{"id":165887,"date":"2026-06-18T07:41:12","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T07:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/165887\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T07:41:12","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T07:41:12","slug":"west-bank-archaeology-conference-unearths-controversy-as-politics-takes-center-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/165887\/","title":{"rendered":"West Bank archaeology conference unearths controversy as politics takes center stage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of people, including dozens of archaeology scholars affiliated with Israeli universities, on Wednesday attended the first day of a controversial academic conference devoted to antiquities in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

Like its first edition, the second international \u201cArchaeology and Site Conservation in Judea and Samaria\u201d \u2014 the biblical name for the West Bank \u2014 is centered around presenting research and findings of archaeological work across the region, with sessions devoted to excavations in the Hebron area, the Judean Desert, Tel Shiloh and elsewhere. However, political controversies also took center stage at the conference, held at the Orient Hotel in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sites we study are part of the landscape in which we live, teach, travel, and pass by almost every day. This proximity gives research depth and meaning, but also imposes responsibility on us,\u201d said Adi Eliyahu Behar, head of the Department of Land of Israel and Archaeology at Ariel University, which is located in the West Bank and is the only Israeli university that is an academic sponsor of the conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrecisely for this reason, it is important that we continue to promote research based on scientific integrity, critical examination of the evidence, and constant striving for an understanding of the past that is as reliable and objective as possible,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

In the past few months, the field of archaeology, and especially the work carried out by Israeli bodies in the West Bank, has become increasingly controversial.<\/a><\/p>\n

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Members of the governing coalition have been pushing through a highly contentious bill seeking to establish direct Israeli civilian control over heritage sites in the West Bank and even Gaza, a legislation initiative that is widely seen as a significant step toward annexation<\/a> and has been harshly criticized by many Israeli archaeologists, as well as by the army and officials at both the defense and justice ministries. Earlier this month, legislative work on the bill was reportedly paused by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.<\/a><\/p>\n

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\n\t\tArchaeologists and enthusiasts for the topic attend a conference on archaeology in the West Bank at the Orient Hotel in Jerusalem on June 17, 2026. (Rossella Tercatin\/Times of Israel)<\/p>\n

Most experts in Israel agree that for decades, conditions at antiquities sites in the West Bank, estimated at several thousand sites, has been very problematic, marked by neglect and frequent vandalism and looting.<\/p>\n

Many have therefore applauded the initiative of the Heritage Ministry, led by ultranationalist Minister Amichay Eliyahu, to dramatically increase the budget of the Staff Officer for Archaeology of the Civil Administration, a branch of the Defense Ministry\u2019s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is responsible for civilian affairs in the West Bank.<\/p>\n

However, Eliyahu\u2019s support for the West Bank and Gaza antiquities bill, along with other initiatives, has been widely criticized by many archaeologists as political. This includes his recent decision to tap a new head of the Israel Antiquities Authority,<\/a> the organization responsible for archaeology in Israel\u2019s sovereign territory, who is seen by some as inexperienced and chosen for ideological rather than professional reasons.<\/p>\n

Recently, the Civil Administration has also issued several expropriation orders of Palestinian land for archaeological purposes for hundreds of acres at iconic sites such as Sebastia and Herodium, which made headlines in Israel and abroad.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tA lecture during a conference on archaeology in the West Bank at the Orient Hotel in Jerusalem on June 17, 2026. (Rossella Tercatin\/Times of Israel)<\/p>\n

Both the bill and the appointment of the new IAA head were proudly mentioned by Eliyahu as he addressed the conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe heritage of this country is the heritage of the Jewish people, but also the heritage of the entire world. It\u2019s been my privilege to change the priorities [of the ministry],\u201d he said. \u201cChanging the priorities has meant increasing the budget of the Staff Officer from [NIS] 5 to 7 million to tens of millions,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is also legislation, not legislation that we initiated, but legislation whose underlying idea we support, to transform the Archaeology Unit [of the Civil Administration] into an Antiquities Authority,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Eliyahu vowed that Esti Schreiber, the head of an organization promoting Jewish values and connected to the Hasidic movement Chabad, will soon enter her role as the new IAA head.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod willing, in the coming month, we\u2019ll bring in the new director,\u201d he said. \u201cEveryone will see her talent.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tFrom left to right: Dr. Yonatan Adler from Ariel University, Prof. Aren Maeir from Bar Ilan University, independent researcher Dr. Liora Horwitz, and Prof. Adi Erlich from the University of Haifa after the session on ethics at the \u201cArchaeology and Site Conservation of Judea and Samaria\u201d conference in Jerusalem on February 13, 2025. (Rossella Tercatin\/Times of Israel)<\/p>\n

