{"id":2121,"date":"2026-01-02T12:20:36","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T12:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/?p=2121"},"modified":"2026-01-03T12:25:00","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T12:25:00","slug":"annexationist-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/annexationist-bill\/","title":{"rendered":"Following Knesset committee discussion, Annexationist Bill Disguised as Antiquities Protection set to be finalized next week ahead of vote"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">On Wednesday, 31 December 2025, the Knesset\u2019s Education, Culture and Sports Committee, chaired by MK Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism), held its fourth discussion on legislation that would extend Israeli civilian jurisdiction over antiquities and heritage sites in the West Bank. The discussion follows the ministerial committee\u2019s approval to advance the law and a preliminary Knesset vote in July 2024 and comes ahead of a first vote in the Knesset plenum.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Urgent-Alert-on-bill-to-extend-Israels-antiquities-governance-to-WB-press-version.pdf\">Download as a PDF<\/a><\/p>\n<p><b>The latest version of the bill, published on the eve of the committee meeting, explicitly extends its scope to Areas A and B<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, in addition to Area C. A new accompanying note further indicates that the bill\u2019s initiator, MK Amit Halevi (Likud), seeks <\/span><b>to apply the same framework to the Gaza Strip.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> These changes remove any remaining doubt as to the bill\u2019s purpose: it is not a heritage-protection measure, but a legal and administrative test case for extending Israeli civilian governance\u2014and ultimately sovereignty\u2014over the entirety of the occupied Palestinian territory.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If voted into law, it would violate international law, fundamentally breach the Oslo Accords, and directly contradict stated European Union and United States policy opposing annexation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The committee is scheduled to reconvene on Tuesday, <\/span><b>6 January 2026 at 13:00<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, beginning with a closed-door session followed by an open-ended meeting intended to finalize the bill ahead of its first plenum vote. The pace and procedure indicate a clear determination by Halevi and his coalition partners to advance the legislation rapidly.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/knesset-antiques-bill.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-2119\" src=\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/knesset-antiques-bill-1024x587.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"550\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/knesset-antiques-bill-1024x587.jpeg 1024w, https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/knesset-antiques-bill-300x172.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/knesset-antiques-bill-768x440.jpeg 768w, https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/knesset-antiques-bill-332x190.jpeg 332w, https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/knesset-antiques-bill-770x440.jpeg 770w, https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/knesset-antiques-bill-700x400.jpeg 700w, https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/knesset-antiques-bill.jpeg 1493w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">From right to left: Emek Shaveh ED Alon Arad and Spokesperson Uri Erlich, Former MK Mossi Raz and Uri Hada from the new initiative \u201cArchaeology Students Against the Occupation\u201d at the Knesset committee session on 31st of December.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>In detail:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wednesday\u2019s (December 31<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">st<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">) committee session was convened under the new chairman Zvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionism party. In attendance amongst other central actors were, Amichai Eliyahu, Minister of Heritage from Jewish Power, and the bill\u2019s initiator, Amit Halevi of Likud. The only voice from the opposition was MK Gilad Kariv, who described the bill as \u201cdelusional\u201d as it is part of a \u201ccreeping annexation, undermining of Israel\u2019s international security\u201d, and uses archaeology \u201cas a tool for taking over land and expelling Palestinians from their homes\u201d and\u00a0 \u201can abuse of archaeology and scientific research.\u201d In addition, MK Kariv mentioned that the process of legislation is exceeding the committee&#8217;s mandate as the new version of the law is in fact a completely new piece of legislation and would need to undergo a preliminary process.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/fs.knesset.gov.il\/25\/Committees\/25_cs_ls_10486663.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The latest version of the law<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> was published just before the discussion with the most recent changes displayed in mark-up (see translated excerpt below). As mentioned above in the suggested changes to the version of the legislation tabled last March, the proposal now seeks to change the term from \u201cArea\u201d to <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the \u201cJudea and Samaria area\u201d and states that the bill will apply to Areas A, B, and C. The note on applying the bill to the Gaza strip was also added just recently. See section 2 of the latest version of the bill (original Hebrew and translated excerpt) below.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/bill.jpeg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-2120\" src=\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/bill.