{"id":2064,"date":"2025-03-23T11:48:25","date_gmt":"2025-03-23T11:48:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/?p=2064"},"modified":"2025-03-24T11:57:40","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T11:57:40","slug":"knesset-committee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/knesset-committee\/","title":{"rendered":"Knesset Committee Considers Extending Israeli Antiquities Governance to Areas A and B as well as C"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week (March 18th), the Knesset\u2019s Education, Culture and Sports Committee held a third discussion on a bill that would subject antiquity sites in the West Bank to Israeli civilian law.<\/p>\n

Although the title of the latest discussion was identical to that of the bill discussed in the two\u00a0previous sessions – which had passed a preliminary reading\u2014Amendment to the Israel Antiquities Authority Law (Jurisdiction of the Antiquities Authority in Judea and Samaria), 2023<\/em>, the proposal discussed this time was an entirely new bill and its\u00a0actual title, as it appears in the bill\u2019s subtitle is:\u00a0Bill for the Regulation of Heritage and Antiquities Management in Judea and Samaria, 2025<\/em>. This distinction is important, as the current proposal has not passed a preliminary reading and therefore cannot be prepared for a first reading by the committee.<\/p>\n

This was the committee\u2019s third discussion of legislation intended\u00a0to apply the Israeli law to West Bank antiquities sites (the first two took place on\u00a0November 27, 2024<\/a>, and\u00a0February 11, 2025<\/a>). The initial version of the bill referred to extending the Israeli Antiquities Authority\u2019s (IAA) jurisdiction to the West Bank. Following strong opposition by the IAA and the Archaeological Council, the last two committee meetings discussed creating a new body, which is not the IAA, under the Ministry of Heritage which would be responsible for managing antiquities in the West Bank in place of the Civil Administration\u2019s Staff Officer for Archaeology.<\/p>\n

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Committee discussion to establish new body to oversee antiquities in the West Bank on March 18th, 2025. From left: Yehuda Eliyahu, Head of the Settlements Administration within the Ministry of Defence, Benny Har-Even, Staff Officer for Archaeology, and Dr. Guy Steibel, Chairperson of the Archaeological Council.<\/p><\/div>\n

In a troubling development, the committee discussed the possibility that the bill would apply not only to Area C\u2014under full Israeli control\u2014but also to areas A and B<\/strong>. Attending the discussion was Yehuda Eliyahu who directs the Settlements Administration within the Ministry of Defence (under Minister Bezalel Smotrich who is a minister within the Ministry of Defence(. Eliyahu mentioned that a\u00a0cabinet decision<\/a>\u00a0from July 2024 gives the Staff Officer for Archaeology (SOA) enforcement powers in Area B and added that \u201cWe think it should also deal with sites in Area A\u201d.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

In contrast to prior sessions, the most recent discussion lacked broad participation by\u00a0the professional archaeological community. Only three professionals attended, in contrast to the wide-ranging opposition voiced by experts in the November and February meetings. The participating archaeologists were Dr. Guy Stiebel (Chair of the Archaeological Council), Attorney Dan Bahat (Legal Advisor to the IAA), and Benny\u00a0Har-Even (Staff Officer for Archaeology). This limited presence may indicate the weakening position or resignation of the professional archaeological establishment.<\/p>\n

Legal advisors from multiple ministries warned the bill violates international law by applying Israeli legislation to an occupied territory under military rule and reiterated the difficulty created by establishing two legal systems within the same territory effectively annulling existing military orders.\u00a0\u00a0Notably, for the third time,<\/p>\n

the Ministry of Foreign Affairs\u2019 legal counsel was absent from the session.
\nIn this discussion, the SOA Benny Har-Even emphasized two key points:<\/p>\n