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II. Comprehensive Conservation Approach
II. Comprehensive Conservation Approach
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Comprehensive conservation processes comprise legislation, management, financing, and professional technical tools. The IAA imparts importance to a comprehensive conception of these various aspects that will ensure the conservation of the built heritage in Israel. The Conservation Department will formulate a policy for the treatment of cultural heritage assets in Israel based on the Antiquities Law, professional ethics and internationally accepted conservation principles.
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1. Professional Standards and Skills
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1.1 Conservation will employ all the relevant knowledge, skills, and disciplines that are capable of contributing to the research and care of the sites. The planning methods will incorporate conservation, socioeconomic, and planning knowledge. Special emphasis, in both planning and implementation, will be placed on multidisciplinary team work.
1.2 The Conservation Department will establish its standing as one of the national bodies responsible for the conservation of the Israeli built heritage. The department, in cooperation with professional bodies, will formulate comprehensive directives, with accompanying standards, that will guide the different conservation actions: documentation, surveying, planning, implementation, supervision, and maintenance, and that will be obligatory for all the bodies involved in the conservation of the antiquities at the sites in Israel.
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2. Professional Training
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2.1 The Conservation Department affords great importance in promoting professional conservation training, on both the academic and practical levels. The imparting of knowledge and skills in conservation planning is essential for the planning authorities and professional bodies, such as the Interior Ministry, district, local, and other committees, the professional societies of architects and engineers, building contractors, bodies involved in tourism, education, and culture, the bodies that administer antiquities sites, such as the Ministry of Religious Affairs, Nature and Parks Authority, the Jewish National Fund, and the relevant authorities. There is a corresponding and essential need for conservation training on an academic level in new frameworks, or within the existing courses of study in schools of architecture and design, engineering, archaeology, geography, art, economics, sociology, and law.
2.2 These training courses will be established in cooperation with public, academic, and governmental bodies, with the Conservation Department fulfilling a leading role in coordinating and constructing theoretical and applied curricula.
2.3 The Conservation Department shall encourage the employment, in both the public and private sectors, of certified planners and conservators with the proper training and experience and who meet professional standards.
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3. Certification
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3.1 The administration and implementation of conservation work shall be based on a high level of knowledge, technical skills and professional expertise. Special emphasis will be placed on the professional advancement of conservation administration as a leading professional body in the country through training, expertise and certification of the IAA employees.
3.2 The department, in cooperation with professional bodies in the country, will promote the establishment of a system of professional certification in conservation.
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4. Supervision
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4.1 The IAA shall supervise the work of planners and conservators at antiquities sites and will advise in matters regarding intervention at heritage sites in accordance with defined criteria, directives and regulations.
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5. Research
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Research is one of the cornerstones of conservation, in all its aspects, and constitutes the basis for every phase of the conservation process. Properly supported research requires the construction, in cooperation with research institutes in Israel and abroad, of a scientific infrastructure, including laboratories, professional publications and libraries, and computer systems and technical support.
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6. Public Awareness and Participation
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6.1 Education and other informational efforts are the key to creating understanding and sympathetic views among decision makers and planners. The IAA is aware of the central role of the archaeological community and the public at large in heritage conservation. The IAA therefore emphasizes the importance of ties with educational, research, and community organizations, the dissemination of information, education, and publicity, and participation by the public in all realms of conservation, with the overall goal of gaining public involvement and support. Initiatives for public involvement could be expressed in social, tourism, religious, and philanthropic activity, and in economic ventures.
6.2 The conservation, presentation, and management of heritage sites will facilitate the participation of individuals from communities with special cultural, spiritual, or social ties to the site.
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7. Regulative Tools
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7.1 The IAA will initiate legislation, the issuance of regulations and directives, and statutory planning that will ensure the preservation of the cultural heritage. The goals of conservation must be defined and established by law in order to protect the cultural diversity, monuments, and sites at risk, based on inventory lists. Special emphasis shall be placed on extending protection to historical structures and complexes not directly covered by the Antiquities Law.
7.2 An advisory committee to the department shall be established that will be composed of professional experts, which shall guide and provide oversight for conservation and development plans and shall respond to general and fundamental questions on issues pertaining to conservation. This committee shall act as a public advisory body for the Conservation Department and the Director of the IAA.
7.3 The Conservation Department will promote coordination between the conservation agencies, the government, and the private sector, with the aim of advancing cultural heritage conservation on the local, regional, and national levels. To do this a round-table forum will be established in which all bodies involved in conservation will be represented in order to promote heritage conservation from a national perspective. Similarly, coordination must be strengthened between conservation bodies and the authorities engaged in conservation-related planning by participation by the former in planning committees, steering committees, implementation committees and follow-up committees.
7.4 The Conservation Department shall act together with the planning administration to emphasize the conservation directives in national, regional, and local master plans, as a primary tool for heritage conservation, reconstruction, and development. This is especially relevant for town planning schemes in historic cities and villages, whose heritage values and ancient character are to be emphasized, with the definition of suitable buffer zones. The IAA will likewise support the protection of ancient sites by means of protecting open areas by declaring them nature reserves, national parks, forests, biosphere preserves, and landscape reserves.
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8. Economic Tools
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8.1 The Conservation Department shall favor the allocation of state resources for the conservation of the cultural heritage of Israel and the creation of additional budgetary sources, such as: the solicitation of contributions, the imposition of fines, the imposition of a fee for new excavations, the creation of a conservation fund supported by government ministries, the encouragement of private foundations, and the generation of demand for conservation. The department will foster partnerships between official bodies, on the one hand, and the private sector and nonofficial bodies, on the other.
8.2 The IAA will do all in its power to encourage heritage conservation by incentives for the private sector, subsidies, tax and real estate tax reductions, and the like.
8.3 All antiquities-related activity must be supported by the allocation of suitable resources for the long-term conservation and maintenance of the antiquities. Economic options for site conservation shall be examined in conjunction with the excavator and the relevant bodies, and must be approved by the IAA. Economic entrepreneurship at sites shall be permitted in a manner that will not enable harm to antiquities, and it shall be under IAA supervision.
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