by Dr Shimon Samuels, Emeritus Director for International Relations of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre
New Delhi (India), 31 July 2024
Mr. President,
I write to you with reference to an issue that I raised with the Iraqi delegation at the 46th session of the World Heritage Committee (WHC) taking place in New Delhi, regarding the safeguarding of the ancient Tomb of the Biblical Prophet Ezekiel.
As former spokesperson of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, knowing the value of cultural heritage in a multiconfessional nation such as Iraq, and the importance of history in what was Babylon, the cradle of civilizations, I believe you will understand our issue.
Mr. President, in 2010, Iraq placed on its “Tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage the site of Thilkifi”, for centuries known to be the Tomb of Ezekiel, the Jewish Prophet.
Samuels meeting with a delegate at the World Heritage Committee in New Delhi
(credit: CSW-Europe); Jews at Ezekiel’s Tomb, 1932 (credit: American Colony
Photo Dept., Jerusalem / Eric and Edith Matson);
Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid (credit: AP Photo / Jerome Delay).
For centuries, up until their forced exodus in the early 1950s, thousands of Jewish pilgrims used to come to the shrine from Baghdad and other major Mesopotamian cities during Passover. The site’s walls had various inscriptions and decorations. An adjoining room contained the tombs of five Rabbis who had transcribed the Babylonian Talmud. The tomb had been protected and recognized as a Jewish shrine by the Ottoman and the British colonial authorities, and was frequented also by local Muslim notables.
A Hebrew plaque above the doorway dating from 1810 read “This is the tomb of our master Ezekiel the Prophet... may his merit shield us and all Israel. Amen”
The site is supposed to be protected by the Iraqi State Board of Antiquities and Heritage.
Mr. President, we are most concerned that religious authorities (Shia Wakf) have asserted their claim over this ancient Jewish shrine. The adjoining courtyard has already been transformed into an area for Muslim prayer, while Hebrew inscriptions and decorations have been erased. In 2020, it was reported that these authorities were transforming the synagogue at Ezekiel’s Tomb into a mosque.
Mr. President, we urge you to stop this progressive desecration.
We are also addressing this matter of concern to UNESCO on three counts:
1) The misappropriation is a vector for hatred, in direct violation of UNESCO’s educational principles;
2) The physical and moral damage to the Tomb contravenes UNESCO’s provisions on the preservation of World Heritage sites;
3) It is perhaps time for UNESCO to establish instruments for the universal protection of holy sites.
In a future perspective of peace in the Middle East, former Iraqi Jews should be able to visit the ancient places of worship of their ancestors.
Most respectfully,
Dr Shimon Samuels
Emeritus Director for International Relations
Simon Wiesenthal Centre
cc: Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO
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