Take Archaeology in the City of David out of the Hands of Elad

   For nearly a decade, all archaeological work in the Wadi Hilwe area of Silwan in East Jerusalem—that is, the City of David, the core of ancient Jerusalem and one of the most sensitive archaeological sites in Israel—has been controlled by Elad, an organization of right-wing Israeli settlers. More precisely, the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority (INPA), which has legal responsibility for this area, has appointed Elad as its sub-contractor in Silwan; Elad, in turn, has commissioned the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) to carry out excavations in this neighborhood. What is more, permission to dig in Silwan has been granted by an internal process within the IAA, distinct from the usual norms for large-scale excavation applied to other sites in Israel. What this means is that Elad decides everything of consequence relating to the Wadi Hilwe sites—including the decision to expand and extend the digging as it sees fit, without reference to the needs and rights of Silwan's Palestinian residents. There is no precedent in Israel for handing over responsibility for serious archaeological work to a militant political organization with its own clear (extremist) agenda. 

   Elad also runs a visitor's center which offers a highly one-sided, nationalist version of the history of this neighborhood. Visitors to the site receive, along with the entry ticket they purchase, a propaganda pamphlet embodying this distorted historical narrative. Lavishly funded by foreign donors, Elad is engaged in a relentless process of turning Silwan into an area of Jewish settlement, at the same time dispossessing many of the Palestinian residents.

   Recently, the residents of Silwan have complained that ongoing archaeological work is undermining the foundations of their houses. A grass-roots protest in the neighborhood, including an appeal to the Israel Supreme Court, has met with violent suppression by the police, including the harassment and repeated arrests of the signatories to the appeal. On March 17, 2008, the Court issued a restraining order against Elad and temporarily halted further extension of the digging.

   Archaeology is, or should be, a discipline untainted by narrow political or sectarian interests. In Silwan, sadly, archaeology—and the Israel Antiquities Authority—are being openly exploited for purely political purposes that include the removal of innocent civilians from their homes. We call upon the government of Israel, the Jerusalem Municipality, the INPA, the IAA, and all responsible members of Israel's academic community to put an end at once to this blatant perversion and dangerous politicization of an academic field of endeavor. 


