GENEVA – The Euro-Med Human
Rights Monitor expressed deep concern over reports of the
Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) seizing thousands of rare artifacts in the Gaza Strip, which may
amount to a war crime according to the Rome Statute of the
International Criminal Court (ICC).
اضافة اعلان
The
IOF released footage on January 14, 2024, documenting its blowing up of
Al-Israa University’s campus, located south of
Gaza City, more than two months
after occupying the university and using it as a military base, a center for
sniping civilians, and a temporary detention and investigation facility.
The
rights organization confirmed that the national museum's administrative
headquarters, which
Al-Israa University founded years ago, was also part of the
destruction operation. Regarded as the first of its kind in the Occupied
Palestinian Territory, the museum contained over 3,000 rare artifacts. Al-Israa
University said in a statement that the IOF stole the artifacts before they
blew up the building.
Eli
Escusido, the Director of the
Israel Antiquities Authority, posted a video to
his Instagram account showing IOF soldiers at a site in Gaza containing
hundreds of Palestinian artifacts. The video was shared without explaining the artifacts’ fate, noted
Euro-Med Monitor.
The
Euro-Med Monitor team received reports early in November 2023 that the IOF had
stolen all of the archaeological artifacts it excavated from the Tel Umm Amer
site (or the Monastery of Saint Hilarion), which is thought to have been one of
the oldest monasteries in Palestine.
Euro-Med
Monitor affirmed that, in accordance with international law, the theft of
antiquities constitutes a war crime. Article 4 of the 1954 Hague Convention for
the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and its
First Protocol prohibit the seizure of antiquities during conflicts. According
to the rights organization, the 1970 UNESCO Convention on Measures to Prevent the Illegal Import, Export, and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property forbids the illicit trade in cultural property, including antiquities.
Furthermore, as per Article 8 of the 1998 Rome Statute of the ICC, which
highlights the safeguarding of cultural heritage and the criminal
accountability of those who breach these regulations, the taking and
demolishing of antiquities constitutes a war crime.
The
organization emphasized that Israel’s stealing of archaeological artifacts from the territory it controls is
theft of cultural property and a breach of international human rights law, as
outlined in the Economic and Social Rights Convention and the Convention on
Civil and Political Rights, both of which Israel is a party. Israel has been
deliberately stealing artifacts from Gaza as part of its systematic targeting
of archaeological, historical, and cultural sites and materials in the Strip
since the start of its ongoing attacks, the rights group stressed, as part of a
larger plan to destroy Palestinian national and cultural identity and pride,
erase the historical connection of Gazans to their land, and destroy any
evidence of their presence.
The
Euro-Med Monitor drew attention to Israel’s clear intentional targeting of all
historical structures in the Gaza Strip, including homes, churches, mosques,
shrines, and archaeological sites, in addition to cultural institutions such as
public libraries and monuments, theaters, publishing and printing houses,
museums, and public squares. The Euro-Med Monitor team pointed to at least 10
mosques, 12 museums, and nine archaeological sites, as well as historical and
archaeological churches and roughly 200 old historical buildings, mansions,
castles, and palaces, as examples of sites damaged by Israel’s current bombing
and destruction campaign.
This
type of destruction indicates that Israel has implemented a broad and general
policy to target all significant markers of Palestinian cultural, historical,
and religious presence in the Gaza Strip, Euro-Med Monitor reiterated, citing
the Israeli army’s targeting of memorials, gardens, and even artistic murals
across the Strip, particularly in Gaza City.
Thousands
of historical documents, many of which were over a century old and documented
Gaza City’s architecture and the phases of its urban development, were
destroyed during Israel’s recent bombing of the Gaza Municipality’s Central
Archives building, along with the building itself.
Gaza’s
historical landmarks and cultural assets belong to all people curious about
human history, stated the Euro-Med Monitor, not just the nation where they are
situated. Thus, an impartial international investigation must be opened into
the Israeli military’s egregious violations in order to hold it accountable and
put actual pressure on Israel to stop its genocide of Gazans.
Euro-Med
Human Rights Monitor called on UNESCO to fulfill its obligations by sending an
investigation committee to uncover the fate of thousands of artifacts stolen
from the Gaza Strip, examine the damaged historical sites, and hold Israel
accountable for targeting cultural sites and human heritage in the Strip.
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