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"342\" height=\"457\" srcset=\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/bill.jpeg 409w, https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/bill-224x300.jpeg 224w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 342px) 100vw, 342px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is important to note that the original version of the bill submitted to, and approved by, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.il\/he\/pages\/dec2031-2024\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ministerial<\/span><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.il\/he\/pages\/dec2031-2024\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Committee on Legislation<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in July 2024 and which had <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/annexationist-law\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">passed a preliminary reading<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, sought to apply the Israeli Antiquities Law to the West Bank and authorize the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) to operate there. That version of the bill had been met with sweeping opposition in all the previous committee sessions (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/main.knesset.gov.il\/activity\/committees\/education\/pages\/committeeagenda.aspx?tab=3&amp;itemid=2224074\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">27 November 2024<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/main.knesset.gov.il\/activity\/committees\/education\/pages\/committeeagenda.aspx?tab=3&amp;itemid=2228089\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">11 February 2025<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/main.knesset.gov.il\/activity\/committees\/pages\/allcommitteesagenda.aspx?tab=3&amp;itemid=2229776\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">18 March 2025<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">), from all the central professional bodies in the field of archaeology who cited the potential damage the law would bring to the international standing of Israel\u2019s archaeologists. These include the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.haaretz.co.il\/news\/politi\/2024-07-07\/ty-article\/00000190-8c95-dd37-a5f7-bed7287b0000\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Israel Antiquities Authority<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fs.knesset.gov.il\/25\/Committees\/25_cs_bg_5657382.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Council of the Israel Antiquities Authority<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fs.knesset.gov.il\/25\/Committees\/25_cs_bg_5202051.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Archaeological Council<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fs.knesset.gov.il\/25\/Committees\/25_cs_bg_5201284.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">the Forum of Heads of Archaeological Institutes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/israel-archaeology.org.il\/%d7%a0%d7%99%d7%99%d7%a8-%d7%a2%d7%9e%d7%93%d7%94-%d7%94%d7%a6%d7%a2%d7%aa-%d7%9c%d7%aa%d7%99%d7%a7%d7%95%d7%9f-%d7%97%d7%95%d7%a7-%d7%94%d7%a2%d7%aa%d7%99%d7%a7%d7%95%d7%aa-%d7%95%d7%97%d7%95%d7%a7\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Israel Archaeological Association<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, and the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/fs.knesset.gov.il\/25\/Committees\/25_cs_bg_5201826.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. Following this, last March Halevi backed down. That retreat gave rise to the current proposal, which in place of extending the jurisdiction of the IAA seeks instead to establish another civilian administrative body specifically for the West Bank under the Ministry of Heritage which would replace the Staff Officer for Archaeology (SOA) within the Israeli Civil Administration (ICA).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The current iteration of the law remains equally incompatible with international law, insofar as it extends Israeli civilian law to occupied territory and empowers a civilian authority to administer antiquities sites there.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition, the current version of the bill is, as mentioned above, being advanced through a highly irregular and legally questionable process. It constitutes an entirely new proposal, materially different from the bill originally submitted in 2024, yet is being brought to a first vote without undergoing a preliminary vote or receiving approval from the Ministerial Committee for Legislation.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In addition to this procedural flaw, the new law being promoted in the committee exceeds the mandate granted to it by the Government, in that the decision of the Ministerial Committee for Legislative Affairs stated (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.il\/he\/pages\/dec2031-2024\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Section B<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">): &#8220;Following the preliminary reading, the draft of the bill shall be amended so as not to imply a change in the status of the territory, and it shall be promoted subject to Israel&#8217;s international obligations.&#8221;.