Idit Silman, the Israeli minister of environmental protection, visited the West Bank village of Sebastia in early October 2023 (before the 7 October attacks). The Palestinian site is on Unesco’s Tentative World Heritage List Emek Shaveh
A draft law approved by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government that expands the Israel Antiquities Authority’s jurisdiction to encompass archaeological sites in the West Bank violates international law and could lead to sanctions against Israel, experts in the region have warned.
The West Bank is home to more than 6,000 historic sites, reflecting a rich history spanning thousands of years and a multitude of civilisations. The proposed amendment to the Israel Antiquities Authority Law was approved by the Ministerial Legislative Committee in July and is likely to be reviewed by the Knesset (parliament) when it returns from its summer recess in November.
Responsibility for heritage and excavations in the occupied West Bank currently lies with the Staff Officer for Archaeology unit within Israel’s Civil Administration, which oversees the region. If passed, the law will transfer control directly to the central Israel Antiquities Authorities.
Alon Arad, an archaeologist and chief executive officer of Emek Shaveh, an Israeli NGO that works to prevent the politicisation of archaeology in the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, says that applying Israeli law and authority to West Bank territory amounts to annexation and could result in sanctions and isolation for Israel’s archaeological community. “Applying occupying power laws to the occupied territory is completely forbidden,” Arad tells The Art Newspaper.
The Israeli Archaeological Association (ILAA), established in 2018, says it opposes the bill “as its intention is not to advance archaeology, but to advance a political agenda, and in so doing, violates the current Israeli Law of Antiquities and international law pertaining to archaeological activities in the West Bank”.
The ILAA committee warns that if the bill is passed “it will result in incalculable harm to Israeli archaeology” both within the country and internationally.
Since the war in Gaza began in October last year, the situation in the occupied West Bank has rapidly deteriorated, heightening fears of the conflict spilling into the territory. Israel has stepped up its settlement expansion; in July the government announced its largest land seizure in more than three decades. According to the UN, settler attacks have forcibly displaced 1,547 Palestinians, including 753 children, since 7 October 2023.
By the end of August, 628 Palestinians in the West Bank had been killed, 609 by Israeli forces and 11 by settlers, with 159 deaths from airstrikes, according to the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR). In late August, Israel launched large-scale raids and airstrikes, which it says are aimed at dismantling militant groups and preventing attacks. The OHCHR has condemned Israel’s “increasingly military response in the occupied West Bank in a manner which violates international law and risks further enflaming an already explosive situation”.
The historic but non-binding advisory opinion issued by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 19 July declared Israel’s presence in the occupied Palestinian territories unlawful and called for an end to it. This has raised concerns among Israel’s archaeological community that if the draft law is passed, it could lead to sanctions against them.
The court said Israel must end its settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as soon as possible and evacuate all existing settlements. It also said other nations were “not to render aid or assistance in maintaining the situation.”
For the Israeli archaeological community, that means “whatever you do in the West Bank is illegal”, Arad says. “But not only that, it also tells whoever funds you that they cannot fund you anymore.”
While the ICJ did not explicitly mention archaeology, it said Israel is under obligation to provide Palestinians with full reparations including returning “all cultural property and assets taken from Palestinians and Palestinian institutions”.
The ICJ’s message is that “you can no longer reap the benefits of the occupation as an Israeli and claim that you have no complicity in the occupation”, says Raphael Greenberg, an archaeology professor at Tel Aviv University.
He says he is encouraging Israeli archaeologists to clearly distinguish their legitimate work within Israel from any activities that could be deemed illegitimate and expose them to the risk of funding and publication boycotts.
“On the whole, Israeli archaeologists have lost track of the difference between what is internationally legitimate and what isn’t,” Greenberg says. A positive outcome of the proposed law is that it has compelled “at least some of them” to re-evaluate their positions and take a stand, he says. Greenberg points out that the head of Israel’s Archaeological Council, the main advisory body to the director of Israel’s Antiquities Authority, has also opposed the bill.
Arad says Israel has been using archaeology to expand settlements in the West Bank for years. After an area is declared historic, it is placed under protection, leading to the eviction of residents or restrictions on land development. Then security equipment, a military presence and infrastructure to support excavations follow.
With thousands of registered sites, Greenberg emphasises that everyone in the West Bank lives on an archaeological site. “If one wanted to use archaeology to prevent local development, that’s a good way of doing it,” he says.
The rationale for the draft law says these areas are “steeped in Jewish history” and any findings there have “no historical or other connection to the Palestinian Authority”, a claim rejected by both Israeli and Palestinian experts.
“Whether a site is Jewish or not is irrelevant—every site is part of our cultural heritage, and we will preserve it all,” says Jehad Yasin, the general director of excavations and museums at the Palestinian ministry of tourism. “We must separate culture from politics and mythology and approach this issue scientifically.”
He warns that the new law will significantly exacerbate an already difficult situation. “We are tasked with finding a solution to this conflict, but this bill will set us back to square one,” he says.
The Israeli government also justifies the bill by claiming Palestinians are damaging the sites and lack the means to preserve them.
In Greenberg’s view, it is a “little cynical right now” for Israel to voice concern about archaeological sites when hundreds of them have been destroyed in Gaza by Israeli bombings in recent months. “There are always sites being endangered,” he says, adding that many sites in Israel face threats from development.
The solution, he argues, is to protect them with adequate resources and funding, not by altering the political structure of the entire territory.
