"Davidka" shell found at Kotel archaeological dig

From YNet:

More than 60 years after it was buried, archeologists working an excavation in the Western Wall Plaza unearthed a completely intact 'Davidka' mortar shell on Tuesday afternoon.

Sappers who were alerted to the scene removed the shell from the site and documented the finding before transported it outside city limits to detonate the explosives in a controlled environment.

Largely ineffective, the locally manufactured three-inch Davidka developed by the Haganah prior to the country's inception is remembered more for the noise it made rather than the damage it inflicted.

Wikipedia adds:

The name Davidka means “Little David”, and was said to be a tribute to the tiny, fledgling state of Israel fighting against the giant Arab Legion, in reference to King David's battle against the giant Goliath. It is generally accepted, however, that the weapon was named after its designer, David Leibowitch. Leibowitch designed and developed the weapon at the Mikveh Israel agricultural school in Holon in the winter of 1947-48.

The first Davidka was fired in combat on 13 March 1948, in the attack on the Abu Kabir neighborhood of Yafo. Probably the greatest victory attributed to the Davidka was the liberation of the Citadel, a strongpoint in the center of Safed, on the night of May 9-10, 1948.[1]

Six Davidkas were manufactured in all, and two were given to each of the Palmach's three brigades (Harel, Yiftach, and HaNegev). The most famous of them were the one used by the Yiftach Brigade in the battle for Safed, which is now mounted in Davidka Square in that city, and the one mounted in Jerusalem's Davidka Square, which has a shell still attached, memorializing the Harel Brigade's participation in the battle for Jerusalem.

As with any mortar, the secret of the Davidka's operation was in its 40kg (roughly 90lb) shell. In this case, as seen in the image on the right, the gigantic shell was much larger than the mortar from which it was fired. Rather than with more conventional mortars, where the shell is inserted into the tube and the entire projectile travels through the tube to gain initial guidance at launch time, the Davidka's tail tube is the only part of the shell which fit inside the launch tube. This contributed to the weapon's notorious inaccuracy, as the shell lacked adequate guidance during the launch phase to acquire aerodynamic stability in the intended direction...

Small pieces of metal and tubes were welded onto the outside of casing, reducing the weapon's accuracy even further than its already non-aerodynamic design, but contributing greatly to the whistles and shrieks which it made when in flight. The noise was its most important effect, so that anyone near a Davidka mortar would hear the shell seeming to fall very near to them before bursting very loudly, increasing the fear factor. It is said that the Arabs against which the Davidka was deployed, having been told that many of the designers of America's atomic bomb were Jewish (e.g., Einstein and Oppenheimer,) thought that they were being attacked with atomic weapons.

The Palestine Post, in its May 23, 1949 issue, had this article about the Davidka:

A small party of former Haganah commanders met at a cafe in Tel Aviv to honour the inventor of the first heavy artillery of the Haganah. It was already a time for reminiscences and although the war was still on, and tanks and artillery rumbled through the land, the first home-made artillery was already a museum piece, like the long rifle of the American backswoodsmen in their Revolutionary War.

As the commanders raised their glasses in a toast to David Kablani, the inventor of the "Davidka," the thoughts of the inventor turned to a time so long. . . . a few months. . . . back when Tel Aviv was ringed with siege and the state of Israel was little more than a dream. Kablani, a member of Haganah for 22 years, had built a 3-inch mortar back in 1923 after a Polish model. At that time all of Haganah's heavy weapons were taken from Kablani's secret workshop, either on foot or hidden in trucks, to S'dom at the southern end of the Dead Sea, the only testing gtound they were safely out of sight of the British and the Arabs.

When the Arab attacks began, Kablani was appointed armourer for the southern area of Tel Aviv, including Manshieh, Salameh and Abu Kebir. For this entire sector of the front, he had only 200 weapons of all kinds, including 45 rifles, 150 Sten guns, and a number of automatic rifles and 2-inch mortars, and the commanders would battle for every Sten gun, which would pass from hand to hand for each engagement.

The idea for the "Davidka" was born out of the suffering and death of so many Haganah sappers who went into Arab posts under fire with loads of explosives night after night. If only a weapon could be invented which could hurl a charge of explosives into the Arab positions from a safe distance, Kablani thought. He calculated and planned , and finally presented his idea to his commanders.

