Middle East Eye
Israel and the US are erasing Iran and Lebanon's ancient heritage
Israel and the US are erasing Iran and Lebanon's ancient heritage
Submitted by
Belen Fernandez
on
Sun, 06/21/2026 - 09:00
The Taliban's 2001 bombing of the Bamiyan Buddhas was condemned worldwide, but the US and Israel's destruction of Tyre's ruins and other ancient sites barely registers
Debris covers ancient stone pillar bases near the archaeological site of the Roman Baths in Tyre, south Lebanon, a day after Israeli air strikes on the city, on 8 June 2026 (AFP/Kawnat Haju)
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In early 2001, the Taliban blew up two giant Buddha statues in the Bamiyan Valley of Afghanistan, which dated from the sixth century.
The world erupted in outrage at the destruction of cultural heritage, and western media engaged in handwringing over the loss of statues that most people presumably had not known existed in the first place but were nonetheless symbolic of our "collective humanity".
Philip T Reeker, deputy spokesman for the State Department of the United States, issued a press statement declaring the US to be "distressed and baffled" by the Taliban's decision to demolish the Buddhas and other ancient artefacts: "Deliberate destruction of statues and sculpture held as sacred by peoples of different faiths is incomprehensible."
Of course, when the US launched the so-called "war on terror" later that same year and undertook to bomb Afghanistan to smithereens, there was no similar distress over the "deliberate destruction" or the mass slaughter of "peoples of different faiths".
But such hypocrisy is part and parcel of an imperial mindset predicated on orientalist dehumanisation, selective cultural concern and the weaponisation of "heritage".
While the prevailing Bamiyan narrative was that the Taliban had done away with the Buddhas because they were idolatrous, The New York Times presented a slightly different version of events in an article published on 19 March 2001.
The article quoted Taliban envoy Sayed Rahmatullah Hashimi, who claimed that the destruction had instead been ordered by a council of religious scholars enraged by European and other foreign offers of money to preserve the statues – but not to assist a million Afghans facing starvation.
The scholars had been "so angry" at the misplaced priorities, the envoy told the outlet, that "they said, 'If you are destroying our future with economic sanctions, you can't care about our heritage.' And so they decided that these statues must be destroyed".
War on civilisation
Fast forward a quarter of a century to the 2026 war on Iran by the US and its genocidal buddy Israel, and the Bamiyan Buddha hypocrisy once again comes to mind. Iran, after all, is home to a lot of cultural heritage and ancient sites, many of which have been damaged in the months-long assault.
But because it's Us and not Them doing the destroying, no one is terribly up in arms over the loss of history - to say nothing of the vast loss of life. In one of the war's opening salvos, a US cruise missile strike on an elementary school in the city of Minab killed more than 175 people, most of them schoolgirls.
True to form, the US press did its best not to report at length on the matter until it was entirely unavoidable. Talk about destroying "futures".
If… Hezbollah had been the one psychotically eradicating 5,000 years of cultural heritage... western audiences would be hearing a lot more about the depravity of it all
As for destruction of the past, a Guardian article quotes Mehdi Jamalinejad, governor of the Iranian province of Isfahan, on the US-Israeli damage to historical treasures: "This is a declaration of war on a civilisation. An enemy that has no culture pays no heed to symbols of culture. A country that has no history has no respect for signs of history."
Meanwhile, over in Lebanon, where the US-backed Israeli military has killed more than 3,820 people in three and a half months, civilisation is also under attack.
Among the most prominent targets of Israel's maniacal bombing campaign and scorched-earth strategy is the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, which, with its almost 5,000-year history, is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world.
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A Unesco World Heritage site, Tyre boasts a second-century Roman hippodrome, a Phoenician necropolis, ancient collonaded streets stretching towards the sea and loads of other archaeological gems that have run the distinct risk of being bombed into oblivion.
South Lebanon's 900-year-old Beaufort Castle, which, as Unesco notes, is "one of the best-preserved examples of medieval castles in the Near East", has also been occupied and damaged by the Israelis. And in the town of Shamaa, south of Tyre, a historic fortress and shrine dedicated to Saint Peter has been subjected to Israeli demolition efforts.
Suffice to say that, if the tables were turned and Hezbollah had been the one psychotically eradicating 5,000 years of cultural heritage and "collective humanity", western audiences would be hearing a lot more about the depravity of it all.
Forget being "distressed and baffled" – the US government would assuredly opt for even stronger emotions this time around.
Speaking of the destruction of history in south Lebanon, one can't help but recall a certain incident in 2013 when then-US Ambassador to Lebanon Maura Connelly managed to damage one of Tyre's ancient sites by driving over it in a convoy of vehicles, prompting the headline at the Jadaliyya website: "Tires over Tyre: US Ambassador Ruins Ruins".
Needless to say, the US media didn't notice.
Destruction tourism
To this day, the Bamiyan Buddhas continue to receive considerable attention, and a giant sandstone sculpture in their honour is currently on display in New York City.
For their part, the Taliban converted the Buddhas' former spot into a tourist attraction, and in 2021 NBC News reported that "for around $5, curious visitors can wander around and take photos of the giant holes in the cliff face where the ancient Buddha statues once stood".
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In 2023, the Washington Post followed up: "Cash-strapped Taliban selling tickets to ruins of Buddhas it blew up."
And yet the Taliban aren't the only ones making a buck off things they blew up. In a far more morbid form of destruction tourism, binoculars installed at an observation deck in the Israeli town of Sderot offer visitors a close-up view – for a minimal fee – of Israel's pulverisation of the Gaza Strip.
Some bring popcorn to make the most of the outing.
Since October 2023, the US-backed genocidal war on Gaza has officially killed more than 73,000 people, although the true death toll is undoubtedly much higher.
But it's not just about killing. In both Gaza and Lebanon, genocide, ecocide and historicide are inextricably linked. And as Israel continues with US help to pursue the annihilation of peoples and cultures, it's also an annihilation of the very pretence of a collective humanity.
The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Eye.
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Where is the outrage over US-Israeli destruction of historic sites?
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