Walid Atrash remembers the day Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir came to inaugurate Beit She’an National Park. “We were two Arab archaeologists. The project head came to us and said, ‘tomorrow you have a free day, don’t come,’” he says.
Atrash was a young archaeologist at the time, working alongside Gabi Mazor in the expedition uncovering ancient Beit She’an. When Mazor found out about the decision to shut his Arab assistants out of the premier’s visit, Atrash says, “he called the project manager and told him that if he didn’t apologize and invite us too, he should look for somebody else to guide the prime minister.
“The project manager said, ‘let’s talk privately.’ Mazor would not. They tried to say that the Shin Bet wouldn’t have time to investigate my past. In the end, we stayed. From then on I understood that politics only ruins things, especially if irresponsible people are in charge of things.
— source Jews For Justice For Palestinians | Nir Hasson (Haaretz) | 20 Oct 2022