TEL AVIV – A leading archaeology journal has effectively barred submissions by Israelis on Judea and Samaria unless they “have cooperated with the relevant Palestinian authorities,” in what analysts say is a microcosm of the harm caused by a global campaign to whitewash the Jewish people’s history in the Land of Israel.
According to a report recently published by The Press Service of Israel (TPS-IL), the Palestine Exploration Quarterly (PEQ)—a peer-reviewed journal of the London-based Palestine Exploration Fund (PEF)—is refusing to accept submissions from researchers affiliated with institutions operating in what it refers to as “occupied territory,” citing concerns over alleged Israeli violations of international law.
“Publication in PEQ is guided by the PEF’s ethical policy. The main aspect of this is international law, by which many academic institutions and publications, including PEQ, are bound,” Charlotte Whiting, the journal’s editor-in-chief, told TPS-IL.
The journal’s website states that it “does not collaborate with institutions founded by an occupying power based in any occupied territory, and will not support, encourage, fund, or publish research by any academic associated with such institutions.”
Israeli archaeologists told TPS-IL that any cooperation with Palestinian authorities or colleagues was practically impossible, because they “would be treated as traitors for this.” They also said that their work is in many instances shunned by the broader academic world and, as such, researchers are forgoing focus on the biblically significant areas of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) to protect their careers.
“What we’re seeing is a deliberate attempt to undermine Jewish historical ties to the land,” Yishai Fleisher, international spokesman for Hebron, the cradle of Jewish civilization located in Judea, told Fox News Digital. “There are three strategies at play: the Palestinians either acknowledge Jews were once here but argue they no longer belong, deny any Jewish connection at all, or destroy the evidence outright.”
Fleisher noted ongoing efforts by Palestinian authorities and others to rename historical Jewish sites. “They call Hebron ‘Al-Khalil,’ and the Cave of the Patriarchs becomes the ‘Ibrahimi Mosque.’ The Temple Mount is now the ‘Al-Aqsa complex,’ and Rachel’s Tomb has been rebranded as the ‘Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque,’” he said.
To counter this, he says Israeli advocates are working to mark and preserve ancient Jewish landmarks. “We added an Israeli flag and a menorah to a building originally constructed by King Herod 2,000 years ago—which itself stands atop a tomb dating back 3,500 years—to make it unmistakably clear it’s a Jewish site, despite the later addition of three minarets by Muslim conquerors.”
The Palestinian Authority, which gained non-member observer state status at the United Nations in 2012, has been spearheading the campaign to rewrite history in global forums that contain automatic anti-Israel majorities.
Among them is the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), which in 2016 registered the Cave of the Patriarchs—the resting place of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and their wives Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah located in Hebron—in the name of the “State of Palestine” on its “List of World Heritage in Danger.” More recently, UNESCO, in September 2023, named the Tell es-Sultan site near Jericho, which contains ruins dating back to the ninth millennium BCE, including evidence of one of humanity’s first-known villages, as a “World Heritage Site in Palestine.”
In December 2021, the United Nations General Assembly passed a non-binding resolution referring to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site—located in Jerusalem but beyond the 1967 borders—only by its Muslim name, “Haram al-Sharif.” In September 2024, P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas called the Temple Mount the “exclusive property of Muslims.” Last week, Abbas said in a rare televised speech that the Koran describes the Jewish Temple as being in Yemen.
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Naomi Khan, director of the international division at Regavim, a think tank focused on Israeli sovereignty, said the P.A. is actively building over key archaeological sites as part of this initiative.
“In Solomon’s Pools, which is under P.A. jurisdiction in accordance with the Oslo Accords, they’re constructing condominiums directly on top of ancient Jewish infrastructure,” Khan told Fox News Digital. “These are internationally recognized heritage sites, but the agreements are being violated.
She cited the Hasmonean fortresses near Jericho as a major example. “The burial grounds of Hasmonean kings—the largest necropolis in the Middle East from the Second Temple period—have been plowed and used for farming and construction. In one case, we found human bones scattered in the fields. The Israeli Civil Administration had to collect and rebury them.”
