Press Release
August 13, 2009

The Israel Antiquities Authority dispatched a letter of denunciation to the
World Archaeological Congress:

"Instead of Archaeology, You are Talking Politics"

The congress, which is currently meeting in Ramallah, is discussing, among
other things, the excavations in Jerusalem but no Israeli representatives
were asked to participate

The World Archaeological Congress (wac) is presently convening
archaeologists from all over the world in a conference entitled "Overcoming
Structural Violence". The congress, which is taking place in Ramallah, did
not invite the Israel Antiquities Authority despite the fact that some of
the topics being discussed at the conference deal with regions in Jerusalem
where an archaeological excavation is being conducted exclusively by the
IAA. In this way the organization is introducing the conflict into the
professional side of archaeology.

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.

According to Dr. Uzi Dahari, Deputy Director of the Israel Antiquities
Authority, "An international archaeological congress does not act this way.
The congress came to a region where there is a conflict and chooses to
present one side of the story. It is forbidden that such a thing should
happen. For example, it is professionally unethical that an international
archaeological forum will tour sites without the knowledge of the
archaeologists who are excavating them. In addition, the congress uses the
names of sites as they are referred to by one side only (e.g. the congress
refers to the Temple Mount in English as Haram al Sharif). It would be best
if the World Archaeological Congress would focus on archaeology and not on
politics".

Yoli Shwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority Spokesperson -
E-mail - dovrut@israntique.org.il /972-52-5991888