From Aleppo to Beirut, Jerusalem, and Alexandria, cultural heritage sites in Bilad al-Sham and the Eastern Mediterranean span thousands of years. Within this context, notions of value, authenticity, and representation are contested and redefined. Yet, this complexity is perhaps most acute in Palestine, given its centrality to early explorations by European consular, scientific, and religious missions. Resulting from these interventions, Palestine’s cultural heritage has long been dominated by Orientalist, colonial, and theological narratives. In contrast, Palestinians have cultivated and sustained a heritage rooted in inclusivity—embracing diverse civilizations, historical layers, social classes, and religious groups—in deliberate contrast to the ethno-national exclusivity imposed by the settler colonial project. Cycles of expulsion, destruction, theft and spaciocide have damaged much of the tangible aspects of Palestinian life—such as civic buildings, homes, furniture, personal belongings, photographs, and documents—and, in parallel, have eroded centuries of intangible heritage, traditions, and social life. This has sparked a fervent awakening to preserve all facets of tangible and intangible heritage both within Palestine and in the diaspora (shatat). The preservation and documentation of traditional knowledge; solidarity and alternative cultural tourism; as well as the revitalization of historic towns have become tools of resistance, helping to remember the past, combat its erasure, and shape an emancipatory future. Architects, local communities, and heritage specialists actively work to preserve cultural heritage, engaging in critical questions about Palestine’s heritage sites—from the cultural landscape of olive groves and vineyards in Battir, the old city of Acre and the Saint Hilarion Monastery/Tell Umm Amer, to the modern architecture of refugee camps.

Key Questions

  • How have Palestinians preserved their tangible and intangible heritage? What are the efforts of those in exile and the diaspora?
  • How has Israel weaponised cultural heritage to erase Palestinian history and advance the Zionist settler colonial project?
  • In what ways do heritage practices in Palestine function as modes of cultural resistance in the face of territorial and societal fragmentation resulting from colonial erasure?

Key Cases

Key Resources

  1. Bshara, Khaldun. 2013. “Heritage in Palestine: Colonial Legacy in Postcolonial Discourse.” Archaeologies 9 (2). ( open-access link )
  2. Guillaume, Alexia. 2022. “Cultural Apartheid: Israel’s Erasure of Palestinian Heritage in Gaza.” Al-Haq. ( open-access link )
  3. Munawar, Nour Allah, and Issam Nassar. 2025. “Decolonizing the Sacred: The Politics of Heritage in Jerusalem.” Heritage Memory and Conflict Journal 5 (1): 1-22. ( open-access link )
  4. Saad, Dima. 2019. “Materializing Palestinian Memory: Objects of Home and the Everyday Eternities of Exile.” Jerusalem Quarterly 80: 57-81. ( open-access link )
  5. طه، حمدان. 2025. ”الحفاظ على التراث الثقافي في سياق استعماري.“ مجلة الدراسات الفلسطينية 142: 63-73. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول)

Further Resources

Please contact us if you would like access to any resources.

  1. Anani, Yazid (ed.). 2017. “Al-Atlal: Ruins & Recollections.” Jerusalem Quarterly 69. ( open-access link )
  2. Al-Ju’beh, Nazmi. 2008. “Cultural‎ Heritage‎ in‎ Palestine:‎ Contested‎ and‎ Neglected‎ Heritage:‎ A‎ Palestinian‎ Position.” Riwaq ( open-access link )
  3. الخالدي، وليد، محرر، كي لا ننسى: قرى فلسطين التي دمرتها إسرائيل سنة 1948 وأسماء شهدائها. ترجمة حسني زينة. واشنطن: مؤسسة الدراسات الفلسطينية. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول)

English version: Khalidi, Walid, ed. 1992. All That Remains: The Palestinian Villages Occupied and Depopulated by Israel in 1948. Washington DC: The Institute for Palestine Studies. ( book description and WorldCat link )

