GAZA: To Kill A People Is to Kill Their Culture
By Palestinian News & Information Agency (Wafa) in contract with APAimages, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=138775619
Make no mistake, gather zero confusion from this statement. There is a cultural genocide happening in Gaza right now. All of my education, all of my professional focus has centered on one question: how do we protect our world’s cultural heritage during times of conflict, crisis, and/or disaster?
I have studied the insipid ways in which the Nazi regime systematically killed the culture of so many individuals and so many communities before, during, and after World War II. I know what it looks like when those in power inflict a cultural genocide. I went on to research what happens when cultural monuments and intangible heritage are threatened during modern, 21st-century warfare, particularly in the Middle East. Then, I moved on to understanding the risks to cultural heritage in the face of the inevitable climate crisis, especially along our coasts.
I contemplated joining the military so I could protect our world’s monuments with my bare hands. Ultimately, I’m a lover, not a fighter, and I could not bring myself to make that sacrifice. Though, I still think about it. I may not be out there protecting these places and spaces with my hands, but I do have a voice. It is a strong one. It is a persuasive one. It is a necessary one, and I will not remain silent when it comes to what is happening in Gaza.
In all my research — I did not know a cultural genocide was something I would have to warn against in my own lifetime.
I did not know; I am young. I am hopeful. I swore that if I saw this happening, I would speak up. I do not have the credentials to call what’s happening in Gaza a human genocide. Personally, I believe that is what is going on there. On the other hand, I am completely qualified to say that there is a cultural genocide happening in Gaza as we speak right now. As I type, as you read. It is happening NOW. Damage assessment is being conducted through satellite technology because on-ground assessments are impossible… the area is being annihilated. It is not a warzone. It is hell on Earth.
As of 17 September 2024, out of the 120 sites that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has been able to assess through satellite imagery, 69 sites have been damaged since 7 October 2023 – 10 religious sites, 43 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, 2 depositories of movable cultural property, 6 monuments, 1 museum, and 7 archeological sites. (Gaza Strip: Damage assessment)
The term genocide was coined in 1944 by a Polish lawyer, and part of its definition was rooted in the elimination of culture, specifically. There are clear linkages between cultural heritage and our humanity in both life and death. In both its overwhelming abundance, and its systematic elimination. All the while, this is why the phrase “cultural genocide” is being cited as evidence for a full-blown genocide in South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice. South Africa is the same country that moved through the atrocities of Apartheid and implemented a national truth and reconciliation process after Apartheid’s end.
The area of Gaza is physically small… and for over half of its cultural monuments to be destroyed or damaged in a flash is no short of a targeted attack against the indigenous people of Palestine. (NOTE: these numbers are based on the sites physically available for assessment. The indirect costs and losses are even more… across the entire warzone including Israel.) Again, I do not have the credentials to explain the Israeli-Palestinian conflict… I would be hard-pressed to find someone who completely understands the full scope of what is going on. I make no policy assessments, no political backings. I am here with a specific perspective that is resolute, but I am well aware that my perspective is interconnected and entangled with all matters happening in Gaza.
However, I believe that second to human lives comes culture, and when more than 50% of a minority group’s culture is eliminated in under a year or two… that is cause for immense concern. Concern that is not just nonpartisan, but human.
I write to you with a warning — when they ban books… that is when you start paying ATTENTION. Pay ATTENTION, HERE and NOW. If we remain silent while atrocities happen on our planet, who will be there for us when conflict comes knocking on our doors?
That is already happening in the United States, right now. As I type, as you read. It is time to pay ATTENTION. HERE and NOW. Pay attention to the cultural heritage being leveled across the globe and try to recognize the humanity of those only seen on our screens, in pixels. In Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan, the Amazon, Hawai’i. Everywhere. Pay attention to the cultural heritage being targeted, completely under our noses and within our own borders, too. Pay attention. Let’s not let the bastards get us down.
To kill a people is to kill their culture. The dozens of cultural monuments lost in Gaza are lost forever. All of that history, all of those connections gone. The only way to salvage their stories is through memory, and when the people with those stories are decimated, too… Well, the vibrancy of these human beings — past, present, future — is eliminated. The world becomes darker for it. If we lose the spaces that tell our stories, that remind us of our humanity, we lose ourselves. When we destroy all the beautiful things, it’s difficult to find the will to live in a world that is dark and gray. It’s difficult to live without reminders of one’s own beauty.
