Archaeological Staff Officer of Judea and Samaria

KAMAT's logo highlights Jewish/Samaritan motifs, in line with its ideological functions[1]

The KAMAT, formally called the Archaeological Staff Officer of Judea and Samaria (Hebrew: קצין מטה ארכאולוגיה יהודה ושומרון), is an official agency within the Israeli Civil Administration, the body responsible for administrating archaeological affairs in Area C of the occupied West Bank.[2] The agency is headed by Benjamin Har Even, with archaeologist Eyal Freiman serving as his deputy (2026).[3] The work of the KAMAT has been characterized as nationalist, and drew significant international condemnation for their negative impact on Palestinian lives and property. It's authority has been recently extended in violation of the Oslo Accords, and has been viewed as violating international law by the United Nations, Palestinian state agencies, Israeli academics, international legal scholars and NGOs like B'Telem and Emek Shaveh.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

History

Established following the 1967 Six-Day War, a Staff Officer for Archaeology (SOA) was installed by the Israel Department of Antiquities and Museums (IDAM). The SOA was initially under the authority of the newly established Israeli Military Governorate – the latter was succeeded by the Israeli Civil Administration.[12]

The KAMAT expanded rapidly during the early 1980s, but its operations were subject to limited professional oversight. The department issued excavation permits to its own employees, and some of the sites excavated under its authority were almost completely exposed without adequate scientific publication.[13]

Structure

The unit is independent from the Israel Antiquities Authority (the successor to IDAM).[12]

Its functions include supervising archaeological sites, issuing excavation and survey licences, approving civil and military infrastructure work affecting antiquities, conducting planned and salvage excavations, and combating antiquities theft, trafficking, destruction of sites and unauthorized construction within archaeological areas. The unit also undertakes archaeological surveys, including projects carried out in cooperation with academic institutions. The unit maintains archaeological collections and a scientific archive.[1]

Finds recovered during excavations are restored, conserved and stored under its authority, and may subsequently be made available for scholarly research or loaned for exhibition. It is also involved in the conservation, development and public presentation of archaeological sites, as well as in the establishment of archaeological, historical and ethnographic museums.[1]

The KAMAT acts as the statutory authority for antiquities in the territory, assuming the legal powers previously held by the Jordanian Department of Antiquities under the Jordanian Antiquities Law of 1966.[12] Under this legal framework, the KAMAT may designate archaeological sites and define or revise their boundaries; halt construction or development within declared sites or areas suspected of containing antiquities; impose penalties for damage to archaeological remains, whether or not a site has been formally declared; order the demolition of structures located within archaeological areas; and gather evidence, conduct investigations, and seek the arrest of persons suspected of antiquities theft or illicit trafficking.[14]

The unit is tasked with documenting, preserving, and managing over 2,600 historical sites, conducting salvage excavations ahead of modern development, and combating antiquity looting.[2]

Under the internationally binding Oslo Accords, the KAMAT’s jurisdiction limited to Area C.[14]

Scientific work

Between 1980 and 1983, KAMAT excavated the site of Khirbet Susiya, uncovering the remains of a synagogue dated to the fourth–seventh centuries CE.[15]

In 2002 the KAMAT established the Judea and Samaria Publications publication series for work carried out by the organisation.[16]

In 2009, the KAMAT carried out salvage excavations at al-Tuwani, discovering an ancient church with mosaics among the village houses.[15]

In 2011, the KAMAT excavated in the Palestinian village of al-Fasayil revealing a substantial Roman–Byzantine settlement with residential, palatial, or public buildings. The site also contained a large early Islamic bathhouse, a pool, and an extensive aqueduct system. A nearby hill contains a church and a mosaic-floored structure; Muslim burials within the church indicate that the area later served as a cemetery for an extended period.[17]

In May 2025 KAMAT commenced a new excavation on private Palestinian private land in at Tel Rumeida in Hebron. According to Emek Shaveh, the excavation, an existing archaeological park, a newly established settlement, and the takeover of a Palestinian house collectively enlarged the area under Israeli settler control. [14]

KAMAT also excavated at Khirbet er-Rabiya, Khirbet Lasayfer, Khirbet al-Rafid, Hizma, Khirbet Nabi ʿAner, and New Givon.[14]

The names of archaeologists working in the West Bank were withheld because of a 2019 Israeli High Court ruling, which expressed concern that identifying archaeologists who excavated in the West Bank could expose them to academic boycott for violating international law and scholarly norms.[18]

KAMAT and international law

The KAMAT operates under significant geopolitical scrutiny, with international legal bodies, the State of Palestine, and non-governmental organizations debating the legality of its excavations and the ownership of discovered heritage artifacts under the laws of belligerent occupation.[19]

