On April 2, the Israel Exploration Society abruptly canceled what would have been the country’s largest and most prestigious annual gathering of archaeologists. The Archaeological Congress, an annual fixture for nearly 50 years, was called off by its organizers following pressure from far-right Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu to exclude Tel Aviv University professor Raphael (Rafi) Greenberg. “I will not let the wild weeds of academia who are working to promote boycotts of their fellow archaeologists spit into the well of the heritage from which the people of Israel drink,” the minister wrote on X.

In the eyes of Eliyahu and the right-wing NGOs who agitated for Greenberg’s ousting, the professor’s most immediate offense was an open letter he penned a month prior. There, he had urged Israeli and international colleagues to boycott the “First International Conference on Archaeology and Site Conservation of Judea and Samaria” at the luxury Dan Jerusalem Hotel in the city’s eastern half — the first of its kind held in internationally-recognized occupied territory.  …..more