Is It Safe to Volunteer?

The violence in Israel and the West Bank has taken its toll on digs. Some excavation directors chose not to go into the field last summer, and many readers may wonder if it is safe to volunteer in 2002. Most digs are far from areas of violence and we know of no dig volunteers who have been threatened or harmed. The handful of directors we contacted ranged from cautious to confident in assessing the upcoming season.

“I am happy to report that the people who participated in our Kursi Excavation were 100 percent unaffected by the tension in Judea,” writes Charles Page II (Jerusalem Center for Biblical Studies). “We were there from late August until late September [2001]. I polled our team to find out how many would feel comfortable returning. All of them said they would.” He noted that Kursi and Capernaum, two excavations he directs with Vassilios Tzaferis, are on the tranquil shores of the Sea of Galilee; a third, Banias, is in a quiet area in the Golan. He expects the three sites to attract 200 or more volunteers next fall.

Yosef Garfinkel (Hebrew Univ.), dig director at Sha‘ar ha-Golan in northern Israel, hosted fewer volunteers last season but remains optimistic: “In 1998 though 2000 we had 60 to 100 volunteers each season, but in 2001 we had 25. So we excavated in one area of the site instead of three. But the volunteers that arrived that season were highly motivated. Nobody left in the middle, everyone worked very hard, and there was a special group unity. I think that with a smaller number the work was more efficient. I also tried harder to give them a good time, organizing weekly tours of the region and Thursday night parties with ice cream, wine and dancing.”