The Israel/Palestine conflict is one of the longest running and most intractible human rights and social justice issues in the modern world, with complex interractions and multiple political cultural and religious viewpoints.
The latest phase of the conflict was initiated by the Hamas led atrocities launchd from Gaza on 7 October 2023 which led to a massive relaliation by the Israeli Government, focussed on the Palestinian controlled, Hamas governed Gaza Strip which as of 3 May 2026, has led to the deaths of at least 75,811 people (73,770+ Palestinians
and 2,039 Israelis. It is broadly accepted that some 80% of the Palestinians killed are civilians, around 30% of them children.
The war has since been extended to the Occupied Palestinian Territories in the West Bank, to South Lebanon and Beirut, and most recently, to Iran.
In the Autumn of 2025 the European Association of Archaeologists, Europe’s leading representative body for archaeologists, which, like the Eurovision Song Contest extends the definition of Europe to include Israel, faced calls from members and outside campaigning groups, to adopt a policy critical of the actions of the Israeli Government in Gaza
and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In particular ahead of the EAA’s Annual Meeting in Belgrade, the ruling Executive Board voted on a proposal to require participants from Israel to appear as individuals, without affiliations to Israeli academic or Governmental bodies.
That vote set in train a chain of events which led to ongoing termoil within the organisation and, in 2026, the resignation of the editors of both of the EAA’s publications, The Europen Archaeologist Newsletter and the Journal of European Archaeology, a significant journal of record published in partnership with the Cambridge University Press.
In late May 2026, shortly after their resignations were announced, former Editor Dr Zena KAmash and Deputy Editor Dr MArianne Moen, sat down for an interview with the Watching Brief podcast.
This is a timeline of the events which brought the European Association of Archaeologists to its current situation.
2025
19 August 2025
The Executive Board of the European Association of Archaeologists receives an open letter about the situation in Gaza from the campaigning group, Archaeologists Against Apartheid (AAA). The letter is signed by signed by more than 1200 individual signatories, around 30% of whom are understood to be current EAA members. The letter calls on the EAA to
22 August 2025
The Executive Board holds an ad hoc meeting which votes by a clear majority to remove the institutional/governmental affiliations of Israeli archaeologists attending the Belgrade Virtual Annual Meeting.
Three EAA Advisory Committees and the Statutes Committee are also consulted for broader advice.
By the end of August, the EAA receives 92 letters and e-mails about the controversy.
1 September 2025
Amid accusations of intimidation of some EB members and that the President of the EAA Eszther Banffy, or at least those close to her, are lobbying to have the decision on Israeli attendees reversed, at the regular Board meeting, two issues are voted on:
(1) whether to reverse the decision on Israeli affiliations, and
(2) whether to endorse the President’s idea of a long-term strategy separating archaeology – in the context of the EAA as an academic society – from political activism.
Both votes pass by a simple majority.
2 September 2025
Protest emails as well as a call to action against the EAA from the Black Trowel collective reach the EAA.
Shortly before the Opening Ceremony, the Officers present in Belgrade first appreciated the implications of another communication by the AAA, which called on presenters to read out political messages during sessions.
EAA Officers issue an immediate, badly worded instruction which, critics allege, places volunteer session organisaers in the position of censoring speakers who seek to comment on the issues of Palestine and the EAA leadership’s handling of the controversy.
After an angry response from session organisers and members the instruction is withdrawn.
In a subsequent report, published in the issue 86 of The European Archaeologist, EAA President Ezther Banffy Sally Foster (Secretary), and Ariane Ballmer (Vice-President), state,
,
“Our action was insensitive especially given the Serbian political context including the ongoing student protests, and the local student body being a source of many of our volunteers. The pressure we were under at the time shaped our inadequate communications, for
which we sincerely apologise to everyone.”
3 September 2025
A clarifying announcement reaffirms the EAA’s support for academic freedom and free speech, while also emphasizing the need to respect participants’ boundaries.
Apologies are sent to session organisers and volunteers.
Sessions and papers are withdrawn and several national bodies express opposition to the EAA leadership’s stance.
54 protest messages have protested the reversal of the original decision to have Israeli archaeologists attend as individuals.
Archaeologists Against Apartheid and Genocide issue an open letter calling on EAA members to e-mail EB members to express concern at the EAA’s actions, and for the resignations of those responsible for the volte face.
The letter also calls for supporters to “peacefully disrupt and denounce” the meeting in person and on Social Media.
4 September 2025
The letter from Archaeologists Against Apartheid reaches the EAA and which the EAA leadership takes to be a call to disrupt the Belgrade meeting.
