[CPProt.net] Bar-Ilan delays archaeology meet to protest IAA complaint

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Last update - 01:27 07/12/2005
Bar-Ilan delays archaeology meet to protest IAA complaint
By Amiram Barkat

Bar-Ilan University has postponed indefinitely its annual archaeology
conference in protest over a police complaint lodged by the Israel
Antiquities Authority (IAA) against Dr. Hanan Eshel, a senior member of the
school's archaeology department.

The IAA submitted the complaint after Eshel allegedly failed to turn over a
rare artifact in his possession. According to the IAA, an indictment is to
be issued shortly against the archaeologist. 

The Archaeological Council, Israel's senior professional body of
archaeologists, which advises the IAA, objected to the authority's move. It
said disciplinary procedures might have been opened against Eshel before a
police complaint was lodged. Dozens of archaeologists signed a petition
recently condemning the IAA action.

The rector of Bar-Ilan University, Prof. Yosef Yeshurun, announced the
postponement of the conference, which focuses on new research in the study
of Jerusalem and is considered the most prominent scientific conference in
the field. The IAA, many of whose staff were to have lectured at the
conference, said it was shocked at Bar-Ilan's decision. "The IAA views
gravely any attempt to interfere in its considerations and to influence
procedures that are being implemented in accordance with the law," an IAA
spokeswoman said.

Bar-Ilan called its move "delicate and minimal" in light of "the harm the
IAA has done to academe in Israel by treating a senior scholar like a common
criminal."

http://www.haaretz.com/