Khan also referenced Sebastia, the Greco-Roman name for the ancient city of Samaria. Originally founded by King Omri in the 9th century BC, Samaria became the capital of the northern Kingdom of Israel, as noted in the Hebrew Bible (1 Kings 16:24). It served as the kingdom’s capital until it fell to the Assyrians in 722 BCE. Centuries later, Herod the Great rebuilt the city and renamed it Sebaste—Sebastia in later usage—in honor of the Roman Emperor Augustus, whose name in Greek, “Sebastos,” carried the same imperial meaning.
In March of last year, Palestinian construction workers built an illegal road through Sebastia, which is located near the city of Nablus, also known by its biblical name, Shechem.
Khan said other sites facing encroachment include Joshua’s Altar, where a new Palestinian neighborhood is being developed nearby, and Joseph’s Tomb, which is largely inaccessible to Jewish Israelis
“I’m disgusted, but not concerned,” Sandra Hagee Parker, Chairwoman of the Christians United for Israel Action Fund, told Fox News Digital in a statement. “Where are the Romans, Ottomans, and Crusaders? The enemies of Israel are remembered only for their ultimate defeat by the God of Abraham and His children.
“Moreover, the grotesque effort to deny the Jewish connection to the Land is a rejection of God Himself,” she continued. “It is both antisemitic and anti-Christian—and it will never succeed. My only concern is that America continues to stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel and her people,” she added.
Ze’ev Orenstein, Director of International Affairs at the Jerusalem-based City of David Foundation, stressed that “from its inception in 1964, the Palestine Liberation Organization—the forerunner of today’s Palestinian Authority—was founded on the denial of thousands of years of Jewish history and heritage rooted in the Land of Israel in general, and in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria—the Biblical heartland—in particular.
“This denial,” Orenstein told Fox News Digital, “aimed to delegitimize and undermine the Jewish people’s legal, moral and historical right to sovereignty in the Land of Israel, portraying a people with some of the deepest archaeological ties to the land as occupiers and colonizers.
“For that reason, the Islamic Waqf carried out a campaign of systematic destruction of antiquities atop the Temple Mount in the late 1990s, and Palestinian leadership continues to deny, damage, and destroy Jewish heritage sites throughout Judea and Samaria,” he said.
In response, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in July 2023 announced a $33 million program to safeguard and rehabilitate archaeological sites in the biblical heartland.
“In every corner of Judea and Samaria, one need only to put spade to ground in order to uncover archaeological finds that attest to our deep roots in the Land of Israel,” Netanyahu said at the time. “This plan will encourage tourism, education and [present] information for these important sites that tell the story of our people in Judea and Samaria.”
Rev. Dr. Petra Heldt, professor at the Jerusalem University College and director of the Ecumenical Theological Research Fraternity in Israel, cited biblical texts and ongoing excavations as proof of longstanding Jewish presence in the region.
“There are hundreds of biblical place names showing Jews lived in Judea and Samaria since the time of Abraham,” Heldt told Fox News Digital. “The Palestinian Authority has tried to erase this evidence, but it’s nearly impossible to eliminate.”
Heldt pointed to Shiloh as a thriving example, with an active kibbutz and archaeological site where new discoveries are regularly unearthed. “Jewish communities are not only living in their ancestral homeland—they’re documenting it. You can see the impact of various layers of occupation over the last hundred years.”
According to Heldt, whose organization hosts global lectures and educational programs on archaeological findings in Judea and Samaria, more international support is needed to protect these sites. “We must involve the media, universities, artists, filmmakers and writers to tell these stories and make these places matter globally,” she said.
The struggle to preserve Jewish historical sites in Judea and Samaria is not just about stones or ruins—it’s a battle over narrative, legitimacy and identity, according to the experts.
“The way to fight this is to build, to educate and to assert our sovereignty,” Hebron’s Fleisher said. “That’s how we strengthen our connection to the land and protect the truth of our history.”
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