War erasing human history

[Opinion. History which survived the Crusades and the Ottomans now fair game in anything-goes wars.]

Ukrainian cathedrals, Gaza’s archives, Iranian squares – modern war is systematically erasing human history

It is not enough now for war to kill, it must eradicate a people’s cherished and precious heritage too

Simon Jenkins

The Guardian: 13 Aug 2026

SOURCE: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/aug/13/ukraine-cathedrals-gaza-archives-iran-erase-history-war

Aerial bombardment knows limited resistance and even less victory or defeat. Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Iran and their allies seem able to defy diplomacy and drop bombs on each other for ever.

At which point the outside world can merely count some of the costs. Vladimir Putin’s known desire to eliminate Ukraine’s historical identity has led to its cultural devastation. Two weeks ago Unesco reported the destruction or dereliction of 545 of its historic buildings, including 156 religious sites and 43 museums. The attempted eradication of what Putin himself claims to be an intrinsic part of Russia’s own history is sickening.

Russia’s bombing of Kyiv’s Pechersk Lavra complex and the Dormition cathedral, coupled with shattering the magnificent St Sophia cathedral, are comparable to Ukraine bombing the Kremlin. So, too, is the attack on a cathedral and a museum in Odesa, and the destruction of a theatre in Mariupol. These are defining monuments of Ukraine’s past. Yet their dereliction has received little publicity in the west.

Meanwhile in Iran the beautiful city of Isfahan might surely have been spared Donald Trump’s egotistic bomb-fest. Not so. A Reuters survey in June found the historic Naqsh-e Jahan Square, the Jameh mosque and the governor’s palace partially destroyed. In Tehran, the Persian royal palace of Golestan has been badly damaged. Unesco reports of an attack on an 1,800-year-old fortress that embraced a prehistoric settlement reputedly 63,000 years old.

The most savage consequence of the collapse of order in the Middle East is the reported damage or destruction of over 80% of the buildings in Gaza. The ancient city of Gaza itself is now largely rubble. Bombed by Israel are the medieval Great Omari mosque and the church of St Porphyrius, dating from the fifth century and one of Christianity’s most ancient sites.

Gaza’s archives have been destroyed. The Omari mosque’s library and the adjacent cultural centre, whose thousands of ancient documents had survived the Crusades, have reportedly been lost. The Al Qarara museum was bombed from the air and then bulldozed to the ground. A people’s entire past has been deliberately eradicated.

As for Israel’s war on Lebanon, it culminated in June in what appeared to be the gratuitous bombing of the ancient port of Tyre. This included an attack on the site of the Roman hippodrome. The 1,000-year-old fortress of Beaufort was also damaged. The past is clearly without privilege.