TORONTO-JERUSALEM – A World Archaeological Congress (WAC) conference earlier this month in Ramallah, ‘Palestine,’ did not invite the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), despite the fact that some of the topics under discussion deal with regions in Jerusalem, where an archaeological excavation is being conducted exclusively by the IAA, according to Yaen Vered, IAA representative in Canada.

The conference – Overcoming Structural Violence – took place Aug. 8-13.

“There is an international meeting by an international organ taking place in the Holy Land, where the IAA, which is the main organ that deals with the antiquities, was not even told there would be such a convention,” Vered told the Jewish Tribune. “It is convening in Ramallah. That has meaning. It looks like it’s part of a well-organized campaign by the Palestinians not against archeologists, but against Israel.”

In a press release, Vered wrote that the “IAA operates with complete transparency, according to the guidelines of Israeli law and meticulously maintains the highest professional standards in accordance with the most stringent rules and without bias. There can be no doubt that the organizers of the conference set out with the goal in mind of inserting political issues into the professional archaeological experience.”

In a letter of protest dated Aug. 11 to WAC President Dr. Claire Smith, Dr. Uzi Dahari, IAA vice-director for archaeology, and Professor Ephraim Stern, chair, Archaeological Council of Israel, said the official statement by Smith that “due to Israeli government regulations it appears that some Israeli archaeologists who may have wished to attend WAC Ramallah may be unable to do so” is “manifestly untrue.

“Israeli archaeologists did visit Ramallah in past years and any archaeologist wishing to attend the congress could, had they been invited, obtain a permit to travel to Ramallah, as many Israeli journalists indeed do routinely,” they added. “The inclusion of this statement… casts a dubious light on the organizers’ professional and civic integrity.”

Regarding the conference tour of Jerusalem sites, it is “unacceptable that the WAC will be touring in an area of our responsibility without any coordination with us,” the letter stated. “Furthermore, it is blatantly unethical to visit active archaeological sites without informing the archaeologists charged with the excavation…. Had we an inkling that such a congress is to take place, we would have expressed our reservations much earlier; but since the first undersigned [Dahari] has learned about it only through your e-mail of yesterday, 10 Aug. 2009, we hurry to do so now.”

Responding to queries from the Jewish Tribune, Smith said:

“A number of Israeli archaeologists were invited, by various WAC people. However, a couple of people who might have expected to receive a formal invitation did not.

Remember, this was an open conference. Very few people received a personal invitation.

“It is very unfortunate that Israeli archaeologists who wished to did not attend. However, WAC was acting on local information (Palestinian and Israeli) that Israeli people are [not] allowed to go to Area C, and this was confirmed when we got here. Of course, we have found out subsequently that the Israeli government would have made an exception for their archaeologists, and we are delighted by this.

“I was sorry not to see Uzi, the deputy director of the IAA, when I was over there, as I consider him a collegial friend. I had thought he would be at the conference, and I emailed him at the end of the first day, so he knew it was on – but of course, it was already started by then, and he would have expected prior notice and a personal invitation (fair enough).”

“The conference program is full of abstracts condemning Israeli archaeology and its practices concerning the management of the cultural heritage,” Dahari and Stern had written to Smith. “We obviously do not contest the legitimacy of individual contributors to their views, but the huge numbers of inaccuracies and the type of insidious ‘past-mastering’ for which Israel stands accused makes this conference little more than a political demonstration.”