Lecture Titled “Destruction of the Iraqi Heritage” Given at Al-Ahliyya Amman University

Upon an invitation from the Architecture and Design Faculty, Prof. Ihsan Fathi gave a photographed lecture on the destruction of the Iraqi cultural heritage which has been started upon the US occupation in 2003. Dr. Ihsan highlighted the most prominent cases of destruction, which included museums, palaces, public libraries, and historical documents of the state institutions . Dr. Fathi also focused on a number of issues, notably looting of the Iraqi National Museum in Baghdad without any intervention or protection from the US administration, as well as looting of all art works at the National Museum of Modern Art, the burning of the National Library and the Library of Religious Endowments, and the damage of Babylon archaeological site by the Polish army, which used it as a camp violating the international norms and laws.At the end of the lecture, Dr. Fathi provided a number of recommendations including the establishment of an institution or a supreme council for the protection of monuments and cultural heritage of Iraq, which aims to recover antiquities and stolen works of art and to hold accountable all those who have participated in the destruction of the cultural properties or smuggled them out of the country. The lecture was attended by Dr. Rana Al-Matarneh, Dean of the Architecture and Design Faculty, the faculty members, and many students.