Judea and Samaria

Jerusalem, 27 April, 2025 (TPS-IL) — The chief editor of a leading academic journal in the field of archaeology confirmed to The Press Service of Israel that it effectively blacklists research from Judea and Samaria while Israeli experts told TPS-IL on Sunday that conditions set by the magazine for publishing research are impossible to meet.

Palestine Exploration Quarterly (PEQ), is the peer-reviewed publication of the London-based Palestine Exploration Fund.

“Publication in PEQ is guided by the PEF’s ethical policy. The main aspect of this is international law, by which many academic institutions and publications, including PEQ, are bound,” Charlotte Whiting, PEQ’s editor-in-chief, told TPS-IL in an email in response to queries for a story about archaeological journals blacklisting Israeli research.

PEQ can publish articles on the archaeology of Judea and Samaria, which the journal refers to as the “West Bank” or “the Occupied Palestinian Territories”,  when the authors “have cooperated with the relevant Palestinian authorities to do so.”

However, Israeli archaeologists told TPS-IL that this condition is impossible to meet.

“There is no cooperation with the Palestinian Authority in the field of archaeology in Judea and Samaria, but not because the Israelis don’t want it. I would love to conduct a joint research with my Palestinian colleagues, and many of my Israeli friends archaeologists too. But it’s impossible because they are afraid to cooperate with Israelis. They would be treated as traitors for this,” Bar-Ilan University archaeologist Dvir Raviv told TPS-IL.

He recently completed the first season of excavations at the Hasmonean fortress of Sartaba in the Jordan Valley, told TPS-IL. “I think I have a lot to share with my Palestinian colleagues and I would love this to happen, but so far none of my attempts to establish contact with them was a success,” he said.

TPS-IL reported on Thursday that Israeli researchers find themselves effectively blacklisted by the international academic community, unable to publish findings from some of history’s most significant sites. The politics-driven policies of the academic archaeological world result in the erasing of biblical history, while the Palestinian Authority’s deliberate efforts to wipe out evidence of the Jewish connection to the land imperils sites of tremendous historical value, archaelogists said.

Archaeologists told TPS-IL that being unable to publish their research at biblically significant sites in leading journals creates a cascade of problems. Researchers avoid Judea and Samaria to protect their careers, funding is difficult to secure for work that won’t be published, and students follow their professors in avoiding these sites. As a result, the biblical heartland remains critically understudied.

The ethical policy on the PEQ website states that the journal “does not collaborate with institutions founded by an occupying power based in any occupied territory, and will not support, encourage, fund, or publish research by any academic associated with such institutions.” Israeli excavations in Judea and Samaria fall under the auspices of the Israel Defense Forces’ Civil Administration, specifically the office of the Archaeological Staff Officer.

In February, the Israel Antiquities Authority together with leading universities organized the first international conference “Archaeology and site conservation in Judea and Samaria.” Dr. Aaron Tavger, one of the organizers of the conference, told TPS-IL that they had sent invitations to numerous foreign archaeologists. While several dozen came, none who had participated in joint excavations with the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, did not show up.”

Moreover, the PEF condemned the Jerusalem conference.

“The PEF is dismayed to learn of an international archaeological conference where the participants will discuss various aspects of the archaeology of ‘Judea and Samaria’. This title neglects and erases the geographical identity of that region, the West Bank of the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The projects listed within the conference present research and data from archaeological projects which are in breach of international laws governing the excavation of archaeological sites in occupied territory, and the responsibilities of the occupying power,” the statement said.

According to Tavger, the PEF’s statement was solely political.

“One of the goals of the conference was to make this quiet boycott public, to discuss what’s really going on,” he explained to TPS-IL. “Because I can get the ethics, but I don’t get the politics. There are ethical issues we need to deal with, and there are archaeological sites that need to be preserved and studied, and this is what makes sense to talk about. But when politics gets in, it only harms the research.”

Jerusalem, 24 April, 2025 (TPS-IL) — In the hills of Judea and Samaria, where biblical figures once walked, modern archaeologists face a dilemma that has nothing to do with the ancient past they seek to uncover. Israeli researchers find themselves effectively blacklisted by the international academic community, unable to publish findings from some of history’s most significant sites.

The politics-driven policies of the academic archaeological world result in the erasure of biblical history, while the Palestinian Authority’s deliberate efforts to wipe out evidence of the Jewish connection to the land imperiling sites of tremendous historical value.

“I know that I won’t be able to publish the results of my study in any of the leading publications,” says Dvir Raviv, an archaeologist from Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan. He recently completed the first season of excavations at Sartaba (Alexandrium) in the Jordan Valley, a fortress built by Hasmonean rulers around 100 BCE.

Raviv’s experience is not unique. Archaeologists from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem conducted research in the same area four decades ago, but their findings never reached international journals either.

The academic boycott stems from the complex status of Judea and Samaria, captured by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 and viewed as occupied by most of the world. The 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property limits archaeological activities by occupying powers, allowing only “salvage excavations” to preserve threatened sites.