Professor Marshall Sahlins, University of Chicago
Professor Katheryn Linduff, University of Pittsburgh, Archaeology
Professor Hsu Cho-Yun, University of Pittsburgh
Professor Robert D. Drennan, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. William Honeychurch, Yale University, Archaeology
Professor Robert Schneider, Indiana. Editor, American History Review
Professor Andras Hamori, Princeton
Professor Russell Tuttle, University of Chicago
Professor Carolyn Wright, Brown University
Professor David Bell, Johns Hopkins
Professor Tom Laqueur, University of California, Berkeley
Professor Carla Hesse, University of California, Berkeley
Professor Lorraine Daston, Max-Planck Institute, Berlin
Professor Dror Wahrman, Indiana University
Professor Nathaniel Tarn, Rutgers
Professor Steve Weizman, Indiana University
Professor Philip E. L. Smith, Archaeology, Université de Montreal
Professor Nerissa Russell, Cornell University
Professor Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University
Professor Sheldon Pollock, Columbia University
Professor David Myers, UCLA
Professor Mark Cohen, Princeton
Professor Gil Eyal, Columbia
Dr. Aryeh Cohen, American Jewish University
Professor McGuire Gibson, University of Chicago
Professor Lawrence Kirmayer, McGill University
Professor Howard Spodek, Temple University
Professor Susan Neiman, Einstein Forum, Berlin
Professor Eugene Sheppard, Brandeis University
Professor Wendy Doniger, University of Chicago
Professor Idan Segev,  Hebrew University
Eliot Weinberger, New York
Professor Gwen Bennett, Washington University
Professor Naomi Standen, Newcastle University
Professor Francois G. Richard, University of Chicago
Dr. Miriam Stark, University of Hawaii
Professor Carolyn Forche, Skidmore University
Professor Magnus Fiskesjö, Cornell University
Dr. David Gimbel, Archaeos
Dr. Marina Rustow, Emory University
Professor Joyce Flueckiger, Emory University
Professor Yaron Ezrahi, Hebrew University
Professor Adam Rubin, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles
Professor Anne Monius, Harvard University
Professor Jonathan Malino, Guilford College
Professor Michael Dietler, University of Chicago
Professor Pierre Joris, State University of New York, Albany
Dr. David Baptiste-Chirot, Milwaukee
Professor Anne Waldman, Naropa University
Professor Avi Shlaim, Oxford 
Professor Natalie Davis, Princeton
Professor Charles Malamoud, École Pratique des Hautes Études
Professor Judith Butler, University of California, Berkeley
Professor David Shulman, Hebrew University
Dr. Neve Gordon, Ben Gurion University
Dr. Yigal Bronner, University of Chicago
Professor Philip L. Kohl, Wellesley College
Dr. Moshik Temkin, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
Emeritus Professor Chris Petrie, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
Dr. Ian Straughn, Brown University
Dr. phil. Bernd Kulawik, Universität Bern, Switzerland
Professor Emerita Claire Kahane, University at Buffalo
Professor Joseph Nevins, Vassar College
Dr. Sanda A Scham, Catholic University
Dr. Brian Boyd, Columbia University, New York
Adina Hoffman, Author
Dr. Tilde Rosmer, University of Oslo
Professor Michael Keren, Hebrew University
Dr. Tamar Keren-Portnoy, University of York
Professor John Bunzl, University of Vienna
Professor Eric Meyers, Duke University
Dr. David Wengrow, Institute of Archaeology, University College London
Professor David Abraham, University of Miami School of Law
Mr. Mike Cushman, London School of Economics and Political Science
Professor Jonathan Rosenhead, London School of Economics
Mr. Yishay Mor, London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, London University
Ms. Ruth Lukom, London Metropolitan University
Dr. David Ilan, Hebrew Union College
Professor Gideon Shelach-Lavi, Hebrew University
Dr. Jeff Warner, California State University Fullerton
Dr. Bruce N. Fisk, Westmont College
Professor of English Emerita Claire Kahane, University at Buffalo
Lecturer Judith Green, Hebrew University
Professor Esther Cohen, Hebrew University
Professor Joseph Zeira, Hebrew University
Professor Emerita, Anthropology Jean Lave, University of California, Berkeley
Mr. Noam Knoller, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, Univ. of Amsterdam
Professor Emerita Shoshana Blum-Kulka, Hebrew University
Professor Richard Kulka, Hebrew University
Dr. Ela Greenberg, Truman Institute, Hebrew University
Ms. Tamar Almog, Hebrew University
Ms. Michal Bareket, Hebrew University
Mr. Jeremy Aron, Sheffield University, UK
Ms. Ruth Lukom, London Metropolitan University
Mr. Ido Roll, Carnegie Mellon University
Professor Naftali Kaminski, University of Pittsburgh
Professor Ruth Fauman Fichman, University of Pittsburgh
Professor Michael Tarr, Brown University
Dr. Robert Kraftowitz, University of Pittsburgh
Dr. Veronika Cohen, Jerusalem Academy of Music and dance
Director for International Research Ran Boytner, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA
Professor of History & Policy Joel A. Tarr, Carnegie Mellon University
Professor Emerita Evalyn F. Segal, San Diego State University
Professor Andrew Parker, Amherst College
Ph.D Shakhar Rahav, University of Haifa
Dr. Caroline Wardle, University of Strathclyde
Egyptologist Paul Niel, Paris IV Sorbonne
Dr. Daniel Price, Westfield State College (MA)
Dr. David Greenstein, The Academy for Jewish Religion
Professor H. Richard Rutherford, University of Portland
Dr. Richard Braun, UCLA
Professor Prange Thierry, Universite Rene Descartes Paris
Dr. Otniel E. Dror, The Hebrew University
Dr. Terri Ginsberg, North Carolina State University
Dr. Khalil Barhoum, Stanford University
Professor Emeritus Donald Malcolm Reid, Georgia State University
Dr. Yuval Gadot, Hebrew Union Collage, Jerusalem
Dr. Miriam Reik, Temple University
Professor Fijalkow Yankel, Université du Maine
Professor Amikam Cohen, The Hebrew University
Professor Anthony Alessandrini, City University of New York
Professor Emeritus James C. Faris, University of Connecticut
Ms. Chiara De Cesari, Stanford University
Professor Nathan Wasserman, The Hebrew University
Mr. Christopher Davey, Australian Institute of Archaeology
Professor Piotr Michalowski, University of Michigan
Dr. Lynn Swartz Dodd, University of Southern California
Dr. Bucker Dangor, Imperial College London
Mrs. Crystal Robert, Malaspina University-College
Archaeologist Iain Shearer, University College London
Professor Thomas Pepper, University of Minnesota
Mr. Edward Silver, University of Chicago
Dr. Jack Green, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Mr. Yigal Bloch, The Hebrew University
Dr. Bruce Routledge, University of Liverpool
Dr. Alexander A. Fischer, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Germany
Professor Leticia Rovira, Universidad Nacional de Rosario-Facultad de Humanidades y Artes
Dr Jasmin Michael, CNRS, France
Dr. Louis D. Levine, Museum of Jewish Heritage
Dr. Deborah Sweeney, Tel Aviv University
Dr. Mención Antropología Cristina Di Bennardis, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Argentina
Professor John S. Holladay, Jr., University of Toronto
Dr. Mahmoud Hawari, University of Oxford
Dr. Uri Gabbay, The Hebrew University
Professor Emeritus John Van Seters, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Dr. Stephanie Dalley, Oxford University
Dr. Harriet Martin, University of Birmingham
Professor Martti Nissinen, University of Helsinki
Professor Alan Millard, University of Liverpool
Professor Bernard Knapp, University of Glasgow, Scotland
Professor Jörg Frey, University of Munich
Dr. David A. Stacey, PhD at SOAS, London
Professor Pascal Attinger, University of Bern
Professor of Greek Archaeology John C. Overbeck, University at Albany 
Dr. Annemarie Kaufmann-Heinimann, University of Basel
Dr. Idelber Avelar, Tulane University
Dr. Yannis Hamilakis, University of Southampton
Ms. Birgit Haskamp, University of Birmingham
Dr. Alasdair Livingstone, University of Birmingham
Dr. Joseph Loss, Haifa University
Associate Professor Dr. Marcy Newman, Boise State University
Ms. Libby Boulter, University of Michigan
Professor Carol Meyers, Duke University
Dr. Reinhard Bernbeck, Binghamton University
Dr. Stephen R Euston, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
Dr. Julia Chaitin, Sapir Academic College
Director, Archaeological Seminars, Bernie Alpert, Oxford University-Wolfson College
Dr. J.P. Dessel, University of Tennessee
Professor Tony Judt, New York University
Mr. Emanuel Pfoh, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dr. Norma Franklin, Tel Aviv University
Dr. Laurie King-Irani, Institute for Palestine Studies
Professor Philip Davies, University of Sheffield
Professor Ted Swedenburg, University of Arkansas
Dr. Hagit Shlonsky, Jerusalem
Professor John Bunzl, Austrian Institute for International Affairs (oiip), Vienna
Professor Brian Britt, Virginia Tech