The Alliance to Restore
Cultural Heritage in Jerusalem

About ARCH

ARCH – The Alliance to Restore Cultural Heritage in Jerusalem was founded in 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland by a small group of academics. Our logo symbolizes the arches we extend towards alliance with individuals and organizations who share our aim to help protect vulnerable heritage in Jerusalem. We are an international team with wide ranging expertise – archaeology, interreligious relations and dialogue, illicit trafficking in cultural goods, international law and human rights law, the histories of apartheid and digital humanities. In 2012 ARCH was accredited as an NGO by the Chancellerie d’État, République et Canton de Genève.

In Jerusalem, the rows of graves
are the lines of the city’s history while the book is the soil
Everyone has passed through
For Jerusalem welcomes all visitors, whether disbelievers or believers  

Walk through, and read the headstones in all languages
You will find the Africans, the Europeans, the Kipchaks, the Slavs, the Bosniaks, the Tatars, the Turks, the believers, the disbelievers, the poor and the rich, the hermits, and the miscreants 
Here lie all sorts of people that ever walked the earth 
They were the footnotes of the book, now they are the main text before us.

“In Jerusalem” by Tamim al-Barghouti (2016)

© Clarissa Bitar 

Projects

These are some of the long-term projects in which we have been engaged.

The Virtual Illés Initiative

The Virtual Illés Initiative is a pioneering, transdisciplinary digital humanities project that aims to compile these fascinating records and facilitate universal access to these uncovered facets of the city.

Scholars’ Support Group

Recognizing our comparative advantage as internationally engaged professionals in diverse fields, we propose to assemble a group of international cultural heritage experts and scholars.

Mughrabi Quarter Digital Archive

The Mughrabi Quarter of Jerusalem was wiped off the face of the map by the State of Israel in 1967, but it remains intact – albeit in miniature – as part of the Illés Relief of Jerusalem (1873).

Mamilla International Poetry Festival

With the aim of protecting and preserving the cemetery as a place of living memory and of eternal sanctity, we welcome poetry that celebrates Mamilla as a resting place for generations of Palestinian families.

ARCH serves as guide and guard of vulnerable cultural heritage in Jerusalem.