Awad Al-Rajoub-Hebron
Do you want to have the effects of thousands of years old, or wandering in Roman tombs or caves? Yes, it is possible and the effects are at hand in many locations in Palestine, but beware that the law is very harsh about trafficking in antiquities.
(1200-586 BC) are held by the Palestinian citizen "MR" in his house, part of a group of pieces found during excavations at an archaeological site west of the city of Hebron in the southern West Bank. .
| Antique artifacts used in the Iron Age (Al Jazeera Net) |
Most of the archaeological sites in Palestine are classified as "C" areas, which are under full Israeli control, which prevents them from being followed by official Palestinian bodies.
The Palestinian citizen was able to sell other pieces and kept the rest of the price low. These are not the effects of the Arab brokers, who in turn transfer them to Israeli merchants.
| An artifact is the face of the beetle and it has a drawing indicating the ascension of a lion to a deer (Al Jazeera Net) |
Price is higher
The artefacts - especially the pottery that is written in Hebrew - have the highest prices, while the Islamic monuments are less expensive and can not be bought.
The areas of the West Bank witnessed waves of illegal excavation of the ruins, and experts estimate the number of artifacts smuggled annually from Palestine by about two hundred thousand pieces.
"Archaeological excavations have reached a peak during the first intifada and the Gulf War, and then in the Al-Aqsa Intifada and continuing today," he said, pointing to many sites dating back thousands of years, still deserted and neglected by the official authorities.
| Asjara of the Iron Age (Al Jazeera Net) |
He pointed out that local brokers are negotiating the purchase of rare and precious pieces, and then sell them to the Israeli antiquities merchants at double prices according to their quality and importance. The bride's court (a religious symbol at the time) reached 15,000 dollars.
According to the accounts of residents of the town of Koum west of Hebron, former Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Dayan was preparing himself to buy the antiquities from the population after the occupation of the West Bank in 1967.
| Bride without a head of the Iron Age (Al Jazeera Net) |
Secrets of the profession
Regarding the secrets of this profession, the Palestinian citizen explains that some of the archeologists found mass graves, one of them in a well, and among them they found a vasa in a skull, but they are free of any traces, indicating that they were completely stripped before burying and taking all that is used.
It shows that the effects are usually in individual graves, believing those burying bodies with life after death. There are food, decorative, ornamental utensils, etc.
According to the Palestinian Ministry of Antiquities, the West Bank has more than 7,000 registered archaeological sites and tens of thousands of historical sites and sites, but most of them are located in designated "C" areas, which are under full Israeli control, preventing the prosecution or prosecution of offenders.
The Roman ruins are the most widespread in Palestine. There are caves, palaces and churches that still exist today. Most of them are completely neglected and may be damaged by infrastructure works and roads.
| Effects of the Iron Age in the possession of a Palestinian (Al Jazeera Net) |
Protection challenges
The researcher specializing in archeology Ahmed Al-Rajoub refers to a number of challenges that prevent the protection of archaeological sites, most of which are related to the control of the occupation over Area C. On the one hand, there is an urban encroachment on archaeological sites in Areas A and B under the control of the Palestinian Authority, Second, the Authority can not play its role in pursuing the prospectors in Area C.
International law requires the occupying state to protect the cultural heritage and archaeological sites of the occupied state, but the Oslo agreement was destructive to the ruins and postponed this file to the final solution, according to Rajoub, who estimated the artifacts smuggled from the West Bank in millions of pieces that arrived all over the world.
| Iron Age Pottery (Al Jazeera Net) |
Rajoub, director general of the World Heritage at the Palestinian Ministry of Antiquities, accompanied us to a Roman cave in the Qassatin area, officially registered as an archeological site. He explained how a mill was used, and its uses were later expanded.
The Palestinian law imposes a penalty of between 3 and 10 years and a fine of up to 130 thousand dollars on trafficking in antiquities. Last year, a law was issued that considers all that was before 1917 an essential part of the Palestinian cultural heritage, and signed a number of relevant international conventions.
There are four Palestinian sites on the World Heritage list, including the Old City of Jerusalem and its Wall, the birthplace of Jesus in Bethlehem, and the cultural landscape of the southern Jerusalem-Betir and Old Hebron terraces.