Iraqi President on World Heritage Committee New Delhi

An Open Letter to Iraqi President Abdul Latif Rashid from the World Heritage Committee 2024 in New Delhi

Mr. President,

I raised with the Iraqi delegation at the the World Heritage Committee taking place in New Delhi, the safeguarding of the ancient Tomb of the Biblical Prophet Ezekiel.

We know of your value for cultural heritage in a multi-confessional nation such as Iraq’s history of Babylon, the cradle of civilizations…

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.

For centuries, until the early 1950s, thousands of Jewish pilgrims came to the shrine from Baghdad and other major Mesopotamian cities during Passover. The site’s walls had various inscriptions.

An adjoining room contained the tombs of five Rabbis who had transcribed the Babylonian Talmud. The tomb had been protected  as a Jewish shrine by the Ottoman and the British colonial authorities.

A Hebrew plaque 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 now supposed to be protected by 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 desecration.

We address this 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 time for UNESCO to establish instruments for protection of Holy sites.

In a future of peace in the Middle East, former Iraqi Jews should be able to visit the ancient places of their ancestors.

Most respectfully,

Dr. Shimon Samuels,

Emeritus Director for International Relations

Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Europe

cc: Audrey Azoulay – Director-General of UNESCO