritage Convention,” can we still read in this text.

“Located on the coastal dunes of the municipality of Nousseirat, the remains of the monastery of Saint-Hilarion/Tell Umm Amer represent one of the oldest monastic sites in the Middle East, dating from the 4th century,” writes Unesco on its website.

“First monastic community in the holy land”, founded by Saint Hilarion, “it allowed the diffusion of monastic practices in the region”, “illustrating the prosperity of the desert monastic centers of the Byzantine period”, according to the organization.

“The request (comes) from Palestine” and is a “recourse” to better “protect the site against destruction in the current context,” Lazare Eloundou, the director of World Heritage, explained to AFP.

'Consensus'

It was adopted "by consensus" by the World Heritage Committee, "which was not obvious given the current context", a UN diplomat explained to AFP.

Palestine was admitted as a full member of UNESCO in 2011, which initially caused the suspension of contributions from the United States, which then left the organization in 2017, under the presidency of Republican Donald Trump, followed by Israel.

The American State Department then justified its decision by the “persistent anti-Israeli bias” of UNESCO.

In June 2023, however, Washington officially requested to rejoin UNESCO, under the aegis of Joe Biden. American First Lady Jill Biden was present in July 2023 at the ceremony marking the return of the United States to the institution.

Israel has not returned to UNESCO.

In the 10th month of the war started on October 7 by an unprecedented terrorist attack by Hamas against Israel, which resulted in the death of 1.195 people, the majority civilians, according to an AFP count established using official Israeli data, The Israeli army continues to shell the Gaza Strip, where thousands of people have been killed.

According to satellite analyzes by American researchers Corey Scher and Jamon Van Den Hoek, as of April 21, 56,9% of buildings in the Gaza Strip had also been damaged or destroyed, or 160.000 in total.

The town of Nousseirat, where the monastery is located, is located in the center of the Gaza Strip and has been largely affected by the conflict. At the beginning of June, the Israeli army notably bombed it to obtain the release of four hostages.

Of 251 people kidnapped during the attack, 111 are still being held in Gaza, of whom 39 are dead, according to the Israeli army.