Paris exhibition: Treasures Saved From Gaza

Dominican priest inside the Great Mosque (Al Umari), which was originally a Crusader church dedicated to St John the Baptist

On October 16th, ICN published a letter from Emek Shaveh - an Israeli NGO working to prevent the politicization of archaeology in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in partnership with experts from around the world.

The letter was written after the bombing of a warehouse used to store archaeological finds belonging to the French Biblical and Archaeological Research Institute (École Biblique) in Gaza.

It demanded an end to the destruction in Gaza and to the large-scale appropriation, neglect, and destruction in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (the West Bank and East Jerusalem). 'Muslims, Christians, and Jews have lived in this land for thousands of years, and it is our duty to protect its heritage in all its diversity - for the benefit of all and for generations to come,' concluded Emek Shaveh.

Treasures Saved from Gaza - a superb exhibition at the Institute of the Arab World in Paris - demonstrates Gaza's fascinating Christian heritage and the crucial documentation of this by the Ecole Biblique - the very same French Biblical and Archaeological Research Institute whose bombarded warehouse led to Emek Shaveh's open letter on 16th October.

The Ecole Biblique of Jerusalem was founded by the Dominicans in 1890.

A trove of pictures from Gaza taken between 1905-1926 reveals friars surveying religious buildings damaged by British bombardment during the First World War and provides unique witness to a vanished landscape of a charming city with Bronze Age ramparts surrounded by gardens, palm-filled dunes and a fishing port.

There are pictures of the Greek Orthodox Church of Saint Porphyrius and a 'very damaged' Al-Umari Mosque (the 'great mosque') whose minaret had been blown off and a part of its vault destroyed by the British in 1917.

Originally a crusader church dedicated to St John the Baptist, it became a mosque in the 13th century but had preserved the essentials of its original construction - nave, arches, great doors, pillar capitals, oculus window - which the Dominican scholars took care to record. Bombed on the 8th December 2023, the entire mosque was destroyed with the exception of the minaret which had replaced that destroyed by the British in 1917.

The Greek Orthodox Church of St Porphyrius was consecrated in 1150 during the period of the crusades but seems to have been built on an older place of Christian worship. Celebrated for its iconostasis and rich interior decoration, the church houses the supposed tomb of St Porphyrius who came to Gaza in 395 as missionary bishop and presided over the conversion of the territory. The annexe of the church was seriously damaged by an Israeli bombardment on 19th October 2023. Several hundred people had sought sanctuary from the bombings within the annexe but 18 of these lost their lives.

The treasured ancient Saint Hilarion Monastery, at the archaeological site of Tell Umm el-'Amr, discovered in the 1990s, was founded around 340 by Hilarion, a native of the Gaza region and one possible father of Palestinian monasticism.

In December 2023, UNESCO granted the monastery, in dire need of preservation, 'provisional enhanced protection'. In January 2024, Al Jazeera reported that the monastery is one of 195 cultural heritage sites that have been damaged or destroyed since the Gaza war began.

In July 2024, the monastery was included on the list of World Heritage in Danger by UNESCO. The listing was fast-tracked using emergency procedures, with UNESCO expressing 'deep concern about the impact of the ongoing conflict on cultural heritage, particularly in the Gaza Strip' and stating: 'The organization urges all involved parties to strictly adhere to international law, emphasizing that cultural property should not be targeted or used for military purposes, as it is considered civilian infrastructure.'

The Byzantine Church of Jabalya, celebrated for its beautiful mosaics, was discovered in 1996. Archaeological investigations followed as part of an international collaboration involving the Ecole Biblique.

The church has been damaged at various points during the Gaza-Israel conflict: in 2003, 2014, and 2021. In 2010, the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities installed a canopy to protect the mosaic floor from erosion. A restoration project involving international partner organisations began in 2019. It was completed in January 2022 when the church reopened to the public.

In November 2023, a report by the Spanish NGO Heritage for Peace on the impact on cultural heritage sites of the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip included the church as a site that was completely destroyed by shelling. In January 2025, archaeologist Fadel Al Utol reported that while there was debris at the archaeological site that the mosaics were still intact.

This is some comfort but this excellent exhibition documents all the appalling destruction of Gaza's archaeological and cultural heritage in the ongoing conflict. The 'treasures saved' referred to in the exhibition title had been exhibited in Europe some 18 years ago and had not returned to the Strip due to the Israeli blockade and the desperately embattled situation there.

The 100-odd artefacts displayed from the Bronze Age onwards testify to the incredible richness of Gaza's civilisation and cultural production. Highlights include mosaics of animals and humans from a 6th century Byzantine Church found in Dayr Al-Balah, a Greek or Roman Aphrodite, and a Byzantine column which was recycled as the funerary slab of a lieutenant in the Bengal Lancers who died on 14th August, 1917.

Everything is duly contextualised.

Historically, Gaza was situated at the frontier between Asia and Africa, at the crossroads of cultures since Neolithic times. It was an oasis, a haven before the inhospitable desert, a seat of learning and an affluent trading centre on routes between continents, coveted by many.

"We wanted to give Gaza its history back," said Élodie Bouffard, the lead curator. "It was about restoring the humanity of Gaza and making its long history visible again, rather than reducing it to a discourse dominated by contemporary history."

She added: "Gaza was the most open space in the Mediterranean. It was a territory that was extremely rich, that produced a lot of food and whose connections to Africa and Asia made it a place of festival and celebration that was much talked about and written about, and a place that was continually inhabited."

Controlled by the Egyptians and then the Philistines, Gaza next became a frontier town on the western frontier of the Babylonian empire. Under Persian control, Gaza became the 'pearl of the Mediterranean'. Following a savage siege by Alexander the Great, Gaza embraced Hellenism.

In 97 BCE, Gaza was conquered and laid to ruin by the Jewish kingdom of the Hasmoneans. Pompey seized control in 61 BCE. Christian sailors from Egypt settled along Gaza's coast. St Hilarion guided the development of monasticism and Gaza city became a dynamic centre of Christian life.

It was captured by Muslim armies in 637 but religious diversity was respected. The Crusades brought in a new period of violence. After conquest by the Mamluks in the late 13th century, peace was re-established. In 1516, Gaza became Ottoman. New commercial routes, principally maritime, diverted international trade and caused the city's decline.

After the arrival of dispossessed Arab populations from 1947 and the creation of the state of Israel, Gaza and the area immediately surrounding it witnessed the massive arrival of refugees after the first Israeli-Arab war (1948-1949). Nearly 200,000 of the 'shipwrecked from history' joined the 80,000 inhabitants of this coastal strip.

The topography of the 'Gaza Strip' - an enclave of 365 square kilometres - was forcibly etched out by this conflict. The city-port of Gaza was henceforth cut off from the rest of the country and from the trade routes which had made it rich.

Two short videos, directed by Maxime Santiago, of the Monastery of Saint Hilarion and the Byzantine Church in Jabalya demonstrate the complexity of these precious architectural sites.

Visitor books were full of emotional messages of gratitude for being able to see the treasures displayed and anger and sorrow due to the present horror.

Jack Lang, the head of the Institut du Monde Arabe and a former French culture minister, said at the exhibition's opening that he hoped the show could 'restore some hope in the future of Gaza'. He said: "Nothing is worse than abandonment and forgetting."

The exhibition is at the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, until 7th December.

LINK

Treasures Saved From Gaza: www.imarabe.org/fr/agenda/expositions-musee/derniers-jours-tresors-sauves-gaza-5000-ans-histoire