Teams of archeologists from Israel’s Antiquities Authority began digging in the Judean wilderness this week, but all they’ve unearthed so far is a few scraps of parchment and a lot of controversy.
Their Palestinian counterparts – and several prominent Israeli archeologists as well – criticized the government-sponsored dig as an 11th-hour treasure grab before the area reverts to Palestinian control sometime next spring.
“It’s kind of an unclean business, doing this snatching operation just a few months before the area goes back to the Palestinians,” said Aharon Kempinski, a Tel Aviv University archeologist and chairman of the Israel Archeologists Association.
“What they are doing is a direct violation of international law,” complained Anat Maor, a member of Israel’s Knesset from the leftist Meretz Party.
The Geneva Conventions and the 1954 Hague Convention, both of which Israel has signed, prohibit an occupying power from removing art or antiquities from the territory it occupies.
The Antiquities Authority defended its activities in a statement saying that the “survey is being conducted in accordance with Jor-danian laws still in effect in Judea and Samaria.”
The authority said the expedition was planned four years ago.
To mollify critics, the authority issued a belated invitation to Palestinian archeologists to join the dig. The offer was declined.
The Israelis are focusing their search in the rugged, sun-scorched mountains near Qumran, the place where a Bedouin shepherd stumbled upon the famed Dead Sea Scrolls 45 years ago.
The 2,000-year-old scrolls, considered by many to be the archeological find of the century, shed light on the origins of the Old Testament and the beliefs of Jewish sects at the time of Christ.
Since the original discovery, the caves around Qumran have been thoroughly scoured by archeologists and picked over by Bedouins.
While the diggers this week did find a Roman-era boot and some small parchment fragments from the 2nd Century, the likelihood of finding more major religious manuscripts is considered remote.
But the undertaking has dug up old arguments about the archeological rights of two peoples whose historical identities lie buried beneath the surface of a land they both claim.
The recent accord between Israel and the Palestinians deliberately skirts the sensitive issue.
Some Israelis fear the peace process is bringing an end to a once-in-lifetime archeological opportunity, and that they must move quickly to uncover what’s theirs while the land is still under their control.
Palestinians resent the high-handed manner in which Israel has taken control of all archeological exploration in the territories, and point to the example of the late Moshe Dayan, the defense minister who used his office to amass a valuable and highly illegal private collection of antiquities from the occupied territories.
Israelis argue that Palestinians and other Arabs have an even worse track record when it comes to illicit trafficking in antiquities.
“When the Arabs find something, it disappears almost immediately and then reappears on the black market,” said Batya Borowski, director of the Bible Lands Museum, a new archeological collection in Jerusalem.
Another sticky question facing the peace negotiators is what to do about artifacts that already have been dug up and put on display in museums. The Dayan collection, purchased by the Israel Museum, almost certainly will have to be returned to the Palestinians, said Kempinski.
Israel set something of an archeological precedent in the 1979 Camp David accords when it agreed to return to Egypt artifacts excavated from the Sinai.
More Top Picks Best Boxing Gloves For Seniors Fitness
Egyptian and Israeli archeologists decided that the handover did not have to take place until after the Israelis had finished the scientific analysis.
Successive Likud governments in Israel thwarted the agreement by refusing to fund the project. When Labor returned to power last year, funding was restored and earlier this year Israel began returning objects to the Egyptians.
“Our experience with the Egyptians has turned out to be very good. I believe it should be the model for our agreement with Jordan and the Palestinians,” said Maor.
Borowski disagreed, calling the Egyptian agreement “a very bad precedent for museums.” She cited the contentious case of the Elgin Marbles, statuary plundered from Greece by Lord Elgin in 1806 and now in the British Museum.
Greece is demanding the return of the famous marbles.
The British Museum has refused, its director saying that if the museum gave in to Greece, then everyone would want their marbles back.