Sign the Petition
We encourage scholars, doctors and professors of various academic and scientific fields to add their signatures to the petition to change the way archaeology is being conducted in the City of David.
If you are interested in adding your signature, please fill in the following form.
In order to protect your privacy and verify your identity, we will send you a confirmation email.
Please click on the link in the confirmation email to complete the process.
The Renewed 2010 Petition
Change the way archaeology is being conducted in the City of David
We, the undersigned, renew our support for or join the call to take archaeology in the City of David out of the hands of Elad. We have found new causes for concern in the conduct of archaeological work in this area, with increasing evidence for doubtful professional practices that are the inevitable result of the untenable ethical position implicit in the ongoing excavations. We call upon the Israel Antiquities Authority and the Israel Nature and National Parks Authority to take the lead in transforming the antiquities of Jerusalem into an instrument of mutual respect and understanding between the different communities in Jerusalem, including the residents of Wadi Hilweh in Silwan, and between the different cultures to which they are heirs. We call upon these organizations to put a stop to the overt political exploitation of the antiquities of Jerusalem.
Add your signature.
1. Professor Marshall Sahlins, University of Chicago
2. Professor Katheryn Linduff, Archaeology, University of Pittsburgh
3. Professor Hsu Cho-Yun, University of Pittsburgh
4. Professor Robert D. Drennan, University of Pittsburgh
5. Dr. William Honeychurch, Archaeology, Yale University
6. Professor Robert Schneider, Indiana. Editor, American History Review
7. Professor Andras Hamori, Princeton
8. Professor Russell Tuttle, University of Chicago
9. Professor Carolyn Wright, Brown University
10. Professor David Bell, Johns Hopkins
11. Professor Tom Laqueur, University of California, Berkeley
12. Professor Carla Hesse, University of California, Berkeley
13. Professor Lorraine Daston, Max-Planck Institute, Berlin
14. Professor Dror Wahrman, Indiana University
15. Professor Nathaniel Tarn, Rutgers
16. Professor Steve Weizman, Indiana University
17. Professor Philip E. L. Smith, Archaeology, Université de Montreal
18. Professor Nerissa Russell, Cornell University
19. Professor Rashid Khalidi, Columbia University
20. Professor Sheldon Pollock, Columbia University
21. Professor David Myers, UCLA
22. Professor Mark Cohen, Princeton
23. Professor Gil Eyal, Columbia
24. Dr. Aryeh Cohen, American Jewish University
25. Professor McGuire Gibson, University of Chicago
26. Professor Lawrence Kirmayer, McGill University
27. Professor Howard Spodek, Temple University
28. Professor Susan Neiman, Einstein Forum, Berlin
29. Professor Eugene Sheppard, Brandeis University
30. Professor Wendy Doniger, University of Chicago
31. Professor Idan Segev, Hebrew University
32. Mr. Eliot Weinberger, New York
33. Professor Gwen Bennett, Washington University
34. Professor Naomi Standen, Newcastle University
35. Professor François G. Richard, University of Chicago
36. Dr. Miriam Stark, University of Hawaii
37. Professor Carolyn Forche, Skidmore University
38. Professor Magnus Fiskesjö, Cornell University
39. Dr. David Gimbel, Archaeos
40. Dr. Marina Rustow, Emory University
41. Professor Joyce Flueckiger, Emory University
42. Professor Yaron Ezrahi, Hebrew University
43. Professor Adam Rubin, Hebrew Union College, Los Angeles
44. Professor Anne Monius, Harvard University
45. Professor Jonathan Malino, Guilford College
46. Professor Michael Dietler, University of Chicago
47. Professor Pierre Joris, State University of New York, Albany
