UNESCO names Gaza site to both its World Heritage and In Danger lists

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee named a site in the Gaza Strip — Saint Hilarion Monastery, or Tell Umm Amer — to both its “World Heritage” and “World Heritage In Danger” lists in late July.

The decision, made during the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee held in New Delhi, India, reflects the ancient monastery’s value and need for protection, according to UNESCO.

The Committee inscribed the monastery — one of the oldest sites in the Middle East, according to UNESCO — to both lists using an emergency procedure set forth in the World Heritage Convention. The procedure allows for accelerated inscriptions for sites that are under threat.

“The ongoing conflict in the Gaza Strip, which could pose a threat to this archaeological site, is a situation in which this procedure is possible,” a UNESCO spokesperson told CNBC Travel.

To date, UNESCO said it has not identified any damage to the site, which it is monitoring remotely using satellite imagery.

As a result 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 indirectly damaging the site and assist in protecting it, UNESCO said.

Israel is no longer a member of UNESCO, but it is a State Party, which means it is bound by the terms of the Convention to protect and not damage the monastery, UNESCO told CNBC Travel.

Along with the United States, Israel left UNESCO on Dec. 31, 2018, amid allegations of anti-Israeli bias at the U.N. agency which crescendoed after the organization accepted “the State of Palestine” as a member in 2011.

Under the Biden administration, the United States 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 serve as non-voting observers, including a much-heralded appearance at the 2023 meeting in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.