“Preservation of Cultural Heritage in Palestine”

Thursday, March 20 @ UGA Student Learning Center

originally published March 19, 2008

Rula Halawani/Riwaq Photo Archive

How do you preserve the architecture of a country in a near-constant state of upheaval? That’s been the question driving the work of Riwaq, a nonprofit founded in Ramallah, Palestine in 1991. Riwaq spearheads historic preservation efforts across Palestine, seeking to save structures and places that have, for the time being, far less than the full protection of law. Among other achievements, the organization has also created the first ever comprehensive registry of historic buildings in Palestine, with more than 50,000 structures listed. Khaldun Bshara, a designer and architect who has headed the group’s conservation unit since 1994, visits Athens this week to deliver a lecture in conjunction with an exhibit of photographs of Riwaq’s work - taken by UGA public service staffer (and ardent local preservationist) James Reap - currently on display in the Circle Gallery of UGA’s School of Environmental Design.

“Heritage preservation is not a priority“ for the Palestinian National Authority, Bshara says via email. “Of course, in a devastated socio-economic-political situation, it would be bizarre to restore heritage, which is considered as a luxury activity, before essential needs of the Palestinian society such as roads, health, and education… have been met.” However, he says, after the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians, there were “substantial efforts” by various agencies to conserve Palestine’s cultural heritage. Those efforts, Bshara says, were complicated by Israeli control over many historic sites. His lecture at UGA will cover preservation in Palestine ”within a broad sociopolitical and economic context,” including his own work to use preservation as an economic development and job-creation tool in areas of economic and political breakdown.

Reap is particularly impressed with Riwaq’s efforts for “young people to have something to call theirs, some tangible, physical heritage,” he says via email. Why preserve that? “If significant parts of that remain, they won’t be entirely trying to construct a new national identity from rubble,” he says. Bshara’s lecture begins at 4 p.m. in UGA’s Student Learning Center, Room 248.

Ben Emanuel