The Second Protocol to the 1954 Hague Convention, adopted in 1999, prohibits non-salvage archaeological excavations in territories under military occupation/control. While Israel refused to sign the Protocol, many foreign states and international organizations regard Israel as subject to those norms in practice. Israel's carried of comissioned non-rescue excavations has contributed to the exclusion of KAMAT-affiliated archaeologists from some international journals, conferences, and professional frameworks, including policies associated with the Palestine Exploration Fund and ASOR.[20]

Israel's government's decision to unilaterally extend KAMAT's enforcement role into Palestinian owned and government Area B, including powers to restrict construction and pursue demolitions at archaeological sites, has been widely decried by NGOS, human rights activists and legal scholars as direct violation of international law.[14][21][22][23][24]

According to an HaAretz report , Minister Eliyahu works to establish the " Heritage Authority", a new Israeli civilian authority for archaeology in the West Bank. This authority would take powers away from the KAMAT and its authority would apply to anywhere in the West Bank.[25] According to settler-affiliated news outlet, JNS News, the new authority would have very broad powers. It could take artifacts and land for "protection, conservation, research, and development," enter Palestinian municipalities, seize items, and stop construction. Overall, the stated aim, according to JNS, is is to "bypass Oslo-era restrictions" and place direct Israeli responsibility over historical sites in Judea and Samaria in violation of the Accords Oslo, where Area A is supposed to be under Palestinian civil and security control, while Area B is under Palestinian civil control with Israeli security control.[26]

Critics of the law say it would be a step toward annexation because, for the first time, an Israeli civilian authority would have powers over Palestinian territory and Palestinian residents, outside Israel’s sovereign borders. The Knesset legal adviser is quoted as saying the bill raises significant legal problems in violation of international law, could be interpreted as annexation, and contradicts Israel's international obligations under the Oslo Accords. Prof. Amihai Mazar, a prominent Israeli archaeologist, expressed his opposition to the proposed the Heritage Authority because it would creatte "a sense of archaeological annexation of Area C" and could have "severe international implications." He specifically warns that if archaeology is seen as part of annexation, European collaborations with Israel would disappear.[25]

Effects on Palestinians

In the 1980s, the KAMAT's work served as the legal basis and justification to expropriate Khirbet Susya, establishing a Jewish archaeological park, and the expulsion of the native residents from their homes. Residents who returned were repeatedly displaced, and their houses and residential caves were demolished on five occasions.[15]

On 7 January 2021, the KAMAT raided Yusuf Muhammad ʿAmarna's home, inhabited by a family with five children.The troops confiscated two wooden doors, two iron windows, five water tanks, and an electrical transformer, and damaged furniture, on the pretense of protecting an archaeological site.[27]

In 2022, the KAMAT issued demolition orders against five houses in At-Tuwani under alleged construction within an archaeological site. Reporter Ali Awad described this selective application of antiquities protection—under which Palestinian homes faced demolition while settlers entered the site under military escort—as an instrument of dispossession and forced displacement.[28]

Rafi Greenberg, Professor of Archaeology at Tel Aviv University, noted the KAMAT's use of archaeology to expel the Palestinian residents of Zanuta in the southern Hebron Hills. The archaeological sites in and around the village served as a pretext for eviction, while antiquities at the site were also vandalized by Israeli settlers.[29]

In the Jordan Valley, the KAMAT's digging demarcation of antiquities sites were followed a systematic plan focusing on Israeli settlement outposts and Palestinian pastoral communities. According to archaeologist Rafi Greenberg, these sites became part of a wider territorial enclosure by introducing an additional Israeli institutional presence around Palestinian shepherds and small villages, thereby restricting their use of the surrounding landscape. The article does not identify the individual archaeological sites or affected communities by name.[28]

In Wadi Qana, the KAMAT has faced criticism for citing frivolous archaeological claims to restrict Palestinian farmers from accessing and cultivating their lands in the area.[30]

In December 2024, the Civil Administration’s archaeological authorities participated in issuing demolition notices to fifty Palestinian civilian families in Kafr Qalil and Nablus, on the grounds that their homes had been allegedly constructed within "archaeological sites." Archaeological personnel accompanied Israeli forces to deliver the orders of expulsion. Residents disputed the existence of archaeological remains beneath their homes and accused the KAMAT of using antiquities "protection" to take over Mount Gerizim near the Israeli settlement of Har Brakha.[31][32]

In 2025, the KAMAT issued demolition order targeting the Massafer Yatta guesthouse, used by international NGOs and peace activists to protect Palestinian civilians and families against Israeli settler violence and expulsions.[33]

