1 This statement from UNESCO director-general Koïchiro Matsuura was made during the first session of the Committee of Experts on the Cultural Heritage of the Old City of Jerusalem, 26 January 2005.

2 Ross, M. H., Cultural Contestation in Ethnic Conflict (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007), p. 154CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

3 Trigger, B., ‘AlternativeArchaeologies: Nationalist, Colonialist, Imperialist’, Man, 19 (1984), pp. 355–370CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Meskell, L., ‘The Intersections of Identity and Politics in Archaeology’, Annual Review of Anthropology, 31 (2002), pp. 279–301CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Silverman, H., ‘Embodied Heritage, Identity Politics, and Tourism’, Anthropology Humanism, 30:2 (2005), pp. 141–155CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

4 Leask, A., Managing World Heritage Sites (Oxford: Elsevier Ltd., 2006)Google Scholar ; Smith, L., The Uses of Heritage (Oxon: Routledge, 2006)Google Scholar , Switzer, C., ‘World Heritage as a Means of Marking Mexican Identity’, in Ashworth, G. J. and Graham, B. (eds), Senses of Place: Senses of Time (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2005), pp. 133–150Google Scholar ; Pendlebury, J., Short, M. et al. , ‘Urban World Heritage Sites and the problem of authenticity’, Cities, 26:6 (2009), pp. 349–358CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Evans, G., ‘Living in a World Heritage City: stakeholders in the dialectic of the universal and particular’, International Journal for Heritage Studies, 8:2 (2002), pp. 117–135CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

5 See Benvenisti, M., City of Stone: The Hidden History of Jerusalem (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996)Google Scholar ; Abu El-Haj, N., Facts on the Ground: Archaeological Practice and Territorial Self-Fashioning in Israeli Society (University of Chicago Press, 2001)Google Scholar ; Ricca, S., Reinventing Jerusalem: Israel's Reconstruction of the Jewish Quarter after 1967 (London: I. B. Tauris 2007)Google Scholar .

6 Shepherd, R., ‘Unesco and the Politics of Cultural Heritage in Tibet’, Journal of Contemporary Asia, 36:2 (2006), pp. 243–257CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

7 Preah Vihear's official inscription as a Cambodian World Heritage site has sparked violent confrontations with Thai soldiers, leading to the death of two Thai soldiers on the 2 October and two Cambodian soldiers on the 15 October. A military proliferation around the Temple complex has been matched by a political standoff between Thai and Cambodian officials. For a more detailed account of the historic tensions surrounding this heritage site see P. Cusuay, ‘Borders on the Fantastic: Mimesis, Violence and Landscape at the temple of Vihear, Preah’, Modern Asian Studies, 32:4 (1998), pp. 849–890Google Scholar .

8 Ricca, , Reinventing Jerusalem, pp. 22, 103–106Google Scholar . The Hurva synagogue may have been damaged in the fighting of 1948 which lead to its ruins being destroyed by the Jordanian Municipality.

9 Dumper, M., The Politics of Sacred Space: The Old City of Jerusalem in the Middle East Conflict (Boulder, Co.: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2002), p. 175Google Scholar .

10 el-Haj, N. Abu, ‘Translating Truths: Nationalism, the Practice of Archaeology, and the Remaking of Past and Present in Contemporary Jerusalem’, American Ethnologist, 25 (1998), p. 168CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

11 Elon, A., ‘Politics and Archaeology’, The New York Review of Books, 41 (1994), pp. 14–20Google Scholar .

12 The (re)imagining of the Massada myth is given specific attention by Zerubavel, Y., Recovered Roots: Collective memory and the making of Israeli national tradition (Chicago; London: University of Chicago Press, 1995), pp. 60–76Google Scholar .

13 Ibid., p. 178.

14 Pullan, W. and Gwiazda, M., ‘Designing the Biblical Present in Jerusalem's “City of David”’, in Webber, A., Staiger, U. and Steiner, H. (eds), Memory Culture and the Contemporary City: Building sites (London: Palgrave MacMillian, 2010)Google Scholar .

15 Elad was originally founded in 1986, with the explicit goal of settling Jews in Silwan, as part of a broader national vision for territorial expansion and ‘Judaization’. Settlement has been achieved through a series of legal and quasi legal means, more recently this has been consolidated by Elad's contract from the Israel Nature and Parks authority to manage the archaeological park in the City of David. Although this contract has been directly challenged by the Israel High Court (1998), Elad's control of Silwan remains largely unaffected. For a more critical assessment of Elad's activities see Rapoport, M., ‘The Republic of Elad’, Haaretz (23 April 2006)Google Scholar and Greenberg, R., ‘Contested Sites: Archaeology and the Battle for Jerusalem’, Jewish Quarterly, winter: 208 (2007), pp. 1–6Google Scholar .