The first test, with a sand-filled shell, proved a success. The night of March 13 was fixed for the first operation, against Abu Kebir. Two more models and nine live shells were prepared .

The residents of Tel Aviv were used to their nightly storm of gunfire, and went to sleep as usual in the rifle exchanges of that Saturday night. The three new mortars were taken by truck to the advanced positions, and a general attack on Abu Kebir was prepared.

At midnight a tremendous explosion woke up all Tel Aviv and Jaffa . A dead silence fell on the entire front, and the population g u e s s e d that the war had entered a new stage.

Two more booming explosions followed. When the Haganah men broke into Abu Kebir, they found the village completely deserted. The Arabs had fled the unknown weapon of the Jews, and shortly thereafter the desertion of Jaffa began.

Immediately after 12 more mortars were built and sent to Haifa, Jerusalem, and Sated. Soon the "Davidka" became as integral a part of Haganah as the slouch hat of the Australian army.

Palmach commanders, before an operation, would calculate the number of "Davidka" shells needed, figuring one shell for a small village, and as much as three for a large one. Rumours spread through the Arab population that "King David " had returned to fight with his people.

The climax in the career of the "Davidka" came in the battle for the liberation of Safed. Fighting asainst an enemy vastly superior in both numbers and arms, and one fortified in the highest point of the city, Safed had been one of the most difficult points in the country. A desperate effort was needed to liberate this strategic city before the expected Arab invasion after May 15.

The attack was begun with the firing of several "Davidka" shells, and the explosions reverberated deafeningly through the echoing hills. Immediately rumour spread among the Arabs, aided by a sudden, unseasonal rain that the Jews were using the Atom bomb. The attack found the enemy already demoralized and fleeing from the city by the thousands.

A Reuters report from Amman shortly thereafter said mysteriously, "the Jews are using a new secret weapon."

A few days later the State of Israel was proclaimed and expertly tooled weapons began to come in from abroad. The hand-made grenade and the home-made "Davidka" were quickly put aside, but the men who had used them had already turned the tide of the war.

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AFP's biased article of the day

Just the first paragraph tells you all you need to know:

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Amin al-Siyam says he is awakened nearly every night by the sound of Jewish settlers tunneling under his east Jerusalem house towards the Old City's deeply sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

Settlers are digging tunnels, willy-nilly, under the Old City? Only at night? Are they building apartments to live in?

Well, later in the article, if you parse it correctly, you can see that it is the Israel Antiquities Authority who are unearthing a 2000-year old tunnel, not "settlers:"

The Silwan project has aroused similar suspicions, in part because people are not allowed to see the tunnel, but primarily because the work is being funded by the Ir David Foundation, an Israeli settler group.

Here are the aims of Ir David:

The Ir David Foundation is committed to continuing King David’s legacy and strengthening Israel’s current and historic connection to Jerusalem through four key initiatives: archaeological excavation, tourism development, residential revitalization and educational programming.

To dismiss that all into just calling it "a settler group" is more than dishonest - it reeks of bias.

Meir Margalit, a spokesman for the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions, says "the problem is not the archaeological digging, it is the agenda of the people who are behind the digging."

He and other Israeli activists fear that sensitive projects like Silwan, if left in the hands of right-wing groups, could one day be used to detonate the Middle East peace process.

"For a long time this has been a problematic issue, but now it is a dangerous issue," Margalit says.

Quoting someone from the ICAHD to talk about archaeology only proves that the main people with an agenda are those opposed to associating anything Jewish with Jerusalem. Similarly:

Yoni Mizrachi, an Israeli archaeologist critical of Ir David, says IAA reliance on it for funding ties them to its agenda.

"They need the money, and they are not just doing this for the benefit of archaeology," Mizrachi says. "It's one of the few sites operated by private organisations and it is the only one run by a right-wing organisation."

So to these critics, the existence of Jewish archaeological treasures are better not found at all, rather than being funded by "right wing" organizations. There's commitment to science and knowledge for you.

