Knesset Deliberations on Annexationist Archaeology Bill to Continue; Conference on Archaeology in “Judea and Samaria” opens in Jerusalem
Knesset Committee to Deliberate Bill to Expand Israel Antiquity Authority’s Jurisdiction into the West Bank
The proposed legislation to extend the Israel Antiquities Authority’s (IAA) Jurisdiction into the West Bank will be discussed at the Knesset’s Education, Culture, and Sports Committee tomorrow. The discussion follows a preliminary vote in July 2024, and an initial committee discussion in December and precedes its submission for a first reading in the Knesset plenum.
Presently, antiquities in Area C of the West Bank are officially managed by the Staff Officer for Archaeology (SOA) within the Israeli Civil Administration, operating under the Jordanian Antiquities Law of 1966. In July, the cabinet decided to extend the SOA’s jurisdiction into Area B, in direct violation of the Oslo Accords. Now, the proposed legislation aims to transfer governance from the SOA, a military body, to the civilian IAA, thereby replacing the existing Jordanian law with Israeli law. If passed into law, the bill would be tantamount to annexation of antiquity sites in the West Bank.
During the initial discussion of the bill in December, the head of the IAA, Eli Escusido, was absent and the Authority was represented by its legal advisor, Dan Bahat, who did not present the Authority’s official position. When the bill was first submitted, Escusido had said that the was completely opposed.
The preamble to the bill submitted by Knesset Member Amit Halevi (Likud), and approved by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, argues that “although Judea and Samaria are the cradle of the Hebrew nation,” the antiquity laws do not apply to these areas. The bill’s authors also claimed that the “findings have no historical or any other affiliation with the Palestinian Authority.” In defending his proposal, Halevi argued that the Israel Antiquities Authority should be responsible for the antiquities of the Jewish people:
“Why should the IDF be responsible for the Tomb of the Patriarch’s? Why should the IDF be responsible for Sebastia? Abraham, our forefather, should not be under military governance. This also applies to the Cave of the Patriarchs, Mount Ebal, Shiloh, Sebastia, Herodium, and many other heritage sites significant to Israel and the Jewish people located in Judea and Samaria,” Amit said.
The Israeli archaeological community has expressed significant concerns regarding the proposed legislation warning that it would harm Israeli archaeology and create international challenges for the IAA and academia, including restrictions on conference participation and journal publications.
Emek Shaveh: The bill is a culmination of an organized campaign led by settler councils, NGOs (such as Regavim and Guardians of Eternity) and right-wing Knesset members to portray the Palestinians as a threat to ancient Jewish heritage. Although the destruction of antiquities in the West Bank is a problem crossing national lines, over the past five years, the protection of archaeology has been increasingly weaponised and employed as a pretext to crack down on Palestinian construction and agricultural activity near antiquity sites in an effort to sever Palestinians from their lands and heritage.
First International Conference on Archaeology and Site Conservation of Judea and Samaria” opens in Jerusalem
Coinciding with the legislative discussion, today the “First International Conference on Archaeology and Site Conservation of Judea and Samaria” began at the Dan Hotel in Jerusalem. Sponsored by the Civil Administration’s Staff Officer for Archaeology and the Ministry of Heritage, the four-day conference features scholars from major Israeli universities and international academic institutions. Ironically, some of those taking part in the conference have expressed objection to the above-mentioned bill.
The following is an open letter written by Raphael (Rafi) Greenberg, chairperson of Emek Shaveh’s board of directors and professor of archaeology at Tel Aviv University, to his colleagues who are taking part in the conference:
Open Letter to my Academic Colleagues Participating in “The First International Conference on Archaeology and Site Conservation of Judea and Samaria”:
“Last weekend, I found a full-page ad in the Haaretz newspaper informing the public of an impending four-day conference on Israeli archaeology in the occupied West Bank, in the upscale Dan hotel in East Jerusalem. The opening ceremony of the conference – the largest archaeological conference conducted in Israel in recent memory – features unspecified public speakers and keynote speeches by scholars from the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Cornell University. The academic sessions include papers delivered by members of every research university in Israel (the Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Bar-Ilan University, the University of Haifa and Ben Gurion University), as well as speakers from Italy, Malta, Australia and the United States.
Funded generously by the Ministry of Heritage and the outgoing minister Amihai Eliyahu (of the racist and homophobic Jewish Power party) and sponsored by the “Civil Administration” of Judea and Samaria (the Occupied West Bank), the University in the settlement of Ariel, Bar-Ilan University and other Israeli organizations, this conference serves no urgent professional purpose (for example, mitigating the terrible loss of heritage incurred in the ongoing war in and around Gaza and in the West Bank), nor has it been convened as an academic conference, with the typical call for papers and registration process. Rather, it is a showcase for the work of settler-adjacent archaeologists and their collaborators, timed to coincide with a political push in the Israeli parliament for the archaeological annexation of large parts of the West Bank and with the promotion, by settlers in Israel and their supporters in the U.S., of ethnic cleansing in the Gaza Strip.
I confess that I am appalled and disheartened by your participation. You are no doubt aware of the dubious ethics of much of the archaeological work in the occupied territories and East Jerusalem and its contravention of the Hague convention and protocol (1954) and the New Delhi recommendations (1956), both signed by Israel. These stipulate that only the most necessary measures for the safeguarding of archaeological sites may be conducted by the occupying power and forbid the removal of cultural artifacts from the occupied territories (unless there is an urgent need due to combat risks). They certainly do not permit academics to exploit the region’s antiquities to satisfy their curiosity or further their careers. You must also be aware that Israel and the settlers whom you have joined have weaponized archaeology in Jerusalem and the West Bank, using as a lever to dispossess Palestinians and enlarge the settler footprint. You must also have seen the program of the conference, which includes no Palestinian participants, thus highlighting the wedge being driven between Palestinians and their archaeological heritage.
None of this deterred you from taking part in the conference. Neither were those of you who live overseas reluctant to put your thumb on the political scale in what is a hotly contested internal issue in Israel – the collaboration with the extreme right-wing government that has wrought catastrophe upon catastrophe and shredded the very fabric of our democracy.
Perhaps you have been told that the conference has no political content. Well, that is at best disingenuous and at worst mendacious. To paraphrase W.G. Sebald, when morally compromised scholars claim that the field of science is a value-free area, it should make us stop and think. If the true interest of the organizers was the salvage and safeguarding of sites, they would have been better served by a low-key professional meeting of those who can actually contribute to such a cause.
At a time when most legitimate archaeological work in Israel has been curtailed by the catastrophes of the past year; at a time when Israeli archaeologists are subject to impending formal and informal boycotts; at a time when members of the extreme right-wing parties and organization threaten to renew extensive hostilities and the wholesale destruction of Palestinian homes, educational institutions and heritage; at such a time, when what we need is hope and a path to a shared future in this land, joining forces with the settlers in a show of force in East Jerusalem only takes our archaeology farther down the road of exclusionary, self-congratulatory isolation.
I hope you take these words to heart.”
Raphael Greenberg
Professor of Archaeology, Tel Aviv University
Chairman of the Board, Emek Shaveh