The West Bank’s archaeological heritage under settlers' attack
A bill before the Knesset has passed first reading, granting Israel control over antiquities in the Palestinian territories, where violence settler continues. For Prof Sabella, a climate of insecurity is pushing families to leave. Jewish schools are fuelling an anti-Christian ideology. From Gaza and Iran to Lebanon, the trauma caused by wars must be overcome.
Milan (AsiaNews) – This year has seen a record number of new Jewish settlements, sectarian-motivated physical attacks against Christians and new laws to boost control over Palestinian lands. For Prof Bernard Sabella, “what is happening is unacceptable.” Israelis “unilaterally take over communities, kick out people of their homes, terrorise them in the night”.
A former Fatah representative and executive secretary of the Middle East Council of Churches' Palestinian Refugee Service, Sabella is blunt in condemning the escalation of violence by Israeli settlers and extremists, which is being "tolerated" by Israeli authorities.
The land is “ours too”, insisted the Palestinian Christian leader speaking to AsiaNews, but today “unchecked settler attacks drive some people, even in Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Beit Sahour, Beit Jala” to leave.
Yesterday, Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza marked the 78th anniversary of the Nakba, the catastrophe that saw hundreds of thousands of them become refugees, losing their homes and lands; now, Sabella said by phone from Jerusalem, there is a sense of “unease, feeling you are not sure where things are going to go,” and this makes “some families pack and leave.”
To “be fair,” one cannot “blame all Israelis” for what is happening, he said, but “Some more religious elements within Israeli society” are moved by an extremist ideology, especially “Jewish Yeshiva students, who are taught by rabbis, who do not recognise Christianity, who say it's okay to spit on Christians, it's okay to” destroy crosses, desecrate statues of the Virgin Mary, like in Lebanon.
This violence comes from certain religious quarters and is directed “not at Islam, but at Christianity in particular,” which is seen as “a travesty against Judaism, and against the expectations of Judaism for the Saviour to come”.
For the Palestinian Christian, there should be instead “respect" for other religions, and basic teaching must be promoted from childhood, according to an approach opposite to that of radical religious schools.
Israel’s far-right government led by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is composed of avowedly pro-occupation members like Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, and has accelerated the expansion of settlements and outposts.
A systematic policy of expropriation of Palestinian land and a crescendo of attacks by Jewish settlers, which has not spared Christians (see Taybeh), are taking place in the shadow of wars in the Middle East, from Iran to Lebanon, amid the silence of the international community.
Acts of sectarian intolerance and discrimination by Jewish settlers, ultra-Orthodox Jews, and Israeli soldiers are becoming commonplace, including in Lebanon and the Palestinian Territories.
Numbers confirm this upward trend, with a 63 per cent increase in hostile acts in 2025: the most frequent are spitting (over 50 per cent), followed by insults, screaming and threats (18 per cent), attacks on religious symbols (15 per cent), physical violence (5 per cent), and desecration of sacred sites (3 per cent).
After the land, Israel now appears to be going after the antiquities and archaeological heritage in the West Bank, as evinced by a controversial bill that received its first reading in the Knesset, which critics call "de facto annexation”.
The draft law, which proponents claim is intended to preserve the territory's unique heritage, provides for the creation of a new civil authority responsible for cultural heritage in the West Bank.
Legislators voted 23-14 in favour of the bill, which gives the Jewish state direct responsibility and control over antiquities, heritage sites, and archaeology, while tightening its grip on Palestinian land.
“The current war is about our identity, our culture, about God, about our deep belonging to this land,” said Likud MK Amit Halevy, the bill’s sponsor, ahead of the vote. “This law is part of the victory over this barbarism.”
If passed into law, which will require two more readings, the bill will set up a “Judea and Samaria Heritage Authority,” reflecting the biblical name used by pro-occupation ministers for the West Bank.
The new agency will now take over under the Ministry of Defence. The person responsible for the dossier is an official from the Civil Administration's Archaeological Unit, a branch of the Ministry of Defence's Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which handles civil affairs in the territory.
According to the Civil Administration's Archaeological Unit website, there are more than 2,600 archaeological sites in the West Bank. Among the most significant biblical sites are the capital of the Kingdom of Israel, Sebastia; the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron; and Tel Shiloh, where, according to the Bible, the Jewish Tabernacle stood for approximately 400 years.
The West Bank is also home to several Hasmonean fortresses, the palace of the Judeo-Roman king Herod from the 1st century AD, and the Qumran Caves, where most of the Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered. The area is also rich in Christian and Muslim historic sites, including the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
In Sabella’s view, “what we see with the settlers, what we see with the more extreme religious groups within Israel, are the result of education of young people two decades ago”. For this reason, “what we need is not simply statements, condemning, and criticising”:
Meanwhile, after months of deadlock, the European Union has approved sanctions against violent settlers, but no decision has been made on tariffs on products from Israeli settlements. These cosmetic measures do not make any substantive change, whereas long-term work is needed.
“We need a system in all religions, and in all educational systems, to put stress on the need of seeing the other as in the image, as created in the image of God,” Sabella explained. The “image of God is not a Christian motto, but it is really a Jewish motto,” he added.
Thus, “how do we translate that into a system of education, in which we recognise we are ready, and prepared, and socialised, and nurtured into understanding the other, and comprehending his belief system, her belief system, without necessarily agreeing with these belief systems?”
Tensions are also rising in Palestinian society, especially among those who support the Palestinian Authority (PA) and its leader Mahmoud Abbas, the pro-dialogue front that has “tried for so many years to appease and work with the Israelis, and are still working in coordination, security coordination with the Israelis.”
There's no shortage of accusations from those who blame them for a lack of results, as well as for the Territories’ financial and economic problems.
These concerns are compounded by the doubts of those who wonder whether Israel is interested in peace, nonviolence, and living side by side in security, building relationships based on trust.
“It is widely believed and feared that the next step Israel is thinking about is how to get rid, for example, of many thousands of Palestinians and get them even out of their homes like they did in the Jenin and Tulkarem refugee camps, or invite all of us to go to Jordan.”
“Israelis and Palestinians [. . .] are so overtaken by the trauma of the disaster that happened in Gaza, and also to a lesser extent by the Israel-US and Iran war”. For now, there are “difficulties ahead. It's not going to be easy”.
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11/10/2023 21:17
