Tentative States of Heritage Facts-in-the ground as facts-on-the-ground in the Tentative Lists of Israel and Palestine Robin Barnholdt Degree project for Master of Science (Two Year) in Conservation 60 hec Department of Conservation University of Gothenburg 2015:26 Tentative States of Heritage Facts-in-the ground as facts-on-the-ground in the Tentative Lists of Israel and Palestine Robin Barnholdt Supervisor: Valdimar Tr. Hafstein Degree project for Master of Science (Two Year) in Conservation UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG ISSN 1101-3303 Department of Conservation ISRN GU/KUV—15/26—SE UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG http://www.conservation.gu.se Department of Conservation Fax +46 31 7864703 P.O. Box 130 Tel +46 31 7864700 SE-405 30 Göteborg, Sweden Master’s Program in Conservation, 120 hec By: Robin Barnholdt Supervisor: Valdimar Tr. Hafstein Tentative States of Heritage - Facts-in-the-ground as facts-on-the-ground in the Tentative Lists of Israel and Palestine ABSTRACT In 2011 Palestine became a member state of UNESCO and ratified the World Heritage Convention. When Palestine became a State Party of the convention a new arena, the super bowl of cultural heritage, known as the World Heritage List occurred for the heritage sector for Palestine. In this arena the conflicting states of the Holy Land, Israel and Palestine, are equals. This thesis presents the properties listed on the Tentative Lists (the list from which properties for the World Heritage List are chosen) of Israel and Palestine and it compares the two lists with focus on the presentation of history and how it is used to claim the same land. The outset of the thesis is that history is chosen parts of the past and that cultural heritage is a process that is created by its involved actors. The Tentative List as a tool, are part of an UNESCO framework that have been criticised to be part of an authorized heritage discourse, this thesis can therefore be seen as analysis of official state heritage. In the light of the on- going conflict between the two States Parties the use of history to make political and territorial claims are analysed through the use of language and wording, the use of criteria attached to properties, and properties association to religion. The thesis further demonstrates how these claims form different types of inclusion/exclusion. Title: Tentative States of Heritage - Facts-in-the ground as facts-on-the-ground in the Tentative Lists of Israel and Palestine Language of text: English Number of pages: 110 Keywords: Palestine, Heritage, History, UNESCO, Tentative List ISSN 1101-3303 ISRN GU/KUV—15/26--SE Sofia, till vem 49% av eventuell framgång ska tillskrivas <3 Contents 1. INTRODUCTION 7 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THESIS 7 1.2 PROBLEM TO QUESTION 7 1.3 THEORIES AND METHODOLOGY 8 1.3.1 KEYWORDS 8 1.3.2 DISCOURSE 9 1.4 RELEVANCE IN CURRENT DISCUSSION 11 1.5 SOURCES, LIMITATIONS & OUTLINE 12 2. CONSTRUCTING CONTEXT 14 2.1 PALESTINE 14 2.1.1 HERITAGE IN PALESTINE: LAWS AND ACTORS 16 2.2 UNESCO – BUILDING PEACE IN MINDS 17 2.2.1 OUTSTANDING UNIVERSAL VALUES 18 2.2.2 TENTATIVE LIST: WORLD HERITAGE WAITING 20 2.2.3 THE UNESCO STATE PARTY PALESTINE 20 2.2.4 FIRST NOMINATION TO THE WORLD HERITAGE LIST 20 3. HISTORY, AUTHENTICITY, HERITAGE 23 3.1 THE COLONIAL PAST 23 3.2 FROM ASHES RISE 24 3.2.1 RENAMING AND (RE)CLAIMING 26 3.2.2 CONTEMPORARY ARCHAEOLOGY IN THE HOLY LAND 28 4. TENTATIVE LISTS OF PALESTINE 31 4.1 BALANCING THE SCALE 31 4.2 THE SITES 31 1. Birthplace of Jesus: Church of the Nativity and the Pilgrimage Route. 34 2. Palestine: Land of Olives and Vines. 35 3. Ancient Jericho: Tell es-Sultan 35 4. Old Town of Hebron al-Khalil & its environs 36 5. Mount Gerizim and the Samaritans 39 6. QUMRAN: Caves and Monastery of the Dead Sea Scrolls 40 7. El-Bariyah: wilderness with monasteries 42 8. Wadi Natuf and Shuqba Cave 43 9. The Old Town of Nablus and its environs 43 10. Tell Umm Amer 44 11. Throne Villages 44 12. Sebastia 45 13. Anthedon Harbour 47 14. Umm Al-Rihan Forest 47 15. Wadi Gaza Coastal Wetlands 47 16. The Dead Sea 48 17. The Religious routes in the Holy Land 48 18. Umayyad Palaces 49 19. Qanat es-Sabeel (The Aqueducts of Jerusalem) 49 20. Trade Routes 50 5. TENTATIVE LIST OF ISRAEL 51 5.1 THE SITES 53 1. Sites of Human Evolution at Mount Carmel. 53 2. Caves of Maresha and Bet-Guvrin in the Judean Lowlands. 