Isaac Harari

Gen. Amir Drori, director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, second from right, joins Rafael Peled, Chief Inspector of the Israeli Police Forces, at right, and others at an excavation site in Jerusalem. Drori’s appointment to the directorship in 1988 ended his long career in the Israel Defense Forces, just short of chief of staff. Drori initiated a controversial, more aggressive era for the Antiquities Authority. His tenure has seen the Authority grow from 54 employees to a robust organization with more than 3,000 archaeologists and workers digging, reconstructing and supervising excavations from northern Galilee to the Red Sea. Under Drori, the Authority has cracked down on antiquities looters, required that excavators publish timely reports and worked to make archaeological sites attractive and accessible to tourists. Some archaeologists are uneasy, however, that rapid and widespread excavation to create tourist attractions leads to inadequate attention to careful archaeological methods.