Decolonizing the Sacred: The Politics of Heritage in Jerusalem

This article critically examines Israel’s systematic weaponization of Jerusalem’s heritage and memory since 1948, analyzing how cultural practices and the past remains have been politicized to enforce settler-colonial narratives. By employing a decolonial framework, this article highlights the Palestinian and Arab grassroots heritage preservation initiatives as acts of resistance aiming to safeguard Jerusalem’s heritage and memory in an attempt to counter the relentless cultural cleansing of Palestinians. Drawing upon historical research on the politics of World Heritage, this article contextualizes Israeli heritage management as part of constructing and supporting a grand narrative of Jewish historical continuity. These colonial efforts aim to foster the dominance and legitimacy of the de facto occupation, while systematically marginalizing the Palestinian rights, heritage and collective memory. We argue that the de facto Israeli authorities have systematically institutionalized cultural erasure as state policy, utilizing Jerusalem’s heritage to reshape the city’s narrative, assert exclusive historical claims and erase the memory and indigeneity of Palestinians. This study reveals how heritage in conflict zones becomes a terrain where colonial dominance and decolonial resistance collide in ways that profoundly impact cultural memory, historical narratives and the right to belong.