Dr. Ammar Ali Hassan is a writer and researcher specializing in political sociology. In his article, published on Al-Jazeera, he discusses how Israel’s destruction of archaeological sites in Palestine, Lebanon, and Gaza goes beyond military strategy and is part of a broader effort to erase Arab cultural identity.
Many Arab intellectuals, political analysts, and military experts believe that the Israeli army targets and destroys archaeological sites in Lebanon and Gaza not just for revenge, but to erase the cultural memory carried by these places.
This destructive act aims to wipe out the heritage of peoples who have lived in the region for centuries, people who understand the significance of place and the cultural value of visual memory. The Israelis, however, who are behind these bombings, have no such connection to the land or its historical significance.
During the Nakba of 1948, the Zionist militias (before the formation of the Israeli army) destroyed 418 Palestinian villages, some of which dated back centuries, while committing massacres against defenseless Palestinians. This pattern of destruction continued throughout all the wars and repeated Israeli aggressions against the Palestinians and others.
In the current war, Israel destroyed the ancient heritage of Baalbek in Lebanon, which spans over three thousand years, including remnants of Phoenician, Byzantine, Seljuk, Ayyubid, Frankish, Mongol, Mamluk, and Ottoman civilizations. Israel also targeted churches and monasteries of the Maronite and Orthodox communities.
Entire neighborhoods in southern Beirut, such as Shiyah, the Lailaki/Ghabiri area, and Haret Hreik—which date back to the Arab conquest—were completely destroyed. In the city of Tyre, Israel bombed ancient buildings that were akin to a large museum. Similarly, in Nabatieh, Israel destroyed historic markets, homes, mosques, and churches.
In Gaza, the Israeli airstrikes obliterated the Old City, which contained over 146 old houses, mosques, churches, historical schools, and the ancient Gaza port.
Throughout all of this, Israel has paid no heed to the 1954 Hague Convention, which aims to protect cultural property during armed conflicts. This convention was adopted in response to the widespread destruction of cultural heritage during World War II and stipulates that “any damage to cultural property, regardless of the people to whom it belongs, is damage to the cultural heritage of all humanity, as every people contributes to the world’s culture.”
With the rise of religious extremism in Israeli politics, particularly following the unprecedented rise of the far-right, Israeli politicians and their religious allies have shown no regard for modern warfare laws or human rights.
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This disregard is clearly evident in statements by Rabbi Manis Friedman, an American Jewish leader, who bluntly stated that the proper way to deal with Arabs is to destroy their sacred places, and kill their men, women, children, and livestock.
In his book ‘Genocide: From the Ideology of the Hebrew Bible to the Zionist Project’, Essam Sakhini argues that this exterminatory mindset in Israeli policy draws from two main sources:
European colonialism, which shaped Zionism as it emerged from Western colonial ideologies that displaced or confined indigenous populations in occupied lands.
Religious interpretations, where events and phrases from the Bible are excessively invoked to serve the goals of extermination, erase the historical memory of the Arab countries under Israeli assault.
This behavior is wrapped in numerous stories, myths, and religious symbols that justify the actions of the Israeli army today. Some Israeli politicians and military leaders see it as their duty to reenact historical events of destruction, erasing the visual memory of the conquered peoples, as a tool of subjugation.
Even Israeli secular politicians invoke the past to justify their destructive actions. For instance, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben Gurion, said: “There must be continuity from Joshua bin Nun to the Israeli Defense Forces.”
Benjamin Netanyahu echoed this sentiment in his first speech following Operation Al-Aqsa Flood, where he referenced the biblical story of Prophet Samuel’s extermination of the Amalekites and likened Palestinians to these ancient enemies, saying: “As it is written in the Torah, I will pursue my enemies and destroy them.”
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This belief in historical continuity has seeped into Israeli society. A survey of around 1,000 Israeli high school students found that approximately 80 percent believe in the validity of these ancient destructive acts, and 38 percent of them think that the Israeli army should repeat the same kind of genocide in Arab villages and towns it invades.
This serves as a clear response to Israeli explanations that suggest Israeli aggression is merely a reaction to being surrounded by hostile Arab nations. In reality, it stems from the psychological, historical, and ideological makeup of the Israeli army’s “fighting doctrine,” which treats revenge as a sacred duty with no other choice. Thus, excessive force is justified against those whom Israel labels as enemies.
Israel’s rhetoric of genocide has relied heavily on these historical narratives, texts, speeches, and practices to justify its actions in Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. Some moderate or dissenting Jews are aware of this and oppose the aggressive Israeli mindset that manipulates historical memory to justify present-day violence against those who have not harmed Jews in any way.
However, their voices remain weak in the face of those who believe that destroying historical places furthers Israel’s objective of erasing Arab cultural heritage, particularly the ancient architecture at its heart.
This erasure of the past is seen as a way to equate Israelis with their Arab neighbors by stripping them of their historical and physical connections to the land, as far as the Israeli army can manage.
The steadfastness of the Arab people in protecting their archaeological sites, as integral parts of their material history, is vital to resisting these attempts. Archaeological sites are not just material artifacts; they are deeply embedded in the identity of a people who are fighting to preserve their historical memory and cultural heritage.
For this reason, the Israeli army sees one of its key military objectives as not only destroying this collective resistance but also destabilizing the very psychological and intellectual fabric that connects people to their history.
(Al-Jazeera Arabic Website – Translated and prepared by the Palestine Chronicle)