In July and August 2025, the KAMAT declared 60 new "antiquities sites" in the northern West Bank, including thirty-one declarations for the Nablus area signed in May 2025 by Staff Officer Benny Har-Even and Civil Administration official Hillel Roth. Some sites are located within Palestinian controlled territory. The declarations allow KAMAT to demolish structures situated within designated zones. Emek Shaveh describes the scale of the declarations as unprecedented and argues that they form part of a wider process of land seizure and displacement of Palestinian.[34]

On 17 March 2026, Israeli occupation authorities demolished the home of the Abayat family, the last remaining shepherding families at al-Fasayil in the Jordan Valley. Their permit application had been rejected because KAMAT claimed the dwelling as lying within an archaeological site. The wider community had already been displaced following sustained settler violence associated with an outpost established by Eliav Libi.[17]

On 23 March 2026, the Israeli Civil Administration demolished a Palestinian home at Khirbet al-Marajim, hamlet one kilometre southwest of Duma. The structure stood at the edge of an archaeological site whose boundaries had been designated by the KAMAT in May 2025. An expert report submitted by Emek Shaveh argued that the house lay on the site’s margins and posed no threat to archaeological remains, noting that the residents had long inhabited the area without damaging its antiquities. The objection was rejected, and the house was subsequently demolished. The demolition was part of a broader sustained campaign by Israeli authorities to expel the village.[17]

Political aims and criticism

According to a Ynet report, Israeli archaeological activity in the West Bank has grown significantly after the Israeli government awarded the KAMAT 120 million shekels in 2023 over three years for protecting antiquities and heritage sites. Eyal Freiman boasted to journalists that in "Any place I want to excavate, I excavate.", while Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu describes the work as part of restoring the "true map" of the Land of Israel, with sites in the occupied West Bank serving as a "vital asset" to asserting Jewish ownership of the land.[3]

Settler politician Zvi Sukkot of "the far-right Religious Zionism party," explained that extending Israeli control over Palestinian territory was meant to safeguard Biblical sites in particular. a Times of Israel report qouted Sukkot as explaining this action as driven by a "desire to prove the ties between the people of Israel and this land," rather then by objective scientific reasons. "All the stories of the Bible, all our history, the people (of Israel) were born in Judea and Samaria."[35]

In 2026, the KAMAT held the conference on "Archaeology and Site Conservation in Judea and Samaria," at the Orient Hotel in Jerusalem. At the conference, Aren Maeir from Bar-Ilan chaired the session where Minister Eliyahu spoke, but when Eliyahu went up to speak, Maeir and several others walked out. Maeir said the organizers claim the event is not political, while allowing very one-sided, right-wing and even "quasi-fascistic" views to be voiced there. Outside the hotel, protesters also demonstrated against the event, with signs saying "No to archaeology in the service of transfer" and "Antiquities, not at any price," protesting on KAMAT appropriation of private Palestinian land, including large areas around sites like Sebastia and Herodium.[36]

According to Emek Shaveh, the growing demolition of Palestinian homes in and around West Bank archaeological sites, alongside escalating settler violence supported by Israeli authorities, indicates that the KAMAT does not apply antiquities laws as a neutral conservation measure. Archaeological restrictions have become integrated into a broader policy of expelling Palestinians from their land. At historic sites, this policy operates on two levels: it physically severs Palestinian communities from the landscape while advancing Jewish narratives that minimize or deny their historical connection to it.[17]

Key excavations (see individual articles)

