PEN America:

The Israeli military’s widespread destruction of Gaza’s cultural sites, libraries, museums, and universities has inflicted a catastrophic blow to Gaza’s cultural life and heritage and amounts to war crimes and crimes against humanity, and offers evidence of genocidal intent, PEN America said in a new report, All That Is Lost, released today.

The report examines the destruction or partial destruction of 36 cultural, historical, religious, and educational sites, and also three instances of deliberate book burnings and two cases of reported looting of archaeological artifacts. In at least six of the 36 cases examined by PEN America, there was evidence that the Israeli military had deliberately targeted the sites in question, and in the majority of other cases, the destruction appeared to be the result of indiscriminate attacks. Both deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure—including cultural heritage sites and educational institutions—and indiscriminate assaults on civilian infrastructure are war crimes.

“Cultural heritage is not just about buildings or artifacts; it is the embodiment of a people’s identity, history, and future,” said Summer Lopez, interim co-CEO and chief program officer, Free Expression. “For the writers and artists PEN America spoke to, cultural heritage was also a way for Palestinians in Gaza to say ‘we are here, we lived, this is what we created.’ As the lives and voices of Palestinian writers, and all civilians in Gaza, hang in the balance, the devastation of that heritage is not only the erasure of their history, but their hope for the future.”

PEN America agrees with the consensus in the human rights community that the policies and actions of the government of Israel in Gaza amount to genocide under international law, based on the direct fact-finding work and expertise of a wide range of international, Palestinian, and Israeli human rights organizations, UN bodies, and genocide scholars.

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