Dr. Isber Sabrine is the president and cofounder of Heritage for Peace, a non-profit NGO that focuses on the protection of cultural heritage in the midst of armed conflict. Heritage for Peace is a predominantly volunteer-run organization that includes everyone from academics to independent advisors from across the globe, who are all committed to protecting cultural heritage for future generations. In addition, Dr. Sabrine and Heritage for Peace have launched a number of additional projects and initiatives, including Abuab, a project that uses cultural heritage as an instrument for social integration of displaced communities, and Palmyrene Voices, an initiative focused on platforming the voices of the Palmyrene people and supporting them in their efforts to come back to and rebuild Palmyra in a way that guarantees their dignity and preserves their identity. Since 2011, Isber has worked as a researcher at the Institución Milá y Fontanals of the Spanish National Research Council, where he’s been involved in research concerning cultural heritage in zones of violence. Recently, Heritage for Peace has been documenting and shedding light on the genocide in Gaza and the destruction of cultural heritage that it has entailed (initial report; NPR article; Al Jazeera article).
Listen in, as Dr. Isber Sabrine discusses looting and the illicit antiquities trade in times of violent conflict and the importance of centring community voices and capacity building in heritage protection.
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Interested in more information? Check out these publications from Dr. Sabrine.
Sabrine, Isber. 2022. “The Management of Syrian Archaeological Heritage Before and During the Syrian Conflict: A Comparison Study.” In Community Heritage in the Arab Region, edited by Arwa Badran, Shatha Abu-Khafajah, Sarah Elliott, 209–234. Springer.
Sabrine, Isber, Yousef Awad, Hasan Ali, and Ginerva Rollo. 2024. “Preserving Palmyra’s Heritage through a Community-Led Initiative: Giving Voice to Palmyra’s People.” Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology and Heritage Studies 12: 79-92. 10.5325/jeasmedarcherstu.12.1.0079.
Brodie, N., and I. Sabrine. 2018. “The Illegal Excavation and Trade of Syrian Cultural Objects: A View from the Ground.” Journal of Field Archaeology 43: 74–84. https://doi.org/10.1080/00934690.2017.1410919
Brodie, Neil, Morag M. Kersel, Simon Mackenzie, Isber Sabrine, Emiline Smith, and Donna Yates. 2021. “Why There Is Still an Illicit Trade in Cultural Objects and What We Can Do About It.” Journal of Field Archaeology 47 (2): 117–30. doi:10.1080/00934690.2021.1996979.
Fernández, F.J.R., and Isber Sabrine. 2024. “Facing Heritage Protection in Armed Conflicts, International Institutions and Civil Society.” In Heritage in War and Peace:Law and Visual Jurisprudence, vol 12, edited by G. Mastandrea Bonaviri and M.M. Sadowski, 299–313. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-47347-0_20.
Looking for a transcript of this episode? Click here.
Academic Publications
Auwera, Sigrid van der. 2012. “Contemporary Conflict, Nationalism, and the Destruction of Cultural Property During Armed Conflict: A Theoretical Framework.” Journal of Conflict Archaeology 7 (1): 49–65.
Francesco, Francioni, and Lenzerini Federico. 2017. “The Obligation to Prevent and Avoid Destruction of Cultural Heritage: From Bamiyan to Iraq.” In Cultural Heritage Rights, edited by Anthony J. Connolly, 404–418. Taylor & Francis Group.
González Zarandona, José A., Emma Cunliffe, and Melathi Saldin, eds. 2023. The Routledge Handbook of Heritage Destruction. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Špadina, Helga. 2019. “Culture and armed conflict: Destruction of cultural heritage as method of ethnic cleansing.” In Culture and International Law: Proceedings of the International Conference of the Centre for International Law Studies (CILS 2018), October 2-3, 2018, edited by Hikmahanto Juwana, Jeffrey E. Thomas, Mohd Hazmi M. Rusli, and Dhiana Puspitawati, 1–10. Taylor & Francis Group.
Open Access Resources
Heritage For Peace resource list for Cultural Heritage learning
Peopling the Past Season 4, Episode 1 – The Antiquities Trade in the Internet Age with Katie Paul
Peopling the Past Blog #104: The EAMENA Project
McGrane, Sally. “Salvation in the wreckage Isber Sabrine: One archaeologist’s attempt to monitor destruction and safeguard Syrian treasures.” Interview with Interwoven: the fabric of things.
Saber, Farazi. 2024. “A ‘cultural genocide’: Which of Gaza’s heritage sites have been destroyed?” Al Jazeera.
The Antiquities Coalition – Safeguarding the world’s heritage from cultural racketeering.
Trafficking Culture – Researching the global trade in looted cultural objects.
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