Antiquities Law – 1978 The Antiquities Law is the basis for the enforcement activities by the Israel Antiquities Authority. The law defines ancient sites and antiquities. According to the Law, development of any work at a declared antiquities site can be carried out only according to conditions laid down by the Director of the Authority. The Director has the authority to halt development work, even at an non-declared antiquities site, if antiquities are being damaged as a result of the work.

Israel Antiquities Authority Law
Until 1989 the Antiquities Department in the Ministry of Education was in charge of archaeology in the public domain. Following the legislation of the Antiquities Authority law, a governmental authority was founded in April 1, 1990. The founder and first Director, the late General (res.) Amir Drori, dramatically expanded the organization and turned it into a body with broad national deployment and substantial enforcement capabilities.

List of Antiquities Sites
The list of antiquities sites is published in the collection of publications of the State of Israel, put out by the Ministry of Justice. The publication of the sites gives them a legal status and enables the Israel Antiquities Authority to enforce the law within their area. The first such list was published in 1964. Thirteen amendments to this list, including some several hundred sites, had been published until the establishment of the Israel Antiquities Authority. Since the founding of the Authority, about 70 amendments have been published; listing approximately 30,000 recognized sites, a scope unprecedented anywhere in the world. When planning any development project it is of the utmost importance to examine the antiquities sites professionally and in detail, within the development areas. 

Appeals Committee
The Antiquities Law states that an Appeals Committee must be established to handle appeals concerning the Antiquities Law. The committee is headed by a lawyer and the procedure is semi judicial. The law defines the method and timetable for the submission of an appeal.

Regulations
In addition to the Antiquities Law, a series of regulations were subsequently issued, constituting by-laws. The most significant regulations for the public are the fee regulations (2001), stating that a set fee must be paid for every square meter of excavation, in order to obtain a development permit within an antiquities site.  

Important Decisions and Legal PrecedentsSince the Antiquities Law and accompanying regulations were sometimes not worded clearly, and since the Israel Antiquities Authority staff occasionally misinterpreted the law, the courts have had to address various issues related to the Antiquities Law and the Authority's policy. The most famous ruling was given by Supreme Court Justice Zamir in petition 4145/95: "The Antiquities Law can be interpreted, and in my opinion should be interpreted, in a way which requires the Antiquities Authority to check if an area contains antiquities within a reasonable amount of time from the request; it should fund the examination and excavation in the field, rather than the owners." The judge added: "It is naïve and unrealistic to perceive the relations between the Authority and the developers as a purely contractual relationship.  The real relations are imposed ones, because it is clear that the contract is not drawn up because the owners are interested in discovering if the site they own contains antiquities, but because otherwise they would be forbidden to build or make any other use of their property."

Planning projects on properties containing antiquities must begin with a study of the property, much in the same way as the topographic, planning status, and infrastructure conditions are also examined. Planning based on a comprehensive field study, as well as a study of the administrative and research history of the plot by Kedem consultants will ultimately prevent unnecessary expenses and delays in the planning procedures.

Kedem consultants can provide planning tools which minimize the planners’ interface with antiquities, thus hastening the implementation of the project.

Development projects are usually launched with a well-established business plan. However, many developers consider archaeology as a force majeure whose impact cannot be anticipated, and one can only pray that its "damage" be minimal. Despite the many unknown factors faced when dealing with archaeology, it is definitely possible to predict future expenditures within reasonable margins of error.

The Kedem consulting team is capable of evaluating future expenditures due to the finding of antiquities during the preparatory proceedings of a real estate tender. Such an evaluation is achieved by studying the research and history of the site, and by constructing models based on adjacent areas with similar features. This procedure is applies when the site may include ancient or historical structures designated for conservation and reconstruction.

Without professional consultation, the planner may encounter large expenditures, as well as long delays in the planning procedures. Kedem's archaeological consultant will act as the planner's representative throughout the dialogue with the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Many governmental agencies are required to conduct surveys and rescue excavations, and preserve structures. Some offices and companies are inclined to accept the Israel Antiquities Authority's instructions without examining the requirements, their costs and their influence on the construction schedule.

This approach is completely wrong! Just as large organizations rely on professional consultation in areas such as: architecture, law, accounting, etc., it is equally necessary to use an archaeological consultant familiar with the relevant laws. Carrying out work at an antiquities site should be done only after thorough planning. 

The law requiring a tender (1992) and the exemptions to this law (1993) obligate government ministries to issue a tender when ordering any service, including archaeological services. The exemption regulations describe a defined process that grants an exemption from a tender in rare and exceptional cases. Managing tenders in the field of archaeology requires professional experience.

The Israel Antiquities Authority instructions can often be flexible. Since the taxpayers' money is spent for archaeological services, a professional should supervise the expenses and implementation, and accordingly authorize the payments.

Leading government ministries and companies our professionals has previously worked with:

• The Housing Ministry
• Ma'atz – Israel Public Works Authority
• Israel Railways
• Israel Lands Administration

Mekorot – Israel National Water Company

Many private companies are required to meet the demands of the Israel Antiquities Authority as a precondition to development projects. Of the utmost importance for the private sector are:

• Reducing costs
• Being efficient and sticking to deadlines
• Monetary and operational planning

These goals can be met by integrating Kedem's archaeological consultant into the team, beginning from the very planning stages of the project. The following leading companies have benefited from our consultation in the past:

• Africa Israel Investments
• Danya Cebus
• Azorim
• Moriah
• Netivei Hayovel
• Derech Eretz

Municipal authorities are required to appoint a professional consultant to accompany any planning procedures. A new approach, which has become popular in the last 20 years in western countries (though Israel is still in its first stages), has been to involve the community, thus providing added value to the municipal project. Community archaeology has turned things around - while until recently archaeology’s purpose had been to serve the site and the researcher, with other issues serving as only a means to this end, the community approach maintains that the site and researcher should be secondary and the goal should be the benefit to the community. Adopting a site or sites within the community can become a crucial tool in empowering the community, by enhancing individuals' awareness of their surroundings, encouraging them to take responsibility for the environment, arousing curiosity as to the settlement’s past, and eventually instilling a sense of identification and pride in their place of residence. Community archaeology has proved especially successful within communities made up of different groups that had previously shown limited cooperation.

As pioneers in this field, we can help authorities develop communal archaeology and use it to pool resources for the benefit of the community and the municipality.