Cultural Heritage Management as a National Strategy in the World Heritage System

2018/08/17

In 1972, the "World Heritage Convention" was adopted by UNESCO to establish an international support system for protecting cultural heritage important to humanity. Items registered as World Heritage are recognized as cultural heritage representing their holding country, and their academic and aesthetic value becomes known to many people. While the World Heritage system plays a role in protecting cultural heritage in danger, it is now more often expected to produce economic effects through increased tourism after registration and regional promotion centered on World Heritage sites. In Japan's cultural property policy, there is also a growing momentum for the active utilization of cultural heritage with an emphasis on the relationship with the local communities that have inherited it, and it cannot be overlooked that these trends in World Heritage are in the background.

Many states parties to the Convention nominate cultural heritage protected under their own legal systems for World Heritage status. However, on the international stage of UNESCO, some nations use World Heritage registration as an opportunity to increase their national recognition and attempt to strengthen domestic cultural heritage management. Palestine is one such case.

Since ancient times, the region around Palestine has flourished as a crossroads for diverse peoples, cultures, and religions, and thus contains various cultural heritages deeply related to events of global historical importance. It is also the cradle of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and is home to many of their holy sites. However, following the Zionist movement and the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, conflicts frequently broke out between the immigrant Jewish people and the Arab residents (Palestinians) who had lived there previously, developing into a serious confrontation involving violent armed clashes. After the 1993 Oslo Accords, the Palestinian Authority has governed the West Bank and Gaza Strip, but there are still areas that remain under the control of the Israeli military.

The United Nations does not recognize Palestine's membership as a formal state (it is currently an observer state), but UNESCO admitted it as a formal member state in 2011. Naturally, Israel and the pro-Israel United States reacted strongly; in retaliation, Israel announced the expansion of settlements, and the United States announced the suspension of its contributions to UNESCO. Israel has enthusiastically protected cultural heritage particularly related to the formation of the Old Testament and Judaism to clarify the historical legitimacy of establishing a Jewish state in this land. On the other hand, Palestine, wishing to establish sovereignty in the autonomous territories, also claims ownership of cultural heritage within those territories, recognizing that cultural heritage serves as a source of national identity and brings economic benefits. Palestine's admission to UNESCO in 2011 brought these conflicts to the surface under the World Heritage system.

Palestine has succeeded in three registrations so far, all of which were registered as World Heritage through emergency nominations, which differ from the normal review process. In some cases, registration occurred as a result of a vote by the World Heritage Committee, even though ICOMOS, the advisory body that pre-examines nominations, recommended that registration was inappropriate. When UNESCO registers a nominating country's cultural heritage as World Heritage, it internationally acknowledges that country's possession of that cultural heritage. In the context of the aforementioned conflict structure between the two countries, this provokes Israel, and the United States also criticizes these three registrations as being political.

Nevertheless, Palestine has circumstances that force it to rely on such political means. Palestinian cultural heritage is basically managed by the Palestinian Authority's Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage. However, within the autonomous territories, there are areas where the Israeli military oversees civil administration and security, and the cultural heritage there falls under Israeli jurisdiction. Furthermore, Israel has designated some archaeological sites in the West Bank as national parks, effectively possessing them. Some of Palestine's future candidate sites for World Heritage nomination overlap with areas Israel has designated as national parks. Among those involved in Palestine's World Heritage registration, there is a deep-seated anxiety that sovereignty in Palestinian cultural heritage management cannot be established unless the holding country of the cultural heritage is confirmed by the international community.

Much of the cultural heritage in various regions was created long before the establishment of modern states, and those who created them were not the current states, but the cultural practitioners living in those regions at the time. The World Heritage system was born precisely to globally protect the historical value of cultural heritage that transcends national boundaries. However, what is found to have "outstanding universal value" and what is regarded as "our cultural heritage" is easily politicized because it directly links to the intentions of today's states and the identities of people living now. While the case of Palestine and Israel may be somewhat unique, Japan, as it moves toward the active utilization of cultural heritage by strengthening the ties between heritage and local regions, must not forget to face the political nature surrounding the past and present of cultural heritage.