The Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Ministry has announced plans to allocate approximately 10 million shekels ($3.2 million) to the preservation, rehabilitation, and rescue of heritage sites in Judea and Samaria.
Dozens of heritage and archaeological sites in Judea and Samaria and the Jordan Valley have been damaged in recent years by authorities in Ramallah as well as antiquities thieves in the Palestinian territories.
A further 1.5 million shekels will be allocated in 2022 toward reconstruction work at the Hasmonean royal winter palaces, a complex of Hasmonean and Herodian buildings near Jericho from the Second Temple period, after local Arab vandals damaged the site. Another one million shekels will go toward surveying the Judean Desert for archaeological sites.
The ministry is also funding a conservation team recently established by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority to locate and rehabilitate heritage sites targeted by vandals in recent years.
In addition to these efforts, the Knesset Education, Culture and Sports Committee will hold an urgent meeting on the issue of the destruction of archaeological and heritage sites in Judea and Samaria.
“In recent years, we are witness to the abandonment of and damage to heritage sites in Judea and Samaria,” said committee chairwoman New Hope MK Sharren Haskel. “We must protect and defend the places that tell our history, and to this end, I have decided to convene the education committee for an urgent discussion on the issue.”
This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.