The Drift -- Sebastia, a Palestinian village
Israel's archaeological apartheid: an update A new report from Jasper Nathaniel Jasper Diamond Nathaniel Dec 19, 2025 Last year, I reported for The Drift from Sebastia, a Palestinian village in the West Bank that was built around the ruins of at least ten major civilizations. It is, among other things, the site of Samaria, the northern capital of the ancient Israelites some three thousand years ago. For some religious Zionists, this sliver of Jewish history makes Sebastia one of the most coveted tracts of land in the West Bank. In my Drift piece, I relayed the account of Sebastia’s mayor, Mohammed Azem, who said that in May 2023, Israeli forces warned him that he would be arrested if the town conducted municipal work in or around any of the village’s heritage sites. This November, the Israeli Civil Administration announced an expropriation order for Sebastia’s historic acropolis and the surrounding area, which includes homes and shops and ...