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.

Like its first edition, the second international “Archaeology and Site Conservation in Judea and Samaria” — the biblical name for the West Bank — 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.

“The 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,” 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.

“Precisely 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,” she added.

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.

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 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.

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.

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’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is responsible for civilian affairs in the West Bank.

However, Eliyahu’s support for the West Bank........

© The Times of Israel