Photo by MOHAMMED ABED/AFP via Getty Images
A Forensic Architecture investigation into Israel's destruction of Palestinian archaeological and cultural heritage, focused on one major coastal site beside Gaza's al-Shati refugee camp —including the Greco-Roman port city of Anthedon, on Palestine's UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List since 2012. Using 3D modeling, satellite imagery, archival photographs, and original drone surveys, the investigation documents bomb craters from repeated Israeli bombardments in 2012, 2014, 2018, and 2021 directly above buried remnants, alongside increasing coastal erosion and construction pressure. The investigation argues that this destruction constitutes a form of cultural erasure inseparable from the broader assault on Gaza's civilian population; its findings underpin Al-Haq's 2022 legal report "Cultural Apartheid: Israel's Erasure of Palestinian Heritage in Gaza" and were submitted as evidence to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR). Note: this investigation dates to 2022 and predates October 2023, providing important pre-genocide context. An update published on December 19, 2023—in collaboration with Al-Haq—documents the site's near-total destruction in the first months of the Gaza Genocide, which Al-Haq cites as evidence of genocidal intent. Valuable for researchers in heritage studies, cultural rights, and international humanitarian law examining the deliberate destruction of Palestinian cultural sites, and recommended for anyone studying cultural genocide and the erasure of Palestinian historical memory.
