Israel State Archives (ISA; he, ארכיון מדינת ישראל ''Arkhiyon Medinat Yisra'el'') is the
national archive of
Israel
Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
, located in
Jerusalem
Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...
. The archive houses some 400 million documents,
map
A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes.
Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...
s,
stamp
Stamp or Stamps or Stamping may refer to:
Official documents and related impressions
* Postage stamp, used to indicate prepayment of fees for public mail
* Ration stamp, indicating the right to rationed goods
* Revenue stamp, used on documents to ...
s, audio tapes, video clips,
photograph
A photograph (also known as a photo, image, or picture) is an image created by light falling on a photosensitive surface, usually photographic film or an electronic image sensor, such as a CCD or a CMOS chip. Most photographs are now create ...
s and special publications.
History
The archive was established in 1949 to house historical records of government administrations from the Ottoman era to the end of the British Mandate and document the newly established State of Israel.
In 2008, the
Israel Museum
The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...
mounted "Blue and White Pages," a joint exhibit with the Israel State Archives featuring documents relating to the history of the Jewish people from ancient times until the present.
In 2012 the headquarters of the archive were closed until further notice after it was found that the building had been operating without the appropriate permit for the previous 19 years. According to a source quoted by Haaretz, obtaining a permit and reopening of the archive will take a matter of months. Access to the archives for researches will be halted until the building reopens.
Israeli archiving policy
The archive operates as a branch of the
Prime Minister's Office.
[The Israel State Archives, Paul Alsberg](_blank)
/ref> Israeli government institutions deposit their records at the State Archive 10–15 years after the closure of a file. Israeli declassification policy is based on the Archives law of 1955 The principle of the law is that all material is to be released after thirty years, subject to limitations based on damage to state security, foreign policy or personal privacy. In practice this means that declassification of documents are fixed at different periods based on type of material and date of production.[ The original Law has been modified and updated a number of times.][
Following a 2012 update of the legislation, the office of the Prime minister released as statement explaining that "the new regulations shorten the period after which non-security-related material may be viewed, from 30 to 15 years, while lengthening the confidentiality period of certain defense-related documents to 70 years in cases in which Israel's security conditions require it".]
Departments
Archive departments include the Department of Archives and Documentation, Registration and Indexing Department, Department of Services to the Public and Auxiliary Services, Publication of Documents Department, Records and Management Department, and Supervision of Public and Private Archives Department.
Digitization
A program of digitization of the archive had by 2008 scanned 1 million documents to be stored in digital format with the aim of making them available online. In 2012, the Archives inaugurated the "Documentation on the Web" initiative which provides online access to items in its collections. Israel's Chief Archivist, Yaacov Lozowick
Yaacov Lozowick ( he, יעקב לזוביק) (b. 1957), is a German-born Israeli historian and writer. He was the director of the archives at Yad Vashem. From 2011 to 2018 he was Israel's Chief Archivist at the Israel State Archives.
Biography
Yaa ...
, described the motivation behind the initiative, explaining that "the mission of the archives is to transfer the documentation of the government to the possession of the governed". He further noted that "since much of the content is both fascinating and relevant to most aspects of society’s life, enabling the citizens to have free and easy access to their documentation—within the obvious constraints—will enrich the public discourse and strengthen Israeli democracy." As part of this process Lozowick maintains an English language blog highlighting material made available online by the archive.
2017 dispute over access
In 2017 the archives were informed by Deputy Attorney General Raz Nizri that existing practice for providing access to archives was illegal. According to Nizri, all requests have to be approved by the body that deposited the material, instead of being released on the Archive's own criteria. This applies to all material and not only to classified material. State Archivist Lozowick protested that the ruling had almost brought to a halt the Archive's work of providing material to historians and other researchers, predicting delays of up to two years for material that should be available quickly. The final version of Lozowick's report, dated December 28, 2017, summarized the situation thus:
: Israel does not deal with its archival material as befits a democratic state. The vast majority of archival material is closed and will never be opened. The minority that will be opened will have unreasonable restrictions. There is no public accountability or transparency in the release of records.[Dr. Yaakov Lozowick, מצב פתיחת התיעוד בארכיון המדינה ושלוחותיו (The state of opening records in the State Archive and its branches), December 28, 201]
Archived a
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See also
* Central Zionist Archives
Central Zionist Archives (CZA; he, הארכיון הציוני המרכזי) is the official archive of the institutions of the Zionist Movement: the World Zionist Organization, the Jewish Agency, the Jewish National Fund, and Keren Hayesod/the U ...
* Thirty year rule
The "thirty-year rule" is the informal name given to laws in the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and the Commonwealth of Australia that provide that certain government documents will be released publicly thirty years after they were creat ...
* Benny Morris
Benny Morris ( he, בני מוריס; born 8 December 1948) is an Israeli historian. He was a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Beersheba, Israel. He is a member of t ...
References
External links
Israel State Archives website
The English-language blog of the Israel State Archives (ISA)
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National archives
Israeli culture
Deposit libraries
Archives in Israel