Strati Violati, Siti Negati. I danni antropici al patrimonio archeologico del Levante meridionale (Israele e Palestina) nel XXI sec: problemi, proposte e soluzioni

In the last twelve years the area archaeologically known as Palestine (the present territories of Israel and Palestinian National Authority) has been a place of armed conflicts and geo-political tensions: the so called “second Intifada”, the latest Israeli-Lebanese conflict, the operation “molten lead” on the Gaza Strip and so on, have accentuated the difficulties and made the work on the archeological and historical heritage of the area much harder. This situation of instability creates the problem of the security and protection of cultural heritage respecting the international conventions and the laws concerning the conservation and fruition of cultural property in each State. Although the problem is very well known in the international community and there are often articles in specialized papers, a uniform and coherent report on damage from the start of the new century and about the causes of decay directly and indirectly due to political instability of the country is still missing. Damage is due to bombs, to construction of refugee camps and other types of settlements, and, most of all, to illegal excavation. Part of the study (tutor Prof. Daniele Morandi Bonacossi, University of Udine) will be devoted to understanding how the various factors involved in the problem of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict affect the conservation of archaeological heritage, its management and the work of local and foreign archaeological expeditions. The possibility of creating an on-line database with as much information as possible about sites, documenting the extent of the damage with photos, maps and a comparison with existing archaeological documentation, where possible, will be an important element in understanding types and causes of damage and will give a chance to prevent them. This will make it possible to propose to UNESCO a number of sites for blue shield of the simple protection, or the triple shield of the enhanced protection in case of armed conflict. The goal of the project , beyond acquiring blue shields status, is the creation of an online open source program updated by all the scholars who, in their work, come across damage to the archaeological heritage of the area. Last but not least, the awareness of the local population: a repressive system does not seem to work in the face of robbers and sellers, in a state of things in which illegal digging is only the last and often weakest link in a complex chain. The development of a deeper awareness of the impostance of the cultural heritage by the younger generations could contribute to the re-appropriation of their own past and to building an alternative to violence: the culture of peace through the knowledge of history. For practical reasons the biggest sites and the sites in the most evident state of decay will be analyzed first, in the present territories of Israel and the Palestinian National Authority from the pre-classical periods. Where possible, a comparison will be made between the current situation of each site and the available documentation.