UNESCO’s institutional drift and normative vacuum: interpreting the failure to protect Palestinian heritage in Gaza

This article analyses UNESCO’s responses to the destruction of much of Gaza’s cultural heritage since the onset of the war in October 2023. Moving beyond portrayals of UNESCO as a norm entrepreneur and exemplar of cultural diplomacy or, alternatively, as an agency mired in politicisation and gridlock, we provide an alternative account by introducing the concepts of ‘institutional drift’ and ‘normative vacuum’. Via an analysis of UNESCO’s handling of the conflict in Gaza, we demonstrate that despite the agency’s formal mandate remaining unchanged, its core functions have withered in practice: it failed to name Israel as the key perpetrator and neglected to admonish it for breaching relevant treaties and international law. We then demonstrate how this drift has created a void that other actors not normally associated with heritage protection were forced to fill. Together, they have catalogued site-specific damage, attributed responsibility, and framed violations in juridical terms. The devastation of heritage in Gaza therefore exposes the limits of multilateral heritage governance, revealing how authority frays and functions migrate under conditions of asymmetric power and occupation. The article concludes by noting that UNESCO’s failures in Gaza set a significant precedent that risk normalising impunity for heritage crimes.