Knesset education panel advances bill to create civilian body in charge of West Bank antiquities

The Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee advances a controversial bill to establish a civilian body to manage antiquities in the West Bank.

The bill seeks to create a Judea and Samaria Heritage Authority that would take over the responsibilities that currently lie with the Defense Ministry. The person responsible for the file now is a staff officer of the Archaeology Unit of the Civil Administration, a branch of the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which is in charge of civilian affairs in the territory.

Given its sensitive nature, and at the Justice Ministry’s request ahead of the vote, the bill will return to the Ministerial Committee for Legislation for discussion. Then it will need to be reapproved by the education committee before the first vote on the bill in Knesset.

If passed into law, it would mark the first time the Knesset exercises direct power over expropriation and acquisition of land in the West Bank, as well as additional enforcement powers, which would also apply to Palestinian residents, according to committee legal adviser Tami Sela.

“[The bill] raises concern that the bill will be perceived as a step advancing de facto annexation, and de facto application of Israeli law in Judea and Samaria, without a comprehensive examination of the issue,” she said ahead of the vote.

Seven MKs vote in favor of the bill, while five oppose it.

“Jewish history is found less on Dizengoff Street [in Tel Aviv] and more in Shiloh,” says Committee Chairman MK Zvi Sukkot of the far-right Religious Zionism party. “Antiquities are being destroyed and disappearing from under our hands almost daily, and we want to put things in order.”

The European Union condemns the vote.

“The proposed Israeli bill to transfer control over the management of archaeological sites & antiquities in the occupied West Bank to an Israeli civilian authority raises serious concerns, including with regards to the possible violation of international law,” the EU Delegation to the Palestinians writes on X.