COMMENTARY: Religious extremists threaten archaeology in Israel

c. 1996 Religion News Service (Hershel Shanks is founder and editor of Biblical Archaeology Review and author, most recently, of”Jerusalem, An Archaeological Biography,”published by Random House.) (UNDATED) A little-noticed result of the recent elections in Israel, which significantly strengthened the religious parties’ representation in the Israeli parliament, involves a serious threat to archaeology in a […]

c. 1996 Religion News Service

(Hershel Shanks is founder and editor of Biblical Archaeology Review and author, most recently, of”Jerusalem, An Archaeological Biography,”published by Random House.)

(UNDATED) A little-noticed result of the recent elections in Israel, which significantly strengthened the religious parties’ representation in the Israeli parliament, involves a serious threat to archaeology in a country where archaeology is often said to be the national pastime.


A clause in the coalition agreement that brought the religious parties into Benjamin Netanyahu’s government provides that archaeological excavations will be effectively stopped when graves are encountered.

The drive to prevent the excavation of graves is spearheaded by an ultra-Orthodox group known as Atra Kadisha, the Committee for the Preservation of Gravesites. Its leaders are Satmar Hasidim, who do not recognize the legitimacy of the secular state of Israel.

Although Atra Kadisha has only a very small membership in the United States, it nevertheless has managed to enlist the support of mainline American Orthodox Jews, including the 1,000-member Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and Rep. Benjamin Gilman, (R-N.Y.), the powerful chairman of the House International Relations Committee. Gilman has deputized an emissary to meet with Israel’s ambassador in Washington over the matter and has even sent a representative to Israel to investigate.

It is generally assumed that Jewish religious law, or halachah, forbids the excavation of graves. But that is not the case. While the exhumation and reburial of bones is a very serious matter, nowhere in Jewish law is there a blanket prohibition.

On the contrary, Jewish law permits, and perhaps even requires, exhumation and reburial with dignity and respect in a variety of circumstances, according to Rabbi Yitzchok Breitowitz, a noted American expert in Jewish law at the University of Maryland.

In one case Breitowitz cited in a forthcoming article on burial sites, disinterment was permitted by religious authorities because the remains were”likely to be damaged by water or sewer backups.”In another case, disinterment and removal was permitted where the deceased had mistakenly been buried on someone else’s land.

More broadly,”many a grave that damages or interferes with the rights of the public may be removed,”said Rabbi Shaul Yisraeli, director of Rav Kook, one of Jerusalem’s leading yeshivas. Yisraeli recently ruled that”any activity or project which adds beauty to the land of Israel is treated as a public benefit”and therefore justifies the removal of the remains.


Bones are usually encountered in an archaeological excavation unexpectedly. The archaeologist simply comes upon the bones, for example, in the destruction layer of a city. Even more common, graves are discovered in the course of construction excavation _ for an apartment complex, a road or a public building. When that happens, archaeologists are called in for what is known as a”rescue dig.” Archaeologists, for professional reasons aside from religious reasons, excavate bones extremely carefully and respectfully. (Recent claims by Gilman’s representative that he found bones strewn around at several sites where he was taken by the Atra Kadisha are extremely suspect; no representative of Israel’s Antiquities Authority was on the tour.)

In 1995 the Antiquities Authority delivered 594 boxes of bones to Israeli religious authorities for proper _ and respectful _ reburial. Only 4 percent could be identified as the bones of Jews; most were from pre-Israelite levels.

Once discovered, there is no way _ short of a 24-hour guard _ that a grave can be protected from vandals. If the grave is not excavated, allowing for reburial with dignity and respect, it will very likely be vandalized. Even the bodies of the pharaohs in the Pyramids of Egypt could not be protected from tomb robbers.

The situation is even worse with respect to burials encountered in construction excavation. If contractors are prevented from ultimately proceeding, they will simply bulldoze over the graves without notifying the authorities. No one will ever know that graves were encountered.

Even if this happens in a substantial number if cases, Jewish law sanctions disinterment and respectful reburial. In one case, the bones of a great rabbi were removed because of the threat of vandalism.

Relations between the archaeological community in Israel and the ultra-Orthodox are extremely hostile. A”pulsa danura,”the same kind of decree by religious extremists that permitted the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, has been declared against retired Gen. Amir Drori, the director of the Antiquities Authority. An explosive device was placed on the door of his home. Offices and cars of the Antiquities Authority have been burned and vandalized. Hordes of ultra-Orthodox have descended on archaeological sites where ancient Jewish burials are allegedly suspected, often without any evidence that Jewish bones are being encountered.


Unless the Israeli and American public are aroused, archaeology in Israel may be seriously endangered. Surely the Atra Kadisha does not deserve the support of the American Orthodox community.

MJP END SHANKS

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