Politics of archaeology in Israel and Palestine

[2](87) The politicization of archaeology, which Hallote and Joffe attribute to "popular interest of religious nationalist groups," did not begin in earnest until after the Six-Day War.

"[5] The excavations were noted worldwide, and Yadin parlayed his new fame into a political career, eventually becoming deputy Prime Minister to Menachem Begin.

Yehuda charged that Yadin "certainly used his very high credibility" as a veteran and professor "to bulldoze his overhauled version of Josephus Flavius concerning the events at Masada.

American students and personnel at Hebrew Union College were urged to evacuate, and a planned excavation of the Gezer site, on June 26, was cancelled.

As William G. Dever reports, "the exterior of this beautiful building was pock-marked by small-arms fire, particularly around the inner courtyard, and...the tower, which had been used as a gun position by the Jordanians, was rather badly damaged....Precious objects...lay broken by ricocheting bullets....The Dead Sea Scrolls Gallery was empty.

After Israeli forces had gained control of the West Bank, the Israel Department of Antiquities laid claim to the area's notable archaeological sites.

[7] According to the archaeologist Albert Glock, archaeology has been used selectively by both Christian and Jewish Zionists to reconstruct a version of Palestine consonant with their respective ideologues and to provide a warrant for occupying the country.

[10] Israeli archaeology in the West Bank has focused on the Biblical remains to the exclusion of the ancient pagan, Christian Byzantine and Muslim strata.

[12] Notable examples where West Bank cultural properties have been expropriated wholly or in part from Palestinian control are the Herodium, Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

The confrontation, led by Shlomo Goren and Ovadia Yosef, resulted from the sects' allegation that the excavation was affecting a Jewish cemetery (which Hallote and Joffe claim did not exist).

[2] Throughout the 1980s, activists identifying with the ultra-Orthodox Haredi movement were supported by Toldot Aharon and Agudat Israel in clashes at archaeological sites.

Several archaeologists searched between Wadi ed-Daliya and Nahal Deregot, surveying six hundred and fifty caves and sites, and ultimately excavating seventy of them.

[16] Operation Scroll came under fire for possibly defying a new agreement reached by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization regarding Palestinian self-rule, and may have circumvented a United Nations resolution that prohibited unearthing and removal of significant artifacts from occupied areas under foreign control.

[17] American academic Nadia Abu El Haj describes "Operation Scroll," a 1993 "salvage excavation" in Jericho that was launched in advance of Israel's pullout from the West Bank town.

[19] Several sites of archaeological significance have been targeted in apparent price tag attacks in the region, which have allegedly been carried out by what Ha'aretz termed "Hard-line Jewish youths.

[20] Palestinian witnesses reported that Israeli settlers were responsible for the predawn attack, in which several of the mosque's windows were broken and its entrance sustained burns.