PA Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities declares Israel tries take over Palestinians archaeological sites

Headline: “The [PA] Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities: The occupation’s law to take control of Palestinian archaeological sites is a violation of the international conventions”

“The [PA] Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said that the occupation’s new law allowing the occupation authorities to take control of archaeological sites in the Palestinian areas (sic., refers to government decision, not law, to develop and preserve Jewish archaeological sites in the West Bank) constitutes a severe and unprecedented violation of the 1993 Declaration of Principles [on Interim Self-Government Arrangements] (Oslo I) [parentheses in source], of the 1995 Taba Agreement (Oslo II) [parentheses in source], and of the rest of the understandings that were achieved later on between the Palestinian side and the Israeli side (sic., while the Oslo Accords gave the PA responsibility over archaeological sites in Areas A and B of the West Bank, the PA did not uphold its obligations to protect the sites from vandalism and destruction, to ensure access, and to establish a joint committee of experts to manage the sites, thereby necessitating Israeli intervention).

In a statement, the ministry said: ‘The goal of the decision is also to annex additional occupied Palestinian territories, and as a result of it the Palestinian people will be banished from its land and its heritage, and its cultural identity with human value will be stolen (sic., the Palestinians have no history prior to the modern period). Its goal is also to take control of the immobile and mobile Palestinian heritage, and to falsify it with a fake biblical story that serves the ideological settler policy and motives.’”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 18, 2023]