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The fact that the law will create a reality of annexation has been repeatedly highlighted during committee discussions by legal advisers from the Ministry of Justice, mentioning that the bill\u2019s explicit extension to Areas A and B directly contravenes Section B by altering the status of the Area and that the law\u2019s advancement should abide by Israel\u2019s international obligations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Minister of Heritage Amihai Eliyahu said at Wednesday\u2019s session that the latest version of the bill was a compromise and an interim step until such time as full sovereignty can be achieved:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201c<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">I genuinely think that the heritage areas in Judea and Samaria are the lands of the Jewish people, if only from the standpoint of historical truth. On top of that, there is a system here that is taking responsibility. We want to entrench it for generations and preserve the heritage\u2026Therefore, our way of addressing this is to establish\u2014putting it politely and fully, as Member of Knesset Amit Halevi says\u2014that the State of Israel must take responsibility for this as an interim step. And here I also say to Beni (Har-Even the Staff Officer for Archaeology): as an interim step, we are prepared for the authority to operate for now within the proposed framework put forward by the legal adviser, as proposed in the draft, as recommended by the professional bodies\u2014an interim stage until full sovereignty is actually applied.\u201d<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><b>Implications:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><b>The bill effectively applies Israeli sovereignty to sites in occupied territory under the guise of antiquities legislation.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The application of a civilian mechanism operating by virtue of Israeli law in the territory of the West Bank undermines the principle of temporariness and violates the laws of occupation, it contravenes the Oslo Accords (under which the PA assumes responsibility for antiquities in Areas A and B, while area C was slated to be gradually transferred also to the PA\u2019s responsibility) and is a violation of the 1954 Hague Convention and its first protocol to which Israel is a signatory (in addition to the violation of multiple other conventions such as the 1907 Hague Regulations, the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949, the ICESCR and ICCPR 1966, the ICJ advisory opinion 2024).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The legislation has no professional merit. On the contrary, adoption of the bill would result in chaos in the management of heritage sites and is advanced despite the wide consensus among professionals who warned that in addition to the bureaucratic chaos, its adoption would lead to the isolation of the Israeli archaeological community and ultimately to its collapse. At the last session, there was even mention of the possibility of arrests of Israeli archaeologists, bringing as an example the legal case against Russian archaeologist, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/news\/articles\/clydz0j1yego\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Alexander Butyagin<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is important to remember that the bill is first and foremost an assault against the Palestinian people and the communities living in or near antiquities sites who consider these sites part of their collective cultural heritage and a central component of their identities. It is a violation of their cultural rights and will deal a irreparable blow to the viability of a Palestinian state. The bill will also inevitably harm the State of Israel, its foreign relations, academic and cultural partnerships, and its political horizons. The only objective of this proposal is to use archaeology as a \u201cvanguard force\u201d tasked with pathing the way for extreme messianic visions leading to the annexation of the West Bank, regardless of the consequences.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Statement by Emek Shaveh:<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Emek Shaveh strongly opposes the legislative process seeking to restructure the governance of antiquities in the West Bank. The proposal being advanced by the committee in a highly questionable process constitutes a grave step toward the annexation of parts of the West Bank, in blatant violation of international law and Israel\u2019s binding obligations to the international community. Its implementation would cause serious and irreversible harm to Palestinian communities and to the cultural heritage sites dispersed throughout the West Bank. We call on Israeli decision-makers to immediately reject this initiative and to halt all efforts to advance the legislation.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Wednesday, 31 December 2025, the Knesset\u2019s Education, Culture and Sports Committee, chaired by MK Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism), held its fourth discussion on legislation that would extend Israeli civilian jurisdiction over antiquities and heritage sites in the West Bank. The discussion follows the ministerial committee\u2019s approval to advance the law and a preliminary Knesset [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"class_list":["post-2121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-publications","tag-annexation","tag-archaeology-staff-officer","tag-west-bank"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Following Knesset committee discussion, Annexationist Bill Disguised as Antiquities Protection set to be finalized next week ahead of vote - Emek Shaveh<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/emekshaveh.org\/en\/annexationist-bill\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Following Knesset committee discussion, Annexationist Bill Disguised as Antiquities Protection set to be finalized next week ahead of vote - Emek Shaveh\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On Wednesday, 31 December 2025, the Knesset\u2019s Education, Culture and Sports Committee, chaired by MK Zvi Sukkot (Religious Zionism), held its fourth discussion on legislation that would extend Israeli civilian jurisdiction over antiquities and heritage sites in the West Bank. 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