16 Watzman, H., ‘Deep Divisions’, Nature, 447 (3 May 2007), pp. 22–24CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

17 Dumper, , The Politics of Sacred Space, pp. 178–179Google Scholar .

18 Scham, S. A. and Yahy, A., ‘Heritage and Reconciliation’, Journal of Social Archaeology, 3:3 (2003), p. 403CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

19 Lustick, I. S., ‘Has Israel Annexed Jerusalem?’, Middle East Policy, 5 (1997), pp. 34–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Rempel, T., ‘The Significance of Israel's Partial Annexation of East Jerusalem’, Middle East Journal, 51 (1997), pp. 520–534Google Scholar ; and Dumper, M., ‘Jerusalem's Infrastructure: Is Annexation Irreversible?’, Journal of Palestine Studies, 22 (1993), pp. 78–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

20 For more discussion on the status quo arrangements see Guinn, D. E., Protecting Jerusalem's Holy Sites: a Strategy for Negotiating a Sacred Peace (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Gonen, R., Contested Holiness: Jewish, Muslim, and Christian Perspectives on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. (Jersey City, NJ: Ktav Publishing House, 2003)Google Scholar . Breger, M. J. and Ahimeir, O., Jerusalem: A City and Its Future. (Syracuse, N.Y: Syracuse University Press, 2002)Google Scholar ; Zander, W., Israel and the Holy Places of Christendom (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1971)Google Scholar .

21 1967 Protection of the Holy Places Law: Article 1.

22 Antiquities Law: Article 2(a) ‘When an antiquity is discovered or found in Israel after the coming into force of this Law, it shall within boundaries fixed by the Director become the property of the State.’ 2(b) ‘A person who alleges that any antiquity was discovered or found before the coming into force of this Law shall bear the onus of proof.’

23 The Committee consists of the minister of education, the minister of justice and the minister of religious affairs.

24 See Dumper, Politics of Sacred Space, chap. 4, and Reiter, Y., ‘Muslim-Jewish Modus Vivendi at the Temple Mount/Haram ash-Sharif since 1967’, in Berger, M. J. and Ahimeir, O. (eds), Jerusalem: A city and its future (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2002), pp. 269–295Google Scholar , for a more detailed exposition of the evolving role of the Waqf Administration since 1967.

25 Avni, G. and Seligman, J., The Temple Mount 1917–2001: Documentation, Research and Inspection of Antiquities, The Israeli Antiquities Authority (Jerusalem: Keter Press Enterprises, 2001), pp. 28–29, 42Google Scholar .

26 Gaza-Jericho Agreement, 1994; Annex II.

27 Israel-Jordan Treaty of Peace (26 October 1994) 34 International Legal Materials (1995), pp. 43–66. Additionally section B (3) of the 1994 Washington Declaration signed by Israel and Jordan, requires that: ‘When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give priority to the Jordanian historic role in these [Jerusalem] shrines.’

28 See Convention Concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, 16 November 1972, UNESCO Doc.17/C/106 (1972) – Article 1.

29 Ibid.

30 UNESCO now possesses a comprehensive series of standard-setting instruments comprising seven Conventions: Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions (2005), Safe guarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003), Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage (2001), Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (1972), Prohibiting and Preventing the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Cultural Property (1970), Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict (1954), Universal Copyright Convention (1952, 1971).

31 Definitions and interpretations of ‘World Heritage’ are outlined in UNESCO's normative texts and standard procedures. Articles 1 and 2 of the ‘World Heritage Convention’ (1972) remain the preeminent guidelines on defining ‘Cultural heritage’ and ‘Natural heritage’. See the 2005 Operational guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention (WHC.05/2) for a comprehensive overview.

32 Heritage categories continue to evolve, demonstrated by the more recent recognition of cultural diversity in all its forms, both ‘tangible’ and ‘intangible’ as world heritage. See the International Convention for the safeguard of intangible heritage, UNESCO (2003).

