2 - 8 May 2002
Issue No.584
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Al-Ahram Weekly Online 2 - 8 May 2002 Issue No.584 |
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Dig days
Defending Jerusalem
I recently went to Helsinki, Finland, to attend the 25th session of the UNESCO conference for the World Heritage Committee. The Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, Francesco Bandarin, believes that many important issues need to be addressed in the years to come. The following are some of the issues: first, strengthening the legal tools to ensure the conservation of monuments at risk of destruction; second, achieving a more accurate World Heritage list; third, promoting the identification of World Heritage sites in various regions. Fourth, the committee's authority in the world of natural and cultural conservation should be reinforced by defining and ensuring adequate standards and giving more power to international assistance. Also, programmes need to be developed to speed up the capacity for building up heritage management, which prevents the loss and destruction of heritage, and family development -- including outreach and educational activities -- to strengthen its link with the public and the younger generations.
I was a member of the Egyptian delegation to Helsinki. It was late afternoon when I arrived, and very dark, and I found myself dreaming in the taxi on the way to the hotel. I was thinking that here I was, in this wonderful city so rich in history, and I had never imagined I would see it. Helsinki was founded by the Swedish King Gustaf Wasa. In 1812, after the defeat of Sweden, Finland became part of Russia. During the last century, the greatest demographic change to take place in Finland occurred between the late 1950s and the 1970s. An overwhelmingly agrarian country was urbanised in a relatively short time.
The conference opened the next day. Finnish President Tarja Halonen, UNESCO Director- General Subi Linden, the minister of culture and Satu Hassi, minister of the environment, were there. I was very happy to see so many women holding important political positions. My colleagues, Dr Gaballa Ali Gaballa, the archaeological consultant at the Ministry of Cuture, and Dr Mohamed Abdel-Maqsoud, director- general of antiquities, and I -- all members of the Egyptian delegation -- discussed several of the issues concerning Egypt. However, the most important question was Jerusalem. The Israeli delegation wished to register Mount Zion as a World Heritage Site. The Israeli delegation tried to revoke the request when they realised that the committee was about to register it as "a site inside an occupied area".
During our meeting in Helsinki, the Palestinian and Jordanian delegations told me about Israel's destruction of the Palestinian heritage. Israel was taking over Palestinian monuments and placing them under the control of the Israeli Department of Antiquities. They also hid the famous Dead Sea Scrolls in an unknown location. They destroyed 135 ancient buildings and mosques. The Israeli authorities dug excavation tunnels -- which they habitually, and usually fruitlessly, use in an attempt to locate Jewish antiquities -- underneath the walls of the old city as if to change the identity of the area from Islamic to Jewish.
When the Taliban destroyed Afghanistan's Buddhist statues, the world was appalled. Everyone thought it an unforgivable crime to destroy such important cultural monuments. So, I asked myself, why isn't anyone protecting the Palestinian monuments? It is stated in article No. 10 of the Hague Treaty that archaeological and historical sites in an occupied territory should be protected. Also, articles three and four of the same treaty forbid the destruction of any monument in an occupied area. The Israeli authorities did not abide by the UN decision in 1967 that Jerusalem was an Arab city, nor the decision of the Security Council in 1968 which stated that an occupying country could not change anything in Jerusalem.
I hope that the existing archaeological sites in Jerusalem will be protected. Jerusalem is a vital city to people of all faiths, and cannot, therefore, be under the complete control of Israel. We in the Egyptian delegation joined in asking the committee to include Palestine as an observer of the proceedings. The Israeli delegation opposed this request, but we won this small battle and the Palestinians were welcomed as observers.
There are more fascinating and interesting stories about Egyptian monuments and their secrets which I will discuss in my next article.
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