48. Dr. David Baptiste-Chirot, Milwaukee
49. Professor Anne Waldman, Naropa University
50. Professor Avi Shlaim, Oxford
51. Professor Natalie Davis, Princeton
52. Professor Charles Malamoud, École Pratique des Hautes Études
53. Professor Judith Butler, University of California, Berkeley
54. Professor David Shulman, Hebrew University
55. Dr. Neve Gordon, Ben Gurion University
56. Dr. Yigal Bronner, University of Chicago
57. Professor Professor Philip L. Kohl, Wellesley College
58. Dr. Moshik Temkin, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
59. Professor Emeritus Chris Petrie, University of Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
60. Dr. Ian Straughn, Brown University
61. Dr. Bernd Kulawik, Universität Bern, Switzerland
62. Professor Emerita Claire Kahane, University at Buffalo
63. Professor Joseph Nevins, Vassar College
64. Dr. Sanda A Scham, Catholic University
65. Dr. Brian Boyd, Columbia University, New York
66. Ms. Adina Hoffman, Author
67. Dr. Tilde Rosmer, University of Oslo
68. Professor Michael Keren, Hebrew University
69. Dr. Tamar Keren-Portnoy, University of York
70. Professor John Bunzl, University of Vienna
71. Professor Eric Meyers, Duke University
72. Dr. David Wengrow, Institute of Archaeology, University College London
73. Professor David Abraham, University of Miami School of Law
74. Mr. Mike Cushman, London School of Economics and Political Science
75. Professor Jonathan Rosenhead, London School of Economics
76. Mr. Yishay Mor, London Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, London University
77. Ms. Ruth Lukom, London Metropolitan University
78. Dr. David Ilan, Hebrew Union College
79. Professor Gideon Shelach-Lavi, Hebrew University
80. Dr. Jeff Warner, California State University Fullerton
81. Dr. Bruce N. Fisk, Westmont College
82. Professor Emerita Claire Kahane, University at Buffalo
83. Ms. Judith Green, Hebrew University
84. Professor Professor Esther Cohen, Hebrew University
85. Professor Joseph Zeira, Hebrew University
86. Professor Jean Lave, Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley
87. Mr. Noam Knoller, Amsterdam School for Cultural Analysis, Univ. of Amsterdam
88. Professor Emerita Shoshana Blum-Kulka, Hebrew University
89. Professor Richard Kulka, Hebrew University
90. Dr. Ela Greenberg, Truman Institute, Hebrew University
91. Ms. Tamar Almog, Hebrew University
92. Ms. Michal Bareket, Hebrew University
93. Mr. Jeremy Aron, Sheffield University, UK
94. Ms. Ruth Lukom, London Metropolitan University
95. Mr. Ido Roll, Carnegie Mellon University
96. Professor Naftali Kaminski, University of Pittsburgh
97. Professor Ruth Fauman Fichman, University of Pittsburgh
98. Professor Michael Tarr, Brown University
99. Dr. Robert Kraftowitz, University of Pittsburgh
100. Dr. Veronika Cohen, Jerusalem Academy of Music and dance
101. Mr. Ran Boytner, Director for International Research, Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA
102. Professor Joel A. Tarr, History & Policy, Carnegie Mellon University
103. Professor Emerita Evalyn F. Segal, San Diego State University
104. Professor Andrew Parker, Amherst College
105. Dr. Shakhar Rahav, University of Haifa
106. Dr. Caroline Wardle, University of Strathclyde
107. Mr. Paul Niel, Egyptologist ,CNRS-Paris IV Sorbonne
108. Dr. Daniel Price, Westfield State College (MA)
109. Dr. David Greenstein, The Academy for Jewish Religion
110. Professor H. Richard Rutherford, University of Portland
111. Dr. Richard Braun, UCLA
112. Professor Prange Thierry, Universite Rene Descartes Paris
113. Dr. Otniel E. Dror, The Hebrew University
114. Dr. Terri Ginsberg, North Carolina State University
115. Dr. Khalil Barhoum, Stanford University
116. Professor Emeritus Donald Malcolm Reid, Georgia State University
117. Dr. Yuval Gadot, Hebrew Union Collage, Jerusalem