33 See Ricca, , Reinventing Jerusalem, pp. 127–155Google Scholar for details of UNESCO's early engagement with the Old City and the ‘Synoptic Reports’ of Professor Raymond Lemaire, as the director-general's Special Representative, collected and synthesised into the Synoptic report on developments in the safeguarding of the monumental heritage of Jerusalem from 1971 to 1987, UNESCO (1987).

34 As stated in the 44. General Conference of UNESCO Resolution on the Protection of Cultural Property in Jerusalem, 20 November 1974.

35 1974 UNESCO, General Conference Resolution.

36 After the adoption of the 1974 Resolutions, the USA showed its disapproval financially by withholding its assessed share of the Agency's budget (25 per cent) for two years. France and Switzerland similarly made their protest known by withholding a percentage of their contribution.

37 The criteria used to include Jerusalem on the World Heritage list were (ii), (iii) and (vi) under section 77 of the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention.

38 Israel only became a party to the World Heritage Convention in 1999 and duly submitted a tentative list of heritage sites which included ‘Jerusalem’ and an ‘extension of the inscribed site of Jerusalem-the Old City and Ramparts- to include Mount Zion and determine a buffer zone in accord with the Operational guidelines’ (World Heritage Sites: Tentative List of the State of Israel, 20 June 2000).

39 See Ricca, , Reinventing Jerusalem, pp. 153–155Google Scholar ; Greenberg, R., Gopher, A. and Herzog, Z., ‘Archaeological Public Policy in Israel’, Public policy in Israel: Perspectives and Practices (Lanham, Md.: Lexington Books, 2002), pp. 191–203Google Scholar ; Prior, M., ‘Holy Places, Unholy Domination: the Scramble for Jerusalem’, Islamic Studies, Special Issue: Jerusalem, 40 (2001), pp. 507–530Google Scholar .

40 See L. Pressouyre, ‘Report to Mr. Federico Mayor, Director-General of UNESCO, on the safeguarding of the Urban and Monumental heritage of Jerusalem’, UNESCO, 30C/12 (5 October 1999).

41 Although Jerusalem is not explicitly mentioned on the UNESCO website as falling under the jurisdiction of WHC Arab States Unit, it was confirmed in an interview with the UNESCO Chief for this Unit, Veronique Dauge, UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, (17 October 2008).

42 Brinn, D., ‘UNESCO chief pays a visit – and a compliment’, Jerusalem Post (8 February 2008)Google Scholar .

43 Uni, A., ‘UNESCO chief: We are trying to mediate over Mughrabi Gate’, Haaretz (2 February 2008)Google Scholar . However Israel-UNESCO relations have been strained by the October 2010 UNESCO recognition of the Palestinian sites of al-Haram al-Ibrahim/Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and the Bilal ibn Rabah Mosque/Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem. Such moves are not a rebuttal of the Jewish connection to the sites but a challenge to Israel's attempt to assert sovereignty in the occupied West Bank. See Derfner, L., ‘Rattling the Cage: UNESCO is right, Israel is wrong’, Jerusalem Post (11 October 2010)Google Scholar .

44 Interview with member of UNESCO Committee of Experts (6 February 2008).

45 Husseini, D., ‘Impairing Social services in Jerusalem’, Cornerstone: O Jerusalem, 39 (winter 2006), pp. 9–10Google Scholar , were she details the ongoing struggle between Israeli settlers and the Burj al-luqluq Social centre. In her words, ‘Burj al-Luq Luq Centre is now under great pressure of an “occupation within an occupation”.’

46 Action Plan for the Safeguarding of the Cultural Heritage of the Old City of Jerusalem, (2007) Section 3(3) ‘Manual for Housing Maintenance and Rehabilitation’, p. 2.

47 Shraqai, N., ‘Tunnel to link J'lem's Jewish Quarter, Muslim Quarter synagogue’, Haaretz (2 November 2007)Google Scholar .

48 See Klein, M., ‘Jerusalem as an Israeli Problem – a Review of Forty Years of Israeli Rule Over Arab Jerusalem’, Israel Studies, 13 (2008), pp. 54–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar ; Dumper, M., ‘Israeli Settlement in the Old City of Jerusalem’, Journal of Palestine Studies, 21 (1992), pp. 32–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar .

