Plan brokered by UCLA, USC archaeologists would remove roadblock to Mideast peace

With the help of Dodd, who also studies the role of politics in interpreting the past, Boytner enlisted six of the region's most prominent working archaeologists and ultimately involved 10 institutions from around the world. To bankroll their activities, the team raised more than $150,000 in funds from a range of public and private donors, including USC, UCLA and the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent, nonpartisan institution established and funded by the U.S. Congress with the goal of helping to prevent and resolve violent international conflicts.

Palestinian archaeologists have already expressed support for the document's provisions, which are now on file with the Israeli and Palestinian governments, the U.S. Department of State and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is now the official envoy of the Middle East diplomatic "quartet" — the four outside entities (the United Nations, European Union, United States and Russia) involved in mediating the peace process for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Of the five years so far devoted to the project, three have been spent in sometimes tense negotiations. On three occasions, in fact, professional facilitators were employed to keep discussions moving. But the team continued to meet — a total of four times over three years, in three different countries — often making the most headway over meals shared between the sessions. Stakes were high for the three Palestinian and three Israeli archaeologists who lent their expertise to the project.

"People who participated did so at great risk, professional and personal, to themselves," Boytner said. "It's not unheard of for Palestinians who are caught negotiating with Israelis to be treated as traitors, some being dragged to the street and shot dead. For the Israelis, it's not unheard of to be branded as traitors and therefore being denied positions or being fired or basically being blackballed."

"The collaboration and investment in future peace made by our Israeli and Palestinian colleagues should be highlighted," Dodd said. "They are the ones who made the radical choice to envision a shared future by joining this process and working together. Their role as peacemakers deserves emphasis."

To this day, only two participants — Rafi Greenberg, a lecturer in archaeology at Tel Aviv University, and David Ilan, director of the Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archeology at Hebrew Union College in Jerusalem — have agreed to be publicly identified. The other four have remained anonymous, fearing reprisals. Yet they all see themselves as private citizens trying with the only tool they have at hand to contribute to a process that so far has stumped professional statesmen.

"Even though we are archaeologists, we are peacemakers first," Boytner said.