118. Dr. Miriam Reik, Temple University
119. Professor Fijalkow Yankel, Université du Maine
120. Professor Amikam Cohen, The Hebrew University
121. Professor Anthony Alessandrini, City University of New York
122. Professor Emeritus James C. Faris, University of Connecticut
123. Ms. Chiara De Cesari, Stanford University
124. Professor Nathan Wasserman, The Hebrew University
125. Mr. Christopher Davey, Australian Institute of Archaeology
126. Professor Piotr Michalowski, University of Michigan
127. Dr. Lynn Swartz Dodd, University of Southern California
128. Dr. Bucker Dangor, Imperial College London
129. Mrs. Crystal Robert, Malaspina University-College
130. Mr. Iain Shearer, Archaeologist ,University College London
131. Professor Thomas Pepper, University of Minnesota
132. Mr. Edward Silver, University of Chicago
133. Dr. Jack Green, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
134. Mr. Yigal Bloch, The Hebrew University
135. Dr. Bruce Routledge, University of Liverpool
136. Dr. Alexander A. Fischer, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Germany
137. Professor Leticia Rovira, Universidad Nacional de Rosario-Facultad de Humanidades y Artes
138. Dr. Jasmin Michael, CNRS, France
139. Dr. Louis D. Levine, Museum of Jewish Heritage
140. Dr. Deborah Sweeney, Tel Aviv University
141. Dr. Cristina Di Bennardis, Mención Antropología, Universidad Nacional de Rosario
142. Professor John S. Holladay, Jr., University of Toronto
143. Dr. Mahmoud Hawari, University of Oxford
144. Dr. Uri Gabbay, The Hebrew University
145. Professor Emeritus John Van Seters, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
146. Dr. Stephanie Dalley, Oxford University
147. Dr. Dr. Harriet Martin, University of Birmingham
148. Professor Martti Nissinen, University of Helsinki
149. Professor Alan Millard, University of Liverpool
150. Professor Bernard Knapp, University of Glasgow, Scotland
151. Professor Jörg Frey, University of Munich
152. Dr. David A. Stacey, PhD at SOAS, London
153. Professor Pascal Attinger, University of Bern
154. Professor Zeev Herzog, Tel Aviv University
155. Professor John C. Overbeck, Greek Archaeology, University at Albany
156. Dr. Annemarie Kaufmann-Heinimann, University of Basel
157. Dr. Idelber Avelar, Tulane University
158. Dr. Yannis Hamilakis, University of Southampton
159. Ms. Birgit Haskamp, University of Birmingham
160. Dr. Alasdair Livingstone, University of Birmingham
161. Dr. Joseph Loss, Haifa University
162. Professor Marcy Newman, Boise State University
163. Ms. Libby Boulter, University of Michigan
164. Professor Carol Meyers, Duke University
165. Dr. Reinhard Bernbeck, Binghamton University
166. Dr. Stephen R Euston, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh
167. Dr. Julia Chaitin, Sapir Academic College
168. Mr. Bernie Alpert, Archaeological Seminars, Oxford University-Wolfson College
169. Dr. J.P. Dessel, University of Tennessee
170. Professor Tony Judt, New York University
171. Mr. Emanuel Pfoh, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina
172. Dr. Norma Franklin, Tel Aviv University
173. Professor Philip Davies, University of Sheffield
174. Dr. Laurie King-Irani, Institute for Palestine Studies
175. Professor Ted Swedenburg, University of Arkansas
176. Dr. Hagit Shlonsky, Jerusalem
177. Professor John Bunzl, Austrian Institute for International Affairs (oiip), Vienna
178. Professor Brian Britt, Virginia Tech
179. Professor Michael Meltsner, Northeastern University
180. Professor Yoram Avnimelech, Technion
181. Ms. Amanda Jillings, St. Marys University College
182. Dr. Jim West, Quartz Hill School of Theology
183. Dr. Juana Celia Djelal, Pennsylvania State University
184. Professor Djelal Kadir, Penn State University
185. Ms. Catherine Lancelott Beddoes, UCLan