But perhaps the most dishonest part of this entire article is the picture used to illustrate it. Captioned "File photo shows a trench being dug as part of an archaeological dig in the Al-Aqsa mosque compound," it is simple a lie. No archaeological digs have taken place in the "Al Aqsa mosque compound" since before 1948. It in fact shows a trench that was not being dug by archaeologists but by the Wakf on the Temple Mount - with backhoes! - which destroyed untold numbers of priceless treasures. Every criticism that the article levels against the Jews digging to unearth history is refuted by that episode - the IAA didn't stop the illegal Muslim dig proving that if it has any bias it is against Jewish sensibilities; and the Temple Mount is infinitely more politically and religiously sensitive than Ir David/Silwan.

Giving money to real archaeologists to do their job seems much less problematic than having them stand by and allow the wholesale desecration of the world's most sensitive real estate.

This article shows that the AFP has no interest in truth or accuracy - it simply parrots anti-Jewish positions without any real reporting.

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First Temple-era family seal found in Jerusalem

From JPost:

A stone seal bearing the name of one of the families who acted as servants in the First Temple and then returned to Jerusalem after being exiled to Babylonia has been uncovered in an archeological excavation in Jerusalem's City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said Wednesday.

The 2,500-year-old black stone seal, which has the name "Temech" engraved on it, was found earlier this week amid stratified debris in the excavation under way just outside the Old City walls near the Dung Gate, said archeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, who is leading the dig.

According to the Book of Nehemiah, the Temech family were servants of the First Temple and were sent into exile to Babylon following its destruction by the Babylonians in 586 BCE.

The family was among those who later returned to Jerusalem, the Bible recounts.

The seal, which was bought in Babylon and dates to 538-445 BCE, portrays a common and popular cultic scene, Mazar said.

The 2.1 x 1.8-cm. elliptical seal is engraved with two bearded priests standing on either side of an incense altar with their hands raised forward in a position of worship.

A crescent moon, the symbol of the chief Babylonian god Sin, appears on the top of the altar.

Under this scene are three Hebrew letters spelling Temech, Mazar said.

The Bible refers to the Temech family: "These are the children of the province, that went up out of the captivity, of those that had been carried away, whom Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon had carried away, and came again to Jerusalem and to Judah, every one unto his city." [Nehemiah 7:6]... "The Nethinim [7:46]"... The children of Temech." [7:55].

The fact that this cultic scene relates to the Babylonian chief god seemed not to have disturbed the Jews who used it on their own seal, she added.

The seal of one of the members of the Temech family was discovered just dozens of meters away from the Opel area, where the servants of the Temple, or "Nethinim," lived in the time of Nehemiah, Mazar said.

"The seal of the Temech family gives us a direct connection between archeology and the biblical sources and serves as actual evidence of a family mentioned in the Bible," she said. "One cannot help being astonished by the credibility of the biblical source as seen by the archaeological find."

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The hypocritical Mufti

As we mentioned last month, the Waqf is systematically destroying priceless Jewish artifacts on the Temple Mount, with the permission of the Olmert government. The Israeli Antiquities Authority does have some archaeologists on site to watch the destruction being done with heavy machinery and to possibly retrieve bits and pieces of what doesn't get crushed by the Muslims.

A couple of days ago, in an earthshaking find, some artifacts from the First Temple period were discovered:

The artifacts, which date to the First Jewish Temple period—the eighth to sixth centuries B.C.—were found by employees of the Waqf Muslim religious trust doing maintenance work, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) reported.

The artifacts may be the first physical evidence of human activity at the Temple Mount—also known as Solomon's Temple—in that time.


Jerusalem's district archaeologist Yuval Baruch is supervising the Muslim maintenance project.

Baruch and Sy Gitin, director of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem, Ronny Reich of Haifa University, and Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University, concluded that the finds might help reconstruct the dimensions and boundaries of the Temple Mount during the First Temple Period.

The findings include animal bones; ceramic bowl rims, bases, and body sherds; the base of a juglet used to pour oil; the handle of a small juglet; and the rim of a storage jar, according to the IAA.

The bowl sherds were decorated with wheel burnishing lines characteristic of the First Temple Period.

In addition, a piece of a whitewashed, handmade object was found. It may have been used to decorate a larger object or may have been the leg of an animal figurine.

"This is the first time we have shards from the Temple Mount with a [uniform] date," Haifa University's Reich told National Geographic News.

The find "most certainly" indicates the presence of people in the temple during the late eighth century and seventh century B.C., he said.

