Palestine will demand to include the site of Tell Umm Amer / Monastery of St. Hilarwin in the Gaza Strip on the List of World Heritage in Danger
New Delhi,Dr. ABED ELRAZEG ABU JAZER Charge d’Affaires a.i. and Media Advisor of Embassy of Palestine at new Delhi announced in a statement that a high-Ranking Palestinian delegation will participate in the 46th NTERGOVERNMENTAL COMMITTEE FOR THE PROTECTION OF THE WORLD CULTURAL AND NATURAL HERITAGE UNESCO will be held at India New Delhi, 21st to 31th July 2024 at the Bharat Mandapam International Exhibition and Convention Center (IECC).
Dr. Abu Jazer said that the Palestinian delegation will include the Ambassador of Palestine to UNESCO H.E. Monir Anastas
Ambassador of Palestine to India H.E. Adnan Abu Al-hayjaa
Dr. Abed Elrazeg Abu Jazer connsellor political and media
MR. Ahmed Rajoub Director General of heritage at the Palestinian Ministry of tourism in Ramallah
Mrs. Hanan Najjajrah Ministry of tourism in Ramallah
Palestinian Request
Dr. Abu Jazer added (The Palestinian will work and request with 21 member states of the World Heritage Committee, UNESCO – Paris to support the inclusion of Tell Umm Amer site-the monastery of St. Hilarion in the Gaza Strip on the list of World Heritage in danger as a vote on adopting the decision to
list the site will take place at the expanded forty-sixth session of the World Heritage Committee).
In the statement He also said the decision of the State of Palestine to urgently include the site of Tell Umm Amer / Monastery of St. Hilarwin in the Gaza Strip on the List of World Heritage in Danger
Confirm that Palestine asked India, a member of the World Heritage Committee and the host country of the forty-sixth session, to support the Palestinian request, stressing that India promised to provide support to the Palestinian step.
Tell Umm Amer According to UNESCO
The first settlement in the site Tell Umm Amer was established during the Roman era on Wadi Gaza close to the seashore.
It appears on the Maraca map with the name of Tabatha, dated from the Byzantine to the early Islamic period (400-670AD). The site contains the ruins of the monastery of Saint Hilarion (born in 291 AD), which consists of two churches, a burial site, a baptism hall, a public cemetery, an audience hall, and dining rooms.
The monastery was provided with good infrastructure facilities, including water cisterns, clay-ovens and drainage channels. Its floors were partially paved with limestone, marble tiles and colored mosaics, decorated with plants and animal’s scenes. A great fifth century mosaic was probably laid on the floor of a chapel. The floors include also a Greek inscription decorated
with circular motifs. In addition, the monastery was equipped with baths, consisting of Frigedarium, Tepidarium and Caldarium halls. The wide space of these halls ensured that the baths could adequately serve the pilgrims and merchants crossing the Holy land from Egypt to the Fertile Crescent through the main route of Via Maris.
Tell Umm Amer (Tabatha) was the birthplace of Saint Hilarion, who had received a splendid education in Alexandria, and had gone to Antonius in the desert for further instruction.
He founded his eponymous monastery in the third century, and is considered as the founder of monastic life in Palestine. The monastery was destroyed in 614 AD.
India’s support
Dr. ABED ELRAZEG ABU JAZER Added in the statement (India’s support for the inclusion of this site will be highly appreciated as it demonstrates India’s efforts in enhancing the Palestinians ‘ capabilities in protecting important heritage and historical sites).
the State of Palestine seeks, by registering the site, to provide protection for heritage sites in Palestine that are being targeted and systematically destroyed by the Israeli occupation forces, specifically in its brutal war in the Gaza Strip, which affected all cultural buildings and archaeological sites, and to provide urgent and long-term
measures to preserve the site, in addition to condemning Deliberately targeting the site and the access road, and emphasizing the importance of preserving the main features of its Outstanding Universal Value from continuing threats of war, whether threats Natural or human, which contributes to preserving the cultural and historical diversity of the world.