53 3. Triple-arch Gate at Dan & Sources of the Jordan 54 4. The Great Rift Valley - migratory routes - The Hula 54 5. Early Synagogues in the Galilee 55 6. The Galilee Journeys of Jesus & the Apostles 55 7. Sea of Galilee and its Ancient Sites 56 8. Horvat Minnin 57 9. Arbel (arbel, nebe shueb, horns of hittim) 57 10. Degania and Nahalal 58 11. Bet She'arim 58 12. Bet she'an 59 13. Caesarea 59 14. White Mosque in Ramle 60 15. Jerusalem 60 16. Makhteshim Country 61 17. Mount Karkom 61 18. Timna 62 19. The Crusader Fortresses 62 20. The Frontiers of the Roman Empire 63 21. The Biblical Tel (extension). 63 6. COMPARING LISTS 65 6.1 CRITERIA 65 6.1.1 (i) MASTERPIECES 68 6.1.2 (ii) VALUES/INFLUENCES 68 6.1.3 (iii) TESTIMONY 70 6.1.4 (iv) TYPOLOGY 71 6.1.5 (v) LAND-USE 73 6.1.6 (vi) ASSOCIATIONS 73 6.1.7 (vii) NATURAL BEAUTY 75 6.1.8 (x) NATURAL HABITATS 75 6.1.9 ACCUMULATING KEYWORDS 76 6.2 THE USE OF WORDS 77 6.3 HISTORY/AUTHENTICITY 85 6.4 INCLUSION/EXCLUSION 86 6.4.1 THE STATES PARTIES 87 6.4.2 THE STATES PARTIES AND THE BIBLE 93 6.4.3 STATES PARTIES AND AHD 96 7. CONCLUSION 98 8. EPILOGUE 102 9. REFERENCES 103 APPENDIX 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 BACKGROUND OF THESIS During my first years of studying cultural heritage and conservation I did it for the moments when I lost myself to history, the moments when body and mind travelled in time through the touch of brickwork or the smell of dust between the beams of an old building. Some years later I still loved the moments of time travel but I realised that they alone were not enough. To make time travels and kicks through history it all needed to be anchored in the present. When buildings and places are linked through time they gain far more importance, not just to me, but also to people who do not share my sentimental view on old bricks and dust. They become symbols. I realised that old buildings are not heritage because they are old; they become heritage because we need them to be. Today I view history and cultural heritage as tools of the present. I have gained interest in how history and heritage are used in the present and that is a language that is far more vociferous than the language of bricks and dust. Palestine has had its grip on me longer than I’ve known the name. When reading about religion in school I learned names of the places around the Holy Land and when I started to watch the news in the evening these places gained a different meaning. All the suffering of the Bible, the Quran and the Torah was still very relevant. I started following the Israel/Palestine conflict and grew interested in the reasons behind all of the suffering. By the time I started studying questions of heritage this conflict, the Holy Land and Israel/Palestine appeared as a place where these questions were engaged in with a most forceful way. The day the opportunity came for me to visit Palestine I did not think twice about going. I knew that this was a chance to seek answers to questions that had long been on my mind; I knew that this was an opportunity of absolute present-centred time traveling. 1.2 PROBLEM TO QUESTION During 3 weeks of June 2014 I visited the West Bank of Palestine. This field study gave me the chance to visit greater parts of the region, from Ramallah to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Hebron, Nablus, Sebastia, but also Israel, Tel Aviv and the old port of Jaffa. Travelling around the West Bank together with Palestinians gave an insight to the limitations that the current occupation is putting on everyday life. The land is contested, history is contested and culture is contested. The on-going occupation has ruled out a continuous caretaking of cultural heritage on a nation wide level in Palestine. The Palestinian Authority has been active since 1994 but has not been able to structure a reliable framework to secure the cultural heritage in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Palestine became a member state of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2011 (Israel became a member state in 1999) and has since then ratified the World Heritage Convention. Since the Palestinian Authority has not been able to tend to the built heritage, it is easy to add neglect to occupation and armed conflict to infer that the state of Palestinian built heritage is beyond rescue. This is not accurate. The built heritage has been tended by several NGOs since the 1990’s, proving that cultural heritage is vital even to the state-less. Culture is contested and it is made very visible in an area were both Israel and Palestine claim the same country.