Eliyahu delivered his speech during the first session of the conference, which was devoted to the Persian period (586-333 BCE) in Judea and its southern neighbor Edom. The session was chaired by Aren Maeir, head of Bar-Ilan University\u2019s Institute of Archaeology, who has been a harsh critic of the minister.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Bar-Ilan was also an academic sponsor of the conference, but this year, Maeir said the university was against doing so, after seeing how political the event had become.<\/p>\n

\u201cI participated in the conference because a colleague asked me to be a chairman of a session, and I respect him,\u201d Maeir told The Times of Israel. \u201cHowever, I was somewhat surprised, I would say disappointed, that in the midst of the session that I was chairing, they gave a break, and let Minister Eliyahu speak.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Eliyahu took the podium, Maeir walked out from the hall together with a few other participants.<\/p>\n

Maeir said he disagrees with the minister \u201con anything he says when he opens his mouth.\u201d Recently, he has been among the dozens of archaeologists who submitted a petition to the Supreme Court seeking to block Schreiber\u2019s appointment.<\/p>\n

Dozens of experts affiliated with all Israeli universities offering archaeology studies, including Hebrew University, Tel Aviv University, Ben-Gurion University, Bar-Ilan and University of Haifa, were set to address the conference, in addition to a large number of archaeologists working for the Staff Officer, different colleges, the IAA and some international scholars.<\/p>\n

Compared to 2025, however, the program included only two full days of lectures, down from four, and a significantly weaker international presence.<\/p>\n

\t\"\"<\/a>
\n\t\tA small engraved symbol shaped like the head of a bird identified at the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and found to be connected to a 12th-century Spanish dynasty, in a discovery presented at a conference on archaeology in the West Bank in Jerusalem on June 17, 2026. (Haim Skolnik\/Staff Officer for Archaeology of the Civil Administration)<\/p>\n

In his opening speech, Alon Shavit, director of the Israel Institute of Archaeology, acknowledged the risks of politicization in the field. A nonprofit devoted to promoting archaeology among the Israeli public, including through community-based excavations, the institute was another academic sponsor of the conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile I congratulate everyone present, allow me to speak with some sensitivity about those who are not here with us,\u201d Shavit said. \u201cIt would have been appropriate for such a conference to have official representation from all the archaeological institutes active in the country, and unfortunately, this is not exactly the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a great challenge to ensure that in the coming years, this conference will have a consensus and reflect the entire archaeological community in the country,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Maeir charged: \u201cIt\u2019s very unfortunate that if they\u2019re already making a conference on the archaeology in the West Bank, Judea and Samaria, trying to say that they are not political, and they don\u2019t understand why many of the archaeologists in Israel don\u2019t participate, and then they prove why [archaeologists] don\u2019t [participate], because [the organizers allow for] highly politicized, one-sided right-wing, quasi-fascistic views being spoken out loud during the conference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside the hotel, a few demonstrators protested against the event, holding signs reading \u201cNo to archaeology in the service of transfer [of Palestinians]\u201d and \u201cAntiquities, not at any price.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\tDemonstrators protest against a conference on archaeology in the West Bank outside the Orient Hotel in Jerusalem on June 17, 2026. (Rossella Tercatin\/Times of Israel)<\/p>\n

Among the new findings presented at the conference on Wednesday was a small engraved symbol, documented in the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron by Haim Skolnik of the Staff Officer and Gershon Bar-Kochba of Orot College.<\/p>\n

The researchers found that the figure, shaped like the head of a bird, also appears on several churches and 12th-century CE buildings in the city of Le\u00f3n in northwestern Spain, and that it was used by the family ruling the city during that period.<\/p>\n

Other lectures covered Hasmonean coins minted under King Mattathias Antigonus found across the region and on several sites in the Manasseh Hills, in the northeast of the West Bank.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hundreds of people, including dozens of archaeology scholars affiliated with Israeli universities, on Wednesday attended the first day…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":165888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[33],"tags":[41277,14865,28417,41275,13215,50415,37291,37,51223],"class_list":["post-165887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-israel","tag-amichay-eliyahu","tag-archaeology","tag-archaeology-in-israel","tag-archaeology-in-the-west-bank","tag-bar-ilan-university","tag-civil-administration","tag-iaa-israel-antiquities-authority","tag-israel","tag-tomb-of-the-patriarchs"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@iran\/116769986064348903","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165887","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=165887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/165887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/165888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=165887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=165887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/iran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=165887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}