Appeal for Safety of Cultural Sites in Mideast

Concerned about the effects of the hostilities in Israel and Lebanon, two American archaeological groups urged combatants there to honor the 1954 Hague Convention, which calls for parties in armed conflict to minimize damage to cultural sites. In a statement yesterday, the American Schools of Oriental Research and the Archaeological Institute of America identified World Heritage sites in both countries that are endangered by the fighting. Among them are the biblical sites of Megiddo and Hazor and the Crusader city at Acre in northern Israel, and in Lebanon, the Roman cities of Baalbek and Tyre, the Phoenician site of Byblos and the Umayyad city of Anjar. Israel and Lebanon are parties to the Hague Convention, and though some of the combatants are not nation-states, the archaeologists urged them “to work within the terms of the Hague Convention and customary international law to minimize damage and destruction of these cultural sites, which are of great value to all of humankind.”