Who is in charge of biblical sites in the West Bank? - Explainer

From the legal point of view, several stratifications of national and international law have been applied or partially applied to the matter since 1967.

By ROSSELLA TERCATIN
Tel Hebron (photo credit: COURTESY OF PRESERVING THE ETERNAL)
Tel Hebron
(photo credit: COURTESY OF PRESERVING THE ETERNAL)
Fifty-three years after Israel took control of the West Bank in the Six Day War, the question of who is in charge of archaeological sites in the region and how they are (or should be) managed presents a wide range of complicated elements.
From the legal point of view, several stratifications of national and international law have been applied or partially applied to the matter since 1967, including Jordanian and Israeli antiquities law and the Oslo Accords.
A special archaeology unit within the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) is in charge of the sites in Israeli-controlled Area C, which covers around 60% of the West Bank. The Palestinian Authority is responsible for sites located in PA-controlled Area A and in Area B, which falls under Palestinian civil control and joint Palestinian and Israeli security control.
Area C includes about 3,000 archaeological sites, while precise data regarding Areas A and B are not available. However, they are also estimated to be in the thousands.
The COGAT archaeology unit is responsible to protect and preserve all the sites under its control.
Currently, some sites are open to the public, while some can be visited only with the permission of the unit. However, due to security concerns for the sensitivity of their locations, requests might be denied, and some sites are not open to visit.
Archaeologists who wish to carry out excavations need to obtain permission from the unit’s staff officer for archaeology.
For a limited amount of Jewish religious sites outside Area C, COGAT also coordinates with the PA to guarantee some occasional access to worshipers. Among those sites is Joseph’s Tomb.
The COGAT archaeology unit does not have a formal relationship with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the body in charge of all antiquities in the country within the Green Line. The IAA said its connection with COGAT is comparable to any other relationship with archaeological organizations in the world. According to COGAT’s website, findings of the archaeological excavations are transferred to the IAA for further analysis.
If Israel was to annex parts of Area C, the archaeological sites presumably would fall under the IAA’s scope of responsibility, as happened with the parts of Jerusalem conquered in 1967 and whose archaeological sites are managed by the IAA.


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