49 Uni, A., ‘UNESCO chief: We are trying to mediate over Mughrabi Gate’, Haaretz (2 February 2008)Google Scholar .

50 Interviews with UNESCO officials, Paris (17 October 2008).

51 The current status of the Action Plan is that of abeyance, largely due to recent political conditions on the ground and in the region. Although phase one (Inventory and Priority map, Project Profiles and the Rehabilitation Manual) has been completed, and Italian funding has supported the commencement of an ‘Apprenticeship Programme’ aimed at training local craftsmen and a ‘World Heritage Education Programme’ targeting Jerusalem students, no restoration projects have officially begun. The 32nd Session of the WHC in Quebec City, July 2008 reported the first project sponsorship of the restoration of the Church of St John the Baptist by the A. G. Leventis Foundation from Cyprus, yet they also highlighted the need for ‘a fund raising campaign to generate financial support for carrying out the identified projects.’ (WHC-08/32.COM/3B, 18/II).

52 Although damage to the pathway has been caused by gradual erosion and a more recent earthquake, most certainly the underlying structural weakness is a consequence of the Israeli renovation of the Western Wall plaza and destruction of the Mughrabi quarter.

53 This was termed ‘Preventive archaeology’ by the Israeli Antiquities Authority, who claimed to be excavating the site ‘to assess the situation and structural stability of the access ramp’ (Report of the Israeli National Commission for UNESCO, 28 February 2007).

54 Prior to the construction the Jordanian government urged Israel to delay the project, even offering for Jordanian engineers to carry out a more modest reconstruction scheme, as had been done previously at the Southern wall. The offer however was rejected.

55 A full copy of the technical mission report 2007 can be found online at: {http://www.unesco.org/bpi/pdf/jerusalem_report_en.pdf} accessed June 2008.

56 This new monitoring mechanism was proposed at the 31st Session of the WHC in Christchurch, New Zealand, 2007, and immediately applied to the Mughrabi Gate controversy. The first Reinforced Monitoring Report was received in October 2007 and this has been followed by five others. The fifth report in September 2008, recommended the continuation of this specific form of supervision, reporting back ‘at least every three months, until the 33rd session of the World Heritage Committee in 2009’.

57 UNESCO, World Heritage Centre, ‘World Heritage Site of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls State of Conservation of the Mughrabi Ascent: Fifth Reinforced Monitoring Report’, September 2008, Part II 2(9).

58 Interview with an official from the Jerusalem Municipality, Jerusalem (14 December 2008).

59 The Northern branch of the Islamic Movement's involvement in the Marwani Hall/Solomon's Stables excavation was suggested during an interview in Jerusalem with a leading official from the IAA (2 April 2008).

60 See O'Keefe, R., ‘World Cultural Heritage: Obligations to the International Community as a Whole?’, 53 ICLQ, 189 (2004), pp. 205, 207Google Scholar .

61 Dresden is deleted from UNESCO's World Heritage List (25 June 2009), {http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/522/}. Dresden is only the second property ever to have been removed from the World Heritage List. Oman's Arabian Oryx Sanctuary was also delisted in 2007. See Oman's Arabian Oryx Sanctuary : first site ever to be deleted from UNESCO's World Heritage List, available at: {http://whc.unesco.org/en/news/362}.

62 This is the word used for the Jewish districts of Moroccan Cities. It probably comes from the Hebrew and Arabic word Melah, which means Salt. It may have referred to the Salty land which was unsuitable for agriculture.

63 See official website at: {http://www.gtz-aleppo.org/index2.htm} accessed July 2008.

64 Beisha, F., ‘Preserving one of the Oldest Cities in the World’, The Jordan Times (12 June 2001)Google Scholar .

65 For GTZ's full report on the Aleppo restoration project see: {http://www.gtz.de/en/praxis/8234.htm}.

66 Aleppo's old city was once home to around 170,000 people, but the population dropped to about 100,000 by the end of the twentieth century. According to the GTZ website the old city population has risen by 15,000 in the last ten years. The figure of 90 per cent of loan recipients remaining within the old city is given by Rania Agel, an architect supervising the project loans fund.

67 K. Karzon, Guidelines for the Restoration and Renovation of the Old City of Aleppo. The Rehabilitation of the Old City of Aleppo and Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit-GTZ, Aleppo (1998), Preface 1.1.

68 J. B. Glass and R. Khamaisi, ‘Report on the Socio-Economic Conditions in the Old City of Jerusalem’. (The Jerusalem Project Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto, 2005).

69 Abdullah Hadjar, Historical Monuments of Aleppo. Automobile and Touring club of Syria (2000), pp. 145–7, cited in Ricca, S., Reinventing Jerusalem: Israel's Reconstruction of the Jewish Quarter after 1967 (PhD thesis), p. 249Google Scholar .

