UNESCO Adds Contested West Bank Archaeological Site, Lebanese Castles to World Heritage List
A UNESCO committee meeting in Busan, South Korea, voted on Friday to add the West Bank town of Sebastia and a group of five castles in southern Lebanon’s Mount Amel area to both the World Heritage List and the List of World Heritage in Danger, despite objections from Israel. Israel’s Foreign Ministry argued the nominations represented a “weaponization of cultural heritage,” but UNESCO cited the emergency conditions created by ongoing Middle East conflicts. Sebastia, about 6 miles northwest of Nablus, contains archaeological layers from the Iron Age, Roman, Byzantine, and Islamic periods and was first nominated by the Palestinian delegation in 2012; UNESCO warned of threats including planned expropriation linked to a proposed “Samaria” (Shomron) national park. One newly listed Lebanese site, Beaufort Castle (Qalaat al-Shaqif), originally built in 1137, was reported to have been struck by Israeli forces in May and had received enhanced UNESCO protection from armed conflict in 2024.
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This story was covered in Museums Under Fire, Heritage and Heists Collide