On this West Bank hilltop, a fight over the past will determine who controls the future
Sebastia’s archaeological mound lies in Area C of the West Bank, under full Israeli civil and security control according to the Oslo Accords, while the adjacent town and its tourism infrastructure sit in area B, under mixed Palestinian-Israeli jurisdiction.“The government’s only interest is Jewish heritage, erasing thousands of years of human existence in this area,” said Alon Arad, director of the Israeli organization Emek Shaveh, which tracks archaeology in the West Bank.
The Palestinian Authority is now lobbying to move Sebastia from UNESCO’s tentative list, where it has sat since 2012, to the full World Heritage list, and Arad hopes UNESCO inscription might restrain further Israeli actions.
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