International Academic Association Warns Against Israel's Use of Antiquities as a Tool to Annex the West Bank and Erase Palestinian Identity

The Middle East Studies Association of North America (MESA) has issued an international warning regarding escalating Israeli policies targeting archaeological sites in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem. In a joint statement with the Committee on Academic Freedom, the association affirmed that the occupation seeks to establish direct civilian control over Palestinian cultural heritage, employing archaeology as a political tool to seize land and fragment the historical ties of the Palestinian people to their land.

The association sent urgent messages to senior international officials, including the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk and the Director-General of UNESCO, to alert them to the seriousness of a bill recently approved by the Israeli Knesset. This legislation, which passed its first reading, aims to establish a so-called 'Judea and Samaria Heritage Authority' to be affiliated with the Israeli Ministry of Heritage, giving settlers direct influence over historical sites in areas classified as 'C'.

Sources explained that this legal shift represents a transition from temporary military administration to permanent civilian administration, which falls within the plans for the 'creeping annexation' of the occupied territories. The association considered that subjecting archaeological sites to Israeli political appointments primarily aims to serve the settlement agenda and change the demographic and geographical reality under the guise of preserving heritage and historical antiquities.

In a related context, the message warned of the law's repercussions on the Ibrahimi Mosque (Cave of the Patriarchs) in Hebron, where the occupation seeks to transfer renovation and oversight powers from the Palestinian Hebron Municipality to settlement bodies. Academics described this step as an illegal assault on legitimate Palestinian jurisdiction over a global religious and heritage site, threatening to erase civilizational evidence that does not conform to the Israeli narrative.

The association stressed that these measures constitute a grave violation of international law, particularly the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict and the Fourth Geneva Convention. It also noted that these steps undermine the legal frameworks established by UNESCO to protect world heritage and prevent illicit trafficking in antiquities, placing the international community before a moral and legal responsibility to stop these transgressions.

The message touched upon living examples of systematic erasure in sites such as Sebastia, Susiya, Battir, and Silwan, where archaeological classifications are used as a pretext to restrict Palestinian urban and agricultural expansion and displace them from their homes. It affirmed that the occupation re-presents these sites as an exclusive biblical heritage, ignoring the multiple civilizational layers—Islamic, Christian, and human—that form the core of the region's historical identity.

The association concluded by calling on international organizations to activate oversight tools over Israeli practices and protect the 'living memory' of the Palestinian people from systematic erasure. It called for the rejection of all measures aimed at marginalizing non-Jewish heritage, emphasizing that the protection of antiquities must remain free from political instrumentalization that seeks to legitimize the occupation and sever the Palestinian people's connection to their ancient cultural heritage.

This proposed body will transfer the management of archaeological sites from military administration to a civilian authority under the influence of the settlement movement, which is a step towards the direct annexation of Palestinian land.