UNESCO adds Crusader castles in Lebanon, ancient city in West Bank to World Heritage in Danger list

A UNESCO commission has expanded its World Heritage list to include numerous new sites. Not only in the Middle East, it is also pursuing a policy with this.

Publication date: 2026-07-27 17:55

Ad Hoc Additions to the World Heritage List

On Friday, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee, currently meeting in Busan, South Korea, decided to add five monumental castle ruins in southern Lebanon to the World Heritage List. Built during the time of the Christian Crusaders, these sites represent the military history and denominational diversity of Lebanon.

The castles were immediately placed on the Red List, which documents World Heritage sites threatened by destruction — in this case, due to the war between Hezbollah and Israel. Already before, Tyre in southern Lebanon, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1984 with its Iron Age, ancient, and medieval structures, had been placed on the Red List. A few months ago, Israeli troops shelled it.

Also on Friday, the excavations of the ancient city of Sebastia near Nablus in the West Bank were first added to the World Heritage List and then immediately to the Red List. The site represents settlement history since the Neolithic period. With the former Church of the Tomb of John the Baptist — also venerated in Islam — converted into a mosque, it is a monument to Palestine's multiconfessionalism.

The excavation in the West Bank, illegally occupied by Israel since 1967 under international law, must now be protected from activities by the Israeli Antiquities Authority. Above all, it must be secured against the increasingly militant demand, fought over by settlers and right-wing radicals in Benjamin Netanyahu's government, that the former capital of the ancient Northern Kingdom of Israel should once again become part of present-day Israel.

Political Dynamics Within the Committee

The current composition of the World Heritage Committee is not such that Netanyahu's Israel can hope for understanding. Of the 21 represented countries, many clearly act as opponents of Netanyahu's policies; at most, the predominantly European countries show more caution. But even here, the Israeli warfare against Hamas in Gaza — widely criticized as an attempt at genocide with more than 70,000 deaths — has significantly changed perspectives.

The consequences are also evident at UNESCO World Heritage: The Red List marks the need for immediate help from the world community.

Conflict-Related Threats to World Heritage Sites

Of the current 59 entries — 15 of which are natural monuments threatened by overfishing, resource extraction, industrial development, construction policy, or tourism — seven cultural sites are directly related to Israel's conflicts in Lebanon and with Palestine.

In Iran and the Gulf states, around sixty cultural and natural World Heritage sites are acutely threatened by the war between Iran, Israel, and the USA. In Tehran, for example, the former Shah's palace has already been devastated. Nevertheless, neither Iran nor any of the Gulf states — Qatar is currently even a member of the committee — has requested additional protection for their World Heritage sites.

However, all have supported the ad hoc applications of Lebanon and Palestine, which also opposed Israel's warfare and occupation policy.

Precedent for Emergency Procedures

UNESCO used this emergency procedure previously:

• 2023: For Odessa, shelled by Russian troops, as a testament to Ukraine's multicultural history
• 2023: For the royal palaces in Abomey, Benin, threatened by decay
• Now: The Bom-Badingilo Migratory Landscape in crisis-ridden South Sudan, where millions of herd animals migrate, was simultaneously entered into both lists

Palestine's Strategic Use of World Heritage

The Palestinian Authority, as the representative of the State of Palestine recognized by UNESCO in 2011, systematically uses World Heritage in the fight against Israeli occupation policy. Examples include:

• 2012: The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem
• 2024: Via an emergency procedure, the Hilarion Monastery in the Gaza Strip — two internationally outstanding Christian monuments
• The Mamluk old town of Hebron

By Nikolaus Bernau