70 Ibid.

71 See UNESCO, Cultural Heritage Division, International Campaign for Safeguard of the Medina of Fez (1998).

72 Cited by Darles, G. and Lagrange, N., ‘The Medina of Fez-crafting a future for the Past-old city in Morocco’, UNESCO Courier (November 1996), p. 37Google Scholar .

73 This listing was part of the World Monument Fund's (WMF) biennial Watch list of 100 Most Endangered Sites. The WMF is a private, non-profit organisation dedicated to the preservation of threatened world architectural and cultural sites. For more information see its official website at: {www.wmf.org}.

74 UNESCO Courier.‘The Medina of Fez-crafting a future’, p. 37.

75 A series of conflicts stemming from the disintegration of former Yugoslavia and the emergence of independence struggles by Slovenia (1991) Croatia (1991–95) Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992–95) and lastly the Kosovar Albanians (1996–99).

76 Bevan, R., The Destruction of Memory: architecture at war (London: Reaktion, 2006)Google Scholar .

77 Smith, A. D., National identity (London: Penguin, 1991)Google Scholar .

78 UNESCO director-general (22 March 2004).

79 See UNESCO 2003 and 2004 Reports – ‘Cultural Heritage in Kosovo: Protection and Conservation of a Multi-Ethnic Heritage in Danger’, available online at:{http://www.unesco.org/culture/heritage/kosovo1} and {http://www.unesco.org/culture/heritage/kosovo2} accessed March 2008.

80 This consolidated report ‘Protection and Preservation of Cultural Heritage in Kosovo’ was presented at a UNESCO sponsored International Donors Conference held in Paris (13 May 2005).

81 Almost 90 per cent of the city centre was damaged and a third of its buildings were completed destroyed. This included historic Mosques such as the Ottoman Karadoz Bey Mosque, residential areas shaped by Austro-Hungarian architectural styles, libraries, cafes, hotels and a symphony orchestra building.

82 Herscher, A., ‘Remembering and Rebuilding in Bosnia’, Transitions, 5:3 (March 1998), p. 1Google Scholar .

83 Ibid., p. 2.

84 Quote taken from UNESCO website: {http://portal.unesco.org/culture/en/ev.php-URL_ID=11679&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html} accessed September 2008.

85 This is an expansive interreligious and intercultural dialogue project first begin in Rabat 1995, with subsequent meetings in Malta 1997 and Bucharest 2001. The Roads of Faith Project is aimed at initiating reflection on multicultural dialogue, with Jerusalem, the Holy City of the three Monotheistic religions, as its focal point.

86 See Guinn, , Protecting Jerusalem's Holy Sites, p. 111Google Scholar .

87 UNESCO 1992: INF 2/4.

88 Funding for Heritage related projects are already being mobilised such as the refurbishment and design of the Islamic Museum of Al-Aqsa, located close to the Al-Aqsa Mosque, supported by a Saudi Arabian gift of $1,130,000. The development of an Architectural Heritage Preservation Institute is also planned, in partnership with the Welfare Association and subject to a European Commission grant of €700,000 (WHC-08/32.COM/24/18,3).

89 For more information on UNESCO's emerging commitment to promoting a culture of peace and intercultural dialogue see the Strategic Planning Paper, ‘Promoting Peace and Security through Education and Science: Elements for a UN Strategy against Terrorism’ (February 2003).

90 ICOMOS has been involved in the drafting of array of charters covering heritage issues such as historic cities, cultural tourism and the restoration of historic monuments. See Charter on the Conservation of Historic towns and Urban Areas, ICOMOS, 1987 (The Washington Charter) or International Cultural Tourism Charter-Managing Tourism at Places of Heritage Significance, ICOMOS, 1999. The most recent report of ICOMOS focused on ‘Cultural Heritage at Risk-Risk preparedness’.

91 Lowenthal, D., The Heritage Crusade and the Spoils of History (Viking, 1997), p. 227Google Scholar .

92 Quote by A. Selkirk cited in Dingli, S. M., ‘Responsibility towards the Heritage of Mankind’, in Scarre, C. and Scarre, G. (eds), The Ethics of Archaeology (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), p. 233Google Scholar .

93 The concept of ‘theme-parking’ cultural heritage is explored by Hodder, I., The Archaeological Process: An Introduction (Oxford and Malden, MA: Blackwell, 1999), p. 163Google Scholar .

94 ‘UNESCO to demarcate Preah Vihear’, The Phnom Penh Post (24 October 2008).