Connected Open Heritage/Countries/Palestine

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Palestine[edit]

Government agencies and cultural heritage in Palestine[edit]

RIWAQ has made an inventory of historical buildings in Palestine. The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities are responsible for the documentation and registry of archaeological findings. What data is available will be determined by further contact with our network.

The Inventory of Cultural and Natural Heritage Sites of Potential Outstanding Universal Value in Palestine created by the Palestinian National Authority, Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage is available here.

The Riwaq Centre for Architectural Conservation (NGO), Registry of Historic Buildings in Palestine is available here the database is in Arabic only.

There is currently a government and NGO effort to create a more complete list which will be made available in the future.

A National Registry for archaeological sites is available upon request.

Legislated protection of cultural heritage in Palestine[edit]

  • Data about cultural heritage is stored by the following organization: The Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities
  • The data is available through: <offline, bulk download, api, linked data, printed reports>
  • The data includes information about the following: <base data (ID, type etc.), geographical, archaeological/architectural, images>

Policy decisions on access to public information[edit]

There is no law that grants every natural or legal person a right to information from public authorities, nor any corresponding obligation to public authorities to disclose information.

Legislations hindering the distribution of pictures in Palestine[edit]

Given that the Israeli governments largely has de facto control over Palestinian territory means that Israeli law mainly is applicable even if an object of cultural heritage has been identified through Palestinian agencies. Israeli law permits copying by photography and various other visual means if there work is situated permanently within public places as stated in Israeli Copyright Act of 2007, section 23.

Museum or archives that are willing to add their material[edit]

Gaza Museum of Archaeology (Gaza), Badd Giacaman Museum (Betlehem)

Network of contacts: Cultural heritage organizations and agencies[edit]

We have contacted the Swedish embassy (we met with them in June 2015) to inquire about the right government agencies. While the embassy was unable to provide direct help they adviced us to contact Center for Architectural Conservation (RIWAQ), an organizations in Palestine that run various projects with the common purpose to preserve and protect cultural heritage on the West Bank and in Gaza.

Wikimedia activity in Palestine[edit]

Wiki Loves Monuments was organized in Palestine in 2014 (for the first time) and there is an existing list of monuments based on information from the Palestinian Ministry of Tourism available on Arabic Wikipedia. Palestine is part of the Wikimedians of the Levant user group.