In a recent article published in this newspaper, Yisrael Medad inadvertently captured the central crisis facing Israeli archaeology today. In just a few short paragraphs, he demonstrated exactly how the discipline is being hijacked by messianic extremists. These actors are doing everything in their power to weaponize archaeology, transforming it from a scientific tool for understanding the region’s diverse history into a political mechanism to dispossess Palestinians and violate both Israeli and international law.
Medad is, in fact, an expert in this weaponization. A quick look at his biography reveals that in 1981 he moved to the settlement of Shiloh – established two years earlier under the guise of an “archaeological camp” to thwart the ongoing peace negotiations with Egypt.
While the settlers failed to derail that historic peace agreement, they have spent the decades since perfecting the use of archaeology to promote their messianic ideology and sabotage future diplomatic efforts. Their crowning achievement is the creation of the “archaeological settlement.”
The weaponization of archaeology
Pioneered by the Elad Foundation, this model has for the past 30 years been evolving at the archaeological site in Silwan to become a tourist attraction that ostensibly tells the story of ancient Jerusalem. In reality, archaeology serves as a facade for displacing the local Palestinian community.
Over the past decade, this model has been replicated across the West Bank, making archaeology an integral tool for violating Palestinian rights and creeping toward de facto annexation.
For years, much of Israel’s archaeological community served as a silent accomplice to this weaponization. Many professionals believed that if they stuck to their research and avoided politics, the settlers would view them as a strategic asset and leave them alone.
But as demonstrated in the past four years, the messianic Right now demands active ideological submission: In April 2025, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu – a member of the extreme-right Otzma Yehudit party – said that he will not allow the 49th Annual Archaeological Congress of the Israel Exploration Society to take place in the IAA headquarters unless a professor critical of politicized archaeology was banned from participation.
Since August 2024, the Knesset has advanced a bill utilizing archaeology as a pretext for West Bank annexation. In May, the same minister appointed Esti Schreiber to manage the Israel Antiquities Authority, despite her being glaringly underqualified for the role. Since then, the proposed appointment was canceled by the Senior Appointments Committee in Israel due to lack of compliance with the threshold conditions for the role.
The common denominator in these maneuvers is not the protection of heritage. Rather, they expose a political faction willing to sacrifice the professional credibility and international standing of Israeli archaeology on the altar of political gain.
Pushback from the archaeological community
Fortunately, the archaeological community is finally waking up. Their recent pushback played a crucial role in thwarting some of these threats, proving that professionals can indeed defend their discipline when they choose to.
The Israel Exploration Society – with the backing of the rest of the archaeological community – decided to conduct the conference in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem rather than ban a fellow archaeologist just because he was critical of the minister’s ideology.
Members of the archaeological community openly objected to the bill to use archaeology as a first step for the annexation of the West Bank throughout the proceedings conducted in the Knesset, as well as to Schreiber’s appointment as the new director of the IAA.
As Medad inadvertently highlighted, archaeology is at a crossroads. Down one path lies complete submission to political benefactors. This route would strip the discipline of its ability to conduct critical research, deepening its isolation from the international academic community.
If the settlers complete their attempt to annex the discipline, Israeli archaeologists would be left to collaborate solely with religious institutions specializing in pseudo-archaeology – groups whose goal is not to uncover historical truth but to corroborate the New Testament and hasten Armageddon. (Tellingly, the only international participants in the “international” conference Medad recently attended were Evangelical representatives.)
It should be stressed that this isn’t even just my opinion. In a recent interview to Makor Rishon, the deputy manager of the Staff Officer for Archaeology stated that “researchers are fleeing Judea and Samaria like wildfire, we are in a free fall.”
Down the other path lies the courageous, less-trodden route that some archaeologists have cautiously begun to navigate this past year. It will not be easy. It requires fighting not only for the integrity of the profession but against its use as an instrument of dispossession and messianic fervor. Time will tell which path the Israeli archaeological community will choose.
The writer is an archaeologist and head of research at Emek Shaveh.