What will happen to West Bank’s archaeological sites under Trump’s plan?

Perhaps unsurprisingly, considering in the Middle East nearly any spot underground reveals evidence of previous civilizations, the number of archaeological sites in the West Bank remains hard to pin down.

Estimations place the number at several thousand, 3,000 of which sit in Area C and are therefore under full Israeli control. They include some of the most crucial biblical sites in the land: sites connected to Jewish, Christian and Muslim

history, as well as sites that bear testimony to the different populations who have lived in the region, such as the Romans.

According to the status quo, in Area C, management, preservation and access to these sites, both for researchers and the public, are entrusted with the archaeology unit of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which also coordinates with the Palestinian Authority to allow limited access to specific sites located outside Area C. In the rest of the West Bank, the PA is the entity in charge, even though it has often been accused of neglecting its responsibilities that were assigned to it by the Oslo Accords.

If the current situation regarding the issue is complicated and characterized by a general lack of comprehensive information, what would happen in the case of a change in the status quo appears even more uncertain. In recent months, after the release of the Trump administration’s Middle East peace plan, the possibility of a change has

on Tuesday that UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov was the source for the report.

The report indicates Gantz and Ashkenazi are not in total agreement, with Ashkenazi putting forward more objections than Gantz, whose remarks show support for a sovereignty push, although it is unclear how extensive it would be.

Both Gantz and Ashkenazi have spoken of the importance of good relations with Jordan and Egypt. Jordan has warned that any annexation efforts would harm ties with Israel, including destroying the 1994 peace agreement between Israel and Jordan.

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman was in Washington on Tuesday for planned meetings with other officials involved in the US peacemaking effort, including special adviser to the president Jared Kushner and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to determine what kind of Israeli sovereignty moves the US would support. They were expected to discuss how to proceed if Gantz and Netanyahu do not agree.

Trump will have the final word on the matter, though the White House would not give an exact date for the decision. The president has a busy schedule in the coming days, with events in Wisconsin and Arizona, where he will go to the Mexican border, and a state visit from the Polish president.

A source familiar with the US peacemaking team’s talks denied a New York Times report that the White House is looking to push a nonbelligerence pact between Israel and the Gulf States as a sort of consolation prize for Netanyahu if annexation does not happen, so he can bring a victory back to his political base.

That is not how negotiations work, and the US cannot force the UAE to normalize ties with Israel if Jerusalem cancels annexation, the source said.

The UN Security Council is expected to meet on Wednesday to discuss the possibility of Israel extending its sovereignty in Judea and Samaria.

The UNSC debate has been opened to all interested parties. Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Palestinian Authority Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki are expected to participate.

“Annexation was a very dangerous measure that would undermine all prospects for peace,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi told reporters in an UNRWA virtual press conference on Tuesday.

“We continue to urge everyone who believes in peace and international law to speak against annexation and to act against annexation,” he said. “The window is narrowing. Annexation cannot happen.”

Susan Rice, a former US ambassador to the UN and national security adviser in the Obama administration, who has been shortlisted to be Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s running mate, said annexation would make bipartisan support for Israel “much harder to sustain.”

Many factors are making the twostate solution harder and harder to achieve, she said at a webinar hosted by the Israel Policy Forum. “But for that to be lost as the objective we all seek, that we continue to strive for, means that fundamentally, either Israel will no longer be able to sustain itself as a Jewish state, or it will no longer be able to sustain itself as a democracy,” Rice said, adding that “either outcome is one we have to try to avoid at all costs.”

Meanwhile, coalition chairman Miki Zohar (Likud) said this government and Knesset will never support the creation of a Palestinian state.

“With God’s help, we will apply sovereignty over the entire Land of Israel, at first in coordination with the American plan, over at least part of Judea and Samaria,” he said at the Sovereignty Movement’s protest tent in front of the Knesset. “But there is no way that we will allow the government or the Knesset to recognize the principle of establishing a Palestinian state, Heaven forbid.”

“The prime minister said clearly that he is willing to conduct negotiations based on the [Trump] plan, but not to allow the government or the Knesset to recognize the establishment of a Palestinian state,” Zohar said. •