Peloni: This is an outrageous attack on the historical evidence substantiating the intimate connection between the Jewish people and their ancestral lands. The antisemitic corruption of the West is intent upon delegitimizing our people even to the point of pretending that the ancient record of our ancient presence on these lands does not exist.
Political boycotts by global academia silence findings from Israel’s historic heartland, leaving ancient Jewish heritage at risk.
Israfan | April 25, 2025
In the hills of Judea and Samaria, where the stories of the Bible come to life in stone and soil, Israeli archaeologists are facing academic exile. Despite groundbreaking discoveries that illuminate ancient Jewish history, researchers are being shunned by international journals their work deemed untouchable, not for lack of scientific merit, but for its location.
Archaeologists like Dvir Raviv of Bar-Ilan University, who recently completed a season of excavations at Sartaba, a Hasmonean fortress from around 100 BCE, are unable to publish their findings in any major academic outlet. “I know I won’t be able to publish the results of my study in any of the leading publications,” Raviv says, pointing to a “clever boycott” enforced by a politically motivated academic elite.
The chilling effect is widespread. Even non-Israeli scholars face retribution for working in these areas. Dr. Scott Stripling, an American archaeologist leading excavations at biblical Shiloh, says his team’s findings are consistently rejected on political grounds. “If I wait for Middle East peace, my work will never be completed,” he says.
Following the 1993 Oslo Accords, Israeli archaeologists largely retreated from Areas A and B, where the Palestinian Authority assumed administrative control. But even in Area C, under full Israeli jurisdiction, research is obstructed not by local laws, but by international academic censorship.
“The biblical heartland remains critically understudied,” says Raviv. “To me, it’s an opportunity. But to humanity, it’s a loss.”
Judea and Samaria are rich with unparalleled archaeological value. Sites like Shiloh, Hebron, Sebastia, and Mount Ebal connect directly to biblical narratives. Abraham, Joshua, David, and Solomon walked these lands. Yet, the deliberate exclusion of scholarship from these regions paints a distorted picture of history.
Meanwhile, Palestinian efforts to erase Jewish heritage such as bulldozing antiquities or denying the Jewish connection to historic sites further threaten preservation. A recent survey by Israeli nonprofit Preserving the Eternal found that 80% of archaeological sites in Judea and Samaria have been damaged or destroyed over the past three decades.
Israeli archaeologists are fighting back. In February, the Israel Antiquities Authority hosted the first international conference on archaeology in Judea and Samaria, attended by scholars from around the world. But participants quickly faced backlash, blacklisting, and in some cases, removal from unrelated projects in Egypt and elsewhere.
For archaeologists like Oren Gutfeld, who has excavated Second Temple period ruins in the Judean Desert, the solution has been to publish locally. “Those interested will still find the information,” he says.
Yet the implications are clear. Without international acknowledgment, the academic world loses access to the historical evidence that forms the very roots of Western civilization.
This is not just about archaeology. It’s about truth, heritage, and identity. The Jewish connection to Judea and Samaria is not merely spiritual it is physical, documented in stone and scripture, waiting to be told.
Why not connect with Elon Musk and ask him if he is interested in opening a site on X for Culture, Arts, Sciences, etc…!
I hope you’re right. Perhaps I give too much importance to social media which is not the real world and, in many cases, not even real people.
I’ve gone back and forth and alter my position based on the current news cycle. Right now, I’m not happy with Marco Rubio’s comment about Iran having the right to “civilian” nuclear power. He certainly knows it won’t be confined to that and therefore Iran must be prevented from acquiring and enriching nuclear material altogether. Rubio used to have moral clarity on foreign policy. He seems to have sold his soul to be the SOS.
“… researchers are being shunned by international journals their work deemed untouchable, not for lack of scientific merit, but for its location.”
I see an enormous amount of cowardice involved. I can’t think why…
It may be a good idea for Israpundit to publish the sources of these archaeological publications (and their titles). These days we Jews should have all the resources necessary to shut some people up as well as to educate those who have a thirst to find things out. I exclude – of course – our “academic elites”. Some elites…
I read earlier that Trump denied that he stopped Israel from attacking Iran. I think he is leaving enough space to let Israel be the final decision-maker…
There’s nothing more disconcerting for the Jew-haters (I don’t like to use “anti-semites” or “Israel-haters”) than for Israel to utterly destroy its enemies. I don’t have to tell anyone that such destruction will allow Israel to grow immensely.
Need I say more?
@Laura
Your assertion that the authors of the couple dozen posts in that thread (when I read thru it after you posted) represent Maga is surreal. Such confirmation biased evidence ignores the potential of many of these posts being the result of some antisemitic bot-farm or anti-Maga activists, while also ignoring the reality that antisemites voted for both Trump and Biden, Owens and Carlson being two prominent examples to cite. Such elements in the MAGA movement are, however , a strict minority, as the MAGA agenda is the most philosemitic movement in US history, and this is not changed by those such as Carlson and Owens who are trying to redirect MAGA towards an antisemitic bias.
Still, while ignoring this claim, much of what you wrote is fairly based, while unrelated to the random X thread.
You never trusted Trump.
We will see. No deal is a good deal. Armed intervention and regime change is all that will possibly end Iran’s dreams of being a nuclear power.
I 100% agree.
I would only disagree with you by substituting the word ‘many’ for ‘some’.
This, I would argue, has already taken place in the recent NYT reveal surrounding Israel’s intended attack on Iran.
Again, I would argue that this should not be seen as controversial in the least. The Koch invasion of Trump’s administration is just one easy source to cite, as well as the pro-Iran Gabbard, to name a second.
No one has addressed the antisemitism within the MAGA movement which I exposed on that X thread I posted. I had faith that Trump in the end will stop Iran. But I no longer trust Trump on Israel any more than I did the Biden regime. My initial instincts were correct in that Trump is going to make a deal with Iran because that’s what he does. He will pretend that he prevented Iran from getting nukes just like Obama pretended. Trump rightly said that was a bad deal and that he’ll make a better one. There are no “good” deals to be made with the islamo-nazis in Tehran regarding nuclear power. It’s an oil rich nation which does not need nuclear power for civilian purposes. Iran will bide its time until Trump is out of office and then weaponize when either a Democrat or an isolationist MAGA successor from the GOP takes office.The only guarantee of stopping it is to physically destroy its nuclear sites. Furthermore, I do not trust some of the people surrounding Trump. Should Israel inform Trump of its plan of attack, there are people who would leak that to the press in order to sabotage it. That is the concern I had with the Biden regime. There are equally anti-Israel elements within the Trump administration regardless of whether folks here are willing to admit that.