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Archaeology". GOV.IL. Retrieved 23 August 2026.
  2. 1 2 "Archaeology". GOV.IL. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  3. 1 2 Kimon, Elisha Ben; Kimon, Elisha Ben (21 December 2025). "Israel boosts archaeological enforcement and excavations in the West Bank". Ynetglobal. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  4. ↑ Emek Shaveh (4 February 2026). Unprecedented Annexation Move: Knesset Committee Votes to Establish a Civilian Authority to Govern Antiquities in the West Bank (Report). Emek Shaveh. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  5. ↑ Negotiations Affairs Department (16 December 2020). Palestine's Cultural Property and the Israeli Occupation (Report). State of Palestine. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  6. ↑ Greenberg, Raphael; Keinan, Adi (2009). Israeli Archaeological Activity in the West Bank 1967–2007: A Sourcebook. West Bank and East Jerusalem Archaeological Database Project. ISBN 978-965-91468-0-2.
  7. ↑ B'Tselem (March 2021). This Is Ours, And This Too: Israel's Settlement Policy in the West Bank (Report). B'Tselem – The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  8. ↑ Peace Now (31 May 2026). "The Knesset Advances Legislation to Establish a Heritage Authority in the West Bank, Annexing Archaeological Activity to Israel". Peace Now. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  9. ↑ Ali, Rabia (9 February 2026). "Israel again violating international law, agreements by expanding West Bank powers: Experts". Anadolu Agency. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  10. ↑ Taylor-Sheinman, Dikla (1 July 2025). "'It comes with the territory': How Israel's archaeologists legitimize annexation". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  11. ↑ "Palestinians warn West Bank antiquities bill designed to expand Israeli control". The Times of Israel. Reuters. 25 June 2026. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  12. 1 2 3 Greenberg, Raphael; Keinan, Adi (2009). Israeli Archaeological Activity in the West Bank 1967–2007: A Sourcebook (PDF). Ostracon. p. 6. ISBN 978-965-91468-0-2.
  13. ↑ Lash, Mordechay; Goldstein, Yossi; Shai, Itzhaq (2023). "Archaeology in Judea and Samaria 30 years after the Oslo Accords". Israel Affairs: 3. doi:10.1080/13537121.2023.2247642.
  14. 1 2 3 4 5 "Unprecedented number of archaeological site declarations distributed in northern West Bank and more". Emek Shaveh. 8 September 2025. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  15. 1 2 3 O’Neill, Sean (16 June 2011). "New excavation site in West Bank village has Palestinians on edge". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  16. ↑ Lash, Mordechay; Goldstein, Yossi; Shai, Itzhaq (2023). "Archaeology in Judea and Samaria 30 years after the Oslo Accords". Israel Affairs. 29 (5): 909. doi:10.1080/13537121.2023.2247642. ISSN 1353-7121.
  17. 1 2 3 4 "Palestinian communities living near ancient sites in the West Bank face extreme pressure by home demolitions and settler violence". Emek Shaveh. 25 March 2026. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  18. ↑ Lash, Mordechay; Goldstein, Yossi; Shai, Itzhaq (2023). "Archaeology in Judea and Samaria 30 years after the Oslo Accords". Israel Affairs: 6. doi:10.1080/13537121.2023.2247642.
  19. ↑ "TRT World - Digging for annexation: How Israel uses archaeology to erase Palestine". www.trtworld.com. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  20. ↑ Lash, Mordechay; Goldstein, Yossi; Shai, Itzhaq (2023). "Archaeology in Judea and Samaria 30 years after the Oslo Accords". Israel Affairs: 8. doi:10.1080/13537121.2023.2247642.
  21. ↑ "Palestinians decry Israeli push for control over West Bank heritage sites". The Arab Weekly. 25 June 2026. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  22. ↑ Times of Israel staff (25 June 2026). "Palestinians warn West Bank antiquities bill designed to expand Israeli control". The Times of Israel. Reuters. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  23. ↑ Neev, Keshet; Sela-Eitam, Miriam (24 May 2026). "West Bank, Gaza antiquities bill raises international law concerns, legal adviser warns Knesset". The Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  24. ↑ Ali, Rabia (9 February 2026). "Israel again violating international law, agreements by expanding West Bank powers: Experts". Anadolu Agency. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  25. 1 2 "How Israel is using archaeology to advance West Bank annexation". Haaretz. Archived from the original on 19 June 2026. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  26. ↑ Sherman, Shimon (15 February 2026). "Israeli Cabinet moves to protect archaeological sites from PA destruction". Israel & Jewish News - JNS. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
  27. ↑ arij (7 January 2021). "مصادرة مقتنيات منزلية ومواد بناء في خربة الفراسين بمحافظة جنين". POICA. Retrieved 13 August 2026.
  28. 1 2 Konrad, Edo (17 August 2022). "Why did the army shut down a Palestinian village? So settlers could pray in it". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  29. ↑ Adler, Jonathan (1 July 2025). "'It comes with the territory': How Israel's archaeologists legitimize annexation". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  30. ↑ isrengdharma (25 June 2026). "ואדי קנה – כרוניקה של גירוש וחיים במרחב". דהרמה מעורבת חברתית (in Hebrew). Retrieved 18 August 2026.
  31. ↑ The New Arab (From the Arabic Edition). "Israel uses 'archaeology' to justify Palestinian home demolition". The New Arab. Archived from the original on 30 March 2026. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  32. ↑ The New Arab (25 December 2024). "Israel orders 50 home demolitions in Nablus citing 'archaeological violations'". The New Arab. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  33. ↑ Adler, Jonathan (25 November 2025). "Israel is set to destroy our guesthouse. But we still welcome all who resist". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  34. ↑ "Unprecedented number of archaeological site declarations distributed in northern West Bank and more". Emek Shaveh. 8 September 2025. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  35. ↑ Times of Israel staff (25 June 2026). "Palestinians warn West Bank antiquities bill designed to expand Israeli control". The Times of Israel. Reuters. Retrieved 1 August 2026.
  36. ↑ Tercatin, Rossella (18 June 2026). "West Bank archaeology conference unearths controversy as politics takes center stage". The Times of Israel. ISSN 0040-7909. Retrieved 5 July 2026.
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