186. Mr. Ronen Mandelkern, The Hebrew University
187. Mr. Iain Shearer, Institute of Archaeology UCL
188. Ms. Martha Roth, Author
189. Ms. Annette Heimann, Dipl.Pol., Free University Berlin
190. Mr. Paul Niel, Egyptologist, CNRS-Paris IV Sorbonne
191. Ms. Alice Skokowski, University of Technology Cottbus
192. Ms. Brooke Larson, Brigham Young University
193. Dr. Yoav Lehahn, Tel Aviv University
194. Mr. David Parker, University of leicester
195. Professor Sidra DeKoven Ezrahi, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
196. Ms. Noga Almi-Hantke, Sapir Academic College
197. Mr. Yaron Wolf, Hebrew University
198. Dr. Margreet L. Steiner, Independent Scholar
199. Dr. Yossef Rapoport, Queen Mary University of London
200. Ms. Banu Aydinoglugil, University College London
201. Mr. Veysel Apaydin, University College London
202. Mr. David Rosenberg, Jerusalem Science Museum, Hebrew University
203. Mr. Chemi Shiff, Tel Aviv University
204. Professor Elizabeth C. Stone, SUNY Stony Brook
205. Dr. Ghizlane Zoulati, Faculté de médecine de Fès-Université Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdallah
206. Mr. Mark Croshaw, Brigham Young University
207. Dr. Yifat Peleg, Open University
208. Dr. Sharon Zuckerman, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
209. Mr. Mike Cushman, London School of Economics and Political Science
210. Professor Emeritus Thomas L. Thompson, University of Copenhagen
211. Dr. Robert Boyce, London School of Economics
212. Dr. Susan Blackwell, University of Birmingham, UK
213. Professor Mark S. Smith, New York University
214. Professor Emeritus Melvin Simpson, State University of New York at Stony Brook
215. Professor Milton Moreland, Rhodes College
216. Mr. Roi Livne, University of California, Berkeley
217. Professor Michael E. Smith, Anthropology, Arizona State University
218. Dr. Carole Burnett, Catholic University of America
219. Professor Edward Gaffney, Valparaiso University
220. Professor Luis César Bou, National University of Rosario, Argentina
221. Professor David B. Small, Lehigh University
222. Dr. Michael Feige, Ben-Gurion University
223. Professor Ron Hoz, Ben-Gurion University
224. Dr. Donald N. Rallis, University of Mary Washington
225. Professor Edmund Burke III, Univ. of Calif., Santa Cruz
226. Dr. Gal Levy, Open University
227. Dr. Zvi Solow, Ben-Gurion University
228. Professor Susan Pollock, Freie Universitaet-Berlin
229. Mr. Brian Hole, University College London
230. Professor JW. Nugroho Joshua, Negardipa University, Indonesia
231. Professor Christoph Uehlinger, University of Zurich
232. Ms. Diana Bell, Archaeology, Tufts University
233. Dr. Jose C. Carvajal, Universidad de Granada (Spain)-University of Sheffield (UK)
234. Mr. Terje Stordalen, University of Oslo
235. Dr. Kate da Costa, University of Sydney
236. Mr. James Fraser, University of Sydney
237. Dr. Paul Donnelly, University of Sydney
238. Professor Meredith S. Chesson, University of Notre Dame
239. Mr. Charles E. Jones, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New Your University
240. Ms. Marie Sullivan, Seton Hall University
241. Professor Anat Biletzki, Tel Aviv University
242. Ms. Michal Ronel, Haifa University
243. Mr. Omer Sergi, Tel Aviv University, Alma College
244. Dr. Dina Katz, Leiden
245. Ms. Yehudit Keshet, Author
246. Professor Micah Leshem, University of Haifa
247. Ms. Tirtsa Cohen, Weizmann Institute of Science
248. Ms. Sofie Van Der Straeten, University of Ghent
249. Dr. Ghattas Sayej, West-Agder County Council, Norway
250. Mr. Andrew Abado, Haifa University
251. Professor Emeritus Ronald Sweet, University of Toronto
252. Dr. Lynn Swartz Dodd, University of Southern California
253. Dr. Raphael Greenberg, Tel Aviv University
254. Mr. Joe Zias, Former Curator, Israel Antiquities Authority
