Conservation Under Occupation: Conflictual Powers and Cultural Heritage Meanings

This article investigates the influence of power struggles on conservation interventions. It looks at the effect that conflict over meaning-making in representations of cultural heritage can have on an inhabited historic environment. Narratives of particular interventions and historically developed discourses are analysed to explore how they become socially appropriated. An analytical framework is developed to unfold the narrative and heritage dimensions of interventions in the historic city of Nablus. Focusing on the periods of “peace” and “Second Intifada”, the conclusions show how actual conservations in occupied societies are not only influenced by direct violence, but are also enmeshed with discursive control over heritage questions relating to identity and superiority.