Israel’s ultra-nationalist government approved a plan on Wednesday to “develop and preserve heritage sites” in the occupied West Bank, a move campaigners say will be used as pretext to annex more Palestinian land.
More than $80 million will be allocated for the “unprecedented” project, which was announced by the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The project is to mark the beginning of 60th anniversary celebrations in Israel since it captured and occupied the West Bank and East Jerusalem in 1967.
The announcement alarmed anti-settlement campaigners, who have long accused Israeli governments of using heritage protection and archaeology as a cover story to expand its settlement project in occupied Palestinian land, which has accelerated at an unprecedented rate during the time of the current government.
The announcement said the plan will involve the construction of “heritage centres,” the development of “tourism infrastructure” at sites and an increase in activities to prevent “robbery and destruction of antiquities”.
Mr Netanyahu said the plan will “strengthen our hold on the Land of Israel”. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler extremist, said the plan was part of the government’s “revolution” in advancing settlements since it came into power.
Settlements minister Orit Strook, also a settler, said the Israeli housing project “draws its strength, vitality and right to exist from the Jewish life of our ancestors who flourished in those very places, which is why I see it as of national importance”.
Lior Amihai, executive director of anti-settlement watchdog Peace Now, told The National that the Israeli government “is once again proving that it is driven by a messianic agenda of annexation and settlement expansion”.
“Archaeology has long been used by the government as a political tool to expand settlement control, deepen the takeover of Palestinian land, and erase Palestinian heritage,” he added.
“While this policy is outrageous in and of itself, it is even more alarming at a time when Israel is engaged in continuing wars and facing severe economic challenges, while imposing budget cuts across nearly every other essential public sector.”
Emek Shaveh, an Israeli NGO that monitors the politicisation of archaeology in the Israel-Palestine conflict, said the money will “be invested in tourism development that assists in Judaisation efforts and not in preserving antiquities”.
“This is another step in the instrumental use of antiquities that will advance the settlements at the cost of burying Israeli archaeology.”