255. Dr. Chaim Noy, Sapir College
256. Dr. Curtis Hutt, University of the Holy Land
257. Professor stanley stowers, Brown University
258. Dr. James Jennings, University of California, Los Angeles
259. Professor Hans Haenlein, University of Reading, UK
260. Dr. Daniel Breslau, Virginia Tech
261. Professor Amotz Agnon, Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University
262. Professor Jenelle Troxell, Texas A&M University
263. Dr. Ralph Lewis, University of Toronto
264. Dr. Zuleika Rodgers, Department of Religions and Theology, Trinity College Dublin
265. Professor Steve Mason, Professor of History, York University, Toronto
266. Mr. John Lynes, Honorary Fellow, UCL and University of Lincoln
267. Dr. Thierry Wasserman, Technion
268. Dr. Charles Manekin, Dept of Philosophy
269. Dr. Gadi Perets, Mathematician, University of Lyon, France
270. Dr. Dudy Tzfati, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
271. Professor Omar García-Obregón, Queen Mary, University of London
272. Professor Seth Schwartz, History/ Columbia University
273. Professor Tom Selwyn, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Anthropology Department, Anthropologist.
274. Dr. Massimiliano Cali, Research Associate, Overseas Development Institute
275. Mr. Wolf Schleicher, Archaeological Surveyor
276. Dr. Eyal Shimoni, Chemical Research Support, Weizmann Institute of Science
277. Professor Andrew Miller, Université Bordeaux 1
278. Dr. Mark Ziese, Cincinnati Christian University/Biblical Studies/
279. Dr. Valeria Cobianchi, University of Padua
Add your signature.
The Original Petition
The original petition to take archaeology out of the hands of settler groups in Wadi Hilweh/City of David was written and submitted
in Spring 2008, and since has garnered hundreds of signatures from academic institutions around the world. It has provided important and solid backing to the efforts made on the ground by Emek Shaveh
and others to stem the tide of politicized excavation in the City of David, provoking considerable concern in the Israel Antiquities Authority.
The extent of this concern can be gauged by the apologetics offered by the IAA for their involvement, as well as by their vicious attacks on Emek Shaveh
archaeologists. These have included the forced resignation from the IAA of one of our number,
the public denunciation by the IAA of the
WAC-Ramallah Intercongress visit to Silwan, and a diatribe aimed at another Emek Shaveh archaeologist by the head of the IAA
at an academic conference.
The impact of the petition on the work itself, however, has been limited. While we do sense that work in the Giv’ati parking lot, where late strata were being dismantled in a drive to bedrock in order to make room for a parking tower, has slowed, it has not stopped. And while an increasing number of Israeli archaeologists are making their voices heard in opposition to the IAA policies in the historic basin of Jerusalem, the heads of that institution are increasingly caught up in collaborations with the well-funded partisan groups who underwrite the excavations.
Also, as time goes by, dubious professional practices that are the inevitable outcome of ethical indifference are becoming more and more pronounced in all parts of the excavated area.
The following petition from 2008 is now obsolete, please refer to the petition at the top of this page.
"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.
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."
Clarification:
This website is not dealing with criminal issues and its texts are not meant to assign the Elad association and/or any other body illegal activity and/or activities of criminal nature. There was never an intention like that and the website's owners are sorry if they were understood otherwise.