5 September 2025
The Institute of Archaeologists of Ireland issue a statement which says, in part,
“…the IAI Board has voted to withdraw from the EAA session ‘Archaeological Adventures: The Benefits and Challenges Associated With Working in Multiple Countries and/or Systems’ which was to take place on Saturday (6 September 2025).
…We want to gratefully acknowledge the time and effort of this session’s organisers and participants. Ultimately, the IAI Board feel it is important to take a stand and speak up on behalf of those who cannot.”
The issues to date are discussed under Any Other Business at the Annual Members Business Meeting (AMBM).
10 September 2025
A campaign begins calling for a Special Meeting of the EAA to discuss the genocide in Gaza and the handling of the situation by the EAA’s Executive Board.
10 November 2025
The editors of the European Archaeologists, Dr Samantha Reiter and Dr Matthew Walsh, publish issue 86, inviting members to submit letters
“We would like to use this occasion to make an open call for Letters to the Editors that express your opinions on recent events and which present suggestions and ideas for the future trajectory of the EAA as an institution. Things are still developing, and the results of the per rollam
voting will give an indication of the future direction of the EAA. What we would like to offer you here is a space for open dialogue. We will make a selection of entries for inclusion in the upcoming 2026 Winter Issue. We promise to do our utmost to give equal weight to each side of the debate(s)
that have emerged from the 2025 AM and AMBM.”
The editorial also includes this quotation from the book, When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill,
“I was four years old when I first saw a dragon. I was four years old when I first learned to be silent about dragons. Perhaps this is how we learn silence—an absence of words, an absence of context, a hole in the universe where the truth should be.”
A Special Meeting of the EAA is announced
22 December 2025,
The EA leadership releases two downloadable PDF lists of both current and former EAA Members and included both names and EEA ID numbers.
There are immediate protests that this is a breach of privacy and misuse of member’s data opening up members to abuse and harassment..
The EAA Leadership respond that the release is to ensure due process is being followed on the upcoming votes and that it has advice the release is permissible because the date was handed over voluntarily.
2026
Winter 2026
It is reported that the EAA management seeks legal advice from Czech lawyers, potentially with a view to seeking the prosecution of opponents who might be accused of anti-Semitism.
6 January 2026
The EAA social media manager announces on Facebook that letters to TEA editors can be anonymous.
9 January 2026
The EAA Special Meeting is held.
It is announced that 67% of members voting support the motion that the EAA should exclude Israeli institutions, but not individuals, from participation in EAA Annual Meetings.
Another motion, that 79% of members voting did not support the actions of the Executive Board at the Belgrade meeting.
The EAA leadership is accused of burying the results of the votes in the text of a long document, allegedly in an attempt to downplay their significance.
In a measure of how heated the debate has become at least one participant, a senior academic, is subject to a complaint over an alleged breach of the EAA’s own Safe Space policy in regard to references made to another participant which were regarded as demeaning and intimidating.
10 January 2026
Dr Zena Kamash is among members of the EAA who submit complaint to Anti-Harassment Committee (AAHC) of the EAA..
TEA editors are informed that anonymising letters will need to be reviewed by AAHC
12 January 2026
European Journal of Archaeology editors, Dr Kamash and Dr Moen, the European Archaeologist [TEA] editors and the European Associatio of Archaeologists social media manager, are informed that, contrary to previous practice, they can now only attend EAA Board meetings by invitation.
The EAA leadership informs them that this is due to time constraints brought about by an increase in business.
This is understood to be the last communication that the President of the Executive Board makes directly to EJA editors.
20 January 2026
The AAHC meets and recommends that letters to TEA may be published anonymously.
The Executive Board overrules the advice.
21 January 2026
Archaeologists Against Apartheid and Genocide and the Black Trowel Collective call for a boycott of the EAA Annual Meeting due to be held in Athens.
5 February 2026
The editors of The European Archaeologist [TEA] newsletter resign, apparently over their decision to allow anonymised responses to the Gaza controversy to be published in TEA being overruled.
11 February 2026
The EAA Executive Board announces its new ‘road map’ and the formation of a ‘task force’ following per rollam votes announced at the January Special Meeting.
13 February 2026
Eleven current and former EJA editors and editorial board members, write to the ExB in support of the TEA editors, Dr Reiter and Dr Walsh, and claiming that the EB’s action in overruling the commitment to allow anonymous contributions was an infringement of editorial independence and represented a disregard for the safety and security of EAA members.
20 February 2026
The ExB responds to letter in support of TEA editors asking that they be reinstated with no detriment.