  1. Assi, Eman. 2012. “World Heritage Sites, Human Rights and Cultural Heritage in Palestine.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 18 (3): 316-23. ( link )
  2. Barnard, Ryvka and Hassan Muamer. 2015. “Ongoing Dispossession and a Heritage of Resistance: The Village of Battir vs. Israeli Settler-colonialism.” In The Politics and Power of Tourism in Palestine, edited by Rami Isaac, Michael Hall and Freya Higgins-Desbiolles, 63-78. Routledge. ( Worldcat link )
  3. Barnard, Ryvka. 2017. “Colonization and Resistance at Bethlehem’s Manger Square.” Radical History Review 129: 125-43. ( link )
  4. Bshara, Khaldun. 2016. “The Structures and Fractures of Heritage Protection in Palestine.” In Challenging the Dichotomy: The Licit and the Illicit in Archaeological and Heritage Discourses, edited by Les Field, Cristobal Gnecco, and Joe Watkins, 106-26. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. ( open-access link )
  5. De Cesari, Chiara. 2019. Heritage and the Cultural Struggle for Palestine. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ( Worldcat link )
  6. Doughman, Najwa and Mahdi Sabbagh. 2020. “The Rewriting of Palestinian Cities: Spatial Dislocations in Haifa and Akka.” Arab Urbanism. ( open-access link )
  7. Jerusalem Quarterly. 2024. “Food and Foodways (Part 1)” Special Issue 98. ( open-access link )
  8. Judeh, Lana. 2018. “‘Everything Was Anti-Gigantic’: On Architectural Conservation in Palestine’s Central Highlands.” Jerusalem Quarterly 76: 33-45. ( open-access link )
  9. كناعنة، شريف. 2010. ”التراث: بين الفوضى وتأكيد الهوية.“ في دراسات في الثقافة والتراث والهوية. رام الله: مواطن، المؤسسة الفلسطينية لدراسة الديمقراطية. 113-122. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول )
  10. Mansour, N.A. 2021. “The Rise and Folly of the Refugee Cookbook.” The Counter, October 21. ( open-access link )
  11. Mayaleh, Asala, and Bilal Hamamra. 2024. “Instruments of Resilience: Cultural Tourism in Palestinian Resistance.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 30 (9): 1103–19. ( link )
  12. Nasser-Khoury, Omar Joseph. 2020. “Let’s Not Tatreez: Normalisation in the Age of Neoliberal Depoliticisation.” Counter Punch, August 28. ( open-access link )
  13. Riwaq. List of Articles on Palestine’s Cultural Heritage. ( link )
  14. Rjoob, Ahmed A. 2009. “The Impact of Israeli Occupation on the Conservation of Cultural Heritage Sites in the Occupied Palestinian Territories: The Case of ‘Salvage Excavations’”. Conservation and Management of Archaeological Sites 11 (3-4): 214-35. ( link )
  15. Sa‘di-Ibraheem, Yara. 2023. “Jaffa amid Theoretical Transformations: Demolition as a Research Prism.” Jerusalem Quarterly 93: 88-99. ( open-access link )
  16. Sleiman, Hana and Kaoukab Chebaro. 2018. “Narrating Palestine: The Palestinian Oral History Archive Project.” Journal of Palestine Studies 47 (2): 63–76. ( link )
  17.  سلعوس، لارا .٢٠٢٢. ”كرسي صوف: التصميم كفعل للذاكرة في فلسطين.“ العُمران العربي. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول )
  18. Taha, Hamdan. 2024. “Destruction of Cultural Heritage in Gaza.” Institute for Palestine Studies. ( open-access link )
  19. Toukan, Hanan. “The Palestinian Museum.” Radical Philosophy 203: 10-22. ( open-access link )
  20. يحيى، عادل. 2009. ”آثار فلسطين بين النهب والإنقاذ: كيف يستبيح جدار الفصل والتنقيب غير المشروع وتجارة الآثار التراث الفلسطيني.“ حوليات القدس 7: 16 - 39. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول )

Audiovisual Material

  1. El-Funoun Palestinian Popular Dance Troupe. ( website )
  2. Forensic Architecture. 2021. Living Archeology in Gaza. ( film and investigation )
  3. جلال، نادر. 2025. ”إطلاق كتاب ’فلسطين في النهضة الموسيقية العربية: النصف الأول من القرن العشرين.‘“ يونيو، 2025. رابط يوتيوب 1:22:15. ( مصدر مفتوح الوصول )
  4. Mansour, Carol. Director. 2017. Stitching Palestine. 78 mins. (film)
  5. Palestinian Heritage Center in Bethlehem. ( website )
  6. سليمان، فرج. 2020. ”شارع يافا.“ ( أغنية )
  7. Srouji, Dima. director. 2020. Sebastia. 25 mins. ( film )
  8. Tarwida Podcast ( YouTube page )
  9. Tirazain | طرازين. ( archive )

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Image: The Rashad Shawa Cultural Center, destroyed by Israeli bombing in November 2023. Photograph by Jaber Jehad Badwen .

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