MOTIVATIONS: How Jews and Arabs Collaborate on Antiquities Theft in the West Bank. Thousands of artifacts are being stolen every year and making their way into Jewish hands, yet the Israeli division responsible for theft prevention has just one inspector to cover 2,600 sites (Yotam Berger, Haaretz). Interesting article. It infers quite a bit from the law of supply and demand, but perhaps not implausibly. It also introduces the claim, which is new to me, that the looters have an ideological motive to destroy any Jewish connection to archaeological sites. I don't know what to make of that one.
Again, read the article now before it goes behind the subscription wall. Or you can read a limited number of premium Haaretz articles every month with a free registration.
Some recent PaleoJudaica posts on antiquities looting in Israel and the West Bank are collected here.
