https://israfan.com/p/archaeologists-boycotted-judea-samaria
Political boycotts by global academia silence findings from Israel’s historic heartland, leaving ancient Jewish heritage at risk.
In the hills of Judea and Samaria, where the stories of the Bible come to life in stone and soil, Israeli archaeologists are facing academic exile. Despite groundbreaking discoveries that illuminate ancient Jewish history, researchers are being shunned by international journals their work deemed untouchable, not for lack of scientific merit, but for its location.
Archaeologists like Dvir Raviv of Bar-Ilan University, who recently completed a season of excavations at Sartaba, a Hasmonean fortress from around 100 BCE, are unable to publish their findings in any major academic outlet. “I know I won’t be able to publish the results of my study in any of the leading publications,” Raviv says, pointing to a “clever boycott” enforced by a politically motivated academic elite.
The chilling effect is widespread. Even non-Israeli scholars face retribution for working in these areas. Dr. Scott Stripling, an American archaeologist leading excavations at biblical Shiloh, says his team’s findings are consistently rejected on political grounds. “If I wait for Middle East peace, my work will never be completed,” he says.
Following the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israeli archaeologists largely retreated from Areas A and B, where the Palestinian Authority assumed administrative control. But even in Area C, under full Israeli jurisdiction, research is obstructed not by local laws, but by international academic censorship.
“The biblical heartland remains critically understudied,” says Raviv. “To me, it’s an opportunity. But to humanity, it’s a loss.”
Judea and Samaria are rich with unparalleled archaeological value.