3 March 2026
Issue 87 of the European Archaeologist newsletter is published.
It includes a statement from the EAA Appeal and Anti Harassment Committee [AAHC] which states,
“In the aftermath of the Belgrade EAA meeting the AAHC was inundated with complaints from members, many of which involved several individuals and all of which were complex and required sensitive handling.”
As of May 2026 it is understood some are still under investigation.
The Newsletter letters page is headed by this statement,
*Editors’ Note: of the total of fourteen Letters to the Editors which were submitted, three were subsequently withdrawn. These withdrawals were due to the ExB’s decisions to delay the release of TEA 87 and to not allow for anonymous Letters to the Editor. As the possibility of anonymous Letters to the Editor had been requested by Members
and was eventually recommended as a course of action by the AAHC after their review of the situation, we (Sam Reiter and Matthew Walsh) resigned our editorship of TEA in February 2026.”
The statement continued,
We regret that not all contributions could be included due to the decision to not allow for anonymity. We feel that this goes against the nature of the Safe Space policy. The sad reality is that some persons do not benefit from the same job security and working environments as do others. It is a shame that they should be silenced, and also
a shame that we will not get to read what they wrote.
We wish to express our gratitude to everyone that submitted a Letter, named or anonymously. Further, we offer our sincere thanks to those persons who chose to remain named in the Letters you find below.”
2 April 2026
The EAA issues a statement on the appropriation by the Israeli authorities of the acropolis of Sebastia in the Occupied West Bank. The statement says in part,
“The EAA is concerned that the Israeli authorities are making use of archaeology in pursuit of political goals in a way that violates international law and contravenes the Oslo agreements.
What is unfolding at Sebastia and other sites of cultural significance in the Occupied Palestinian territories is a clear act of seizing control of archaeology and cultural heritage that involves the expropriation of land, cultural deprivation and the displacement or dislocation of people and communities. We call upon all archaeologists, heritage
practitioners, academic and professional bodies concerned with cultural heritage — in Israel and internationally — to take a principled and unequivocal stand against the misuse of their discipline for these blatantly illegal and unethical political ends, which undermine professional ethics and violate cultural and human rights as set out by
international law.”
8 May 2026
First set of recommendations from the Task Force are announced (members of Task Force are not named…)
The most contentious conclusion is regarding international affiliations. The EAA states,
“The EAA will only suspend the institutional membership or representation of organisations when a recognised international body, such as the European Union or United Nations, has formally imposed restrictive measures against that institution, or the institution contravenes international legal obligations. Any suspension will apply only to
specific institutions, mirroring the approach of the EU’s own sanctions framework (including Council Regulation (EU) No. 833/2014 and its amendments), which targets named entities rather than applying blanket national bans.”
Critics see this as the EAA abandoning any pretence it can adjudicate for itself on matters of archaeological ethics.
The EAA also issues a statement referring only to the “Current Conflicts in Western Asia”, without naming any of the belligerents.
Dr Kamash later tells the #WatchingBrief podcast that, while she can live with the description of “current conflicts in Western Asia”,
“What does worry me and worry both of us, is that there was there was a complete erasure of Palestine, the West Bank, Gaza.”
11 May 2026
Dr Zena Kamash and Dr Marianne Moen take to BlueSky to announce their resignations as editors of EJA, their resignation statement reads in part,
“We can no longer, in good conscience, work within an organisation that refuses to espouse basic ethical principles, both within the society itself and within the wider world, most notably in relation to Palestine.”
After reiterating the concerns about the treatment of the editors of TEA, the alleged risk to the safety of members and the alleged ignoring of the wishes of members as voted in the per rollem vote, among other issues, the resignation letter concludes,
“We are proud of the work of the journal and hope that the journal, its editorial board and its authors will continue to have much to contribute to the archaeological community in a kinder, more collaborative future for the EAA.”
As of the time of publication the informal campaign group Concerned EAA is still collecting signatures calling on the EAA to act on the per rollem votes. Stressing that its concern is for the future of the EAA, the petition concludes,
“Unfortunately there is no longer trust in the current Board and its continuation will only cause further damage to the reputation of the EAA. We therefore ask for the Officers, and any Board members participating in the policing of speech and advocacy in Belgrade or since, to step down
immediately, in the interests of the organisation.”
It is perhaps significant that many of the over two hundred and fifty signatories describe themselves as a “Former EAA member”.
The 2026 Annual Meeting is due to take place in Athens from 26-29 August.
In February 2026 the Association of Greek Archaeologists withdrew from the organising committee for the Athens meeting citing the EAA’s failure to act on Gaza.
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