"From an archaeological standpoint, this is the first time this has happened," Reich said.

"You can say that this was written in the Bible—but the Bible is a text and texts can be played around with. This is physical evidence."

As one would expect, the Muslims who completely deny that Jews ever lived in ancient Jerusalem - the same ones who deliberately destroy all evidence of Judaism on the Temple Mount - are strongly denying that these finds mean anything. Here's an autotranslation of an Arabic article from Al-Hayat al-Jadida:

Astonished Sheikh Mohammad Hussein General Mufti of Jerusalem and the Palestinian imam and the Al-Aqsa mosque, yesterday, allegations of Israeli occupation authorities and the so-called alleged Temple Mount during excavations carried out by the Waqf Islamic before the close of the extension the electricity cables in the Al-Aqsa mosque.

The Mufti statements issued several months ago on the effects of Israel and which claimed to have found remnants of dust effects in which the Waqf Islamic factions in 1999 outside the Al-Aqsa mosque.

He said: that these allegations are lies and fabrications denying the existence of any implications for the structure of the alleged yards in the Al-Aqsa mosque or the mosque or close to, adding that this earth that the Waqf Islamic factions are superficial and external back to the Ottoman era and not from the Old Testament as they claim.

The Sheikh Hussein that the city of Jerusalem had been many times for demolition and landfill because of earthquakes in Palestine throughout history, so the soil is excavated in recent times have been of the effects they are talking about nothing.

He added that the occupation authorities claimed each time she found the alleged effects of the structure and mean it behind interference in the affairs of Al-Aqsa mosque and the withdrawal of Endowments and the transfer of powers to the conflict and is impeding the restoration.

The discourse and spending excavations carried out by the occupation authorities since 1967 on the Al-Aqsa mosque and the bottom of walls, occupation authorities warned of the consequences of interference in its affairs.

He appealed to all international bodies and organizations to intervene to stop these practices against the Palestinian holy sites, especially the Al-Aqsa Mosque, also called the Arab League and the Organization of Islamic Conference to move soon to stop the campaign Althudi of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa mosque.

If chutzpah wasn't a Yiddish word, it would have to be invented in Arabic. In the same breath where he claims that there are no problems with excavating directly on the Temple Mount, he calls on the world to condemn Israeli excavations far away from the Al Aqsa Mosque - excavations that are being done with utmost care.

The Mufti's casual dismissal of any finds as being from the Ottoman period - and any sixth-rate archaeologist can easily tell the difference between pottery from the 7th century BCE and pottery from 2400 years later - shows how he is, in the most simple terms, a liar. But his embrace of the destruction of Jewish artifacts while calling on Israel to stop their own work is breathtakingly hypocritical.

Of course, when his purpose is to establish Islamic supremacy and deny any Jewish history in Jerusalem, then his statements are quite consistent, if still as dishonest as can be. Making up fairy tales about Mohammed's flying horse being tied for a couple of hours to the Kotel, which is a story made up entirely by the Grand Mufti in the 1920s in order to get the Jews away from the Western Wall, proves to anyone with an ounce of intellectual honesty that the Muslim claim to Jerusalem is exaggerated specifically in order to de-legitimize Judaism itself.

It is a scandal that the West places equal weight on the liars.

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Latest outrage at Columbia University: Inviting Ahmadinejad to speak

Columbia University has a long history of anti-Israel and anti-American antics.

First it was Professor Hamid Dabashi, a Columbia department chairman, who calls supporters of Israel "Gestapo apparatchiks" and wanted to sue CNN for biased coverage of 9/11.

Then 106 Columbia faculty signed a petition comparing Israel to South Africa apartheid.

Professor Nicholas De Genova, who teaches anthropology and Latino studies, stated that "The heritage of the victims of the Holocaust belongs to the Palestinian people. ... Israel has no claim to the heritage of the Holocaust." and that he wished for a "million Mogadishus."

George Saliba, a professor of Arabic and Islamic science, told a Jewish student, "You have no claim to the land of Israel ... no voice in this debate. You have green eyes, you're not a true Semite. I have brown eyes, I'm a true Semite."

Rashid Khalidi, head of Columbia's Middle East Institute, has stated that "occupation" began in 1948 and also criticized Yasir Arafat for being too flexible with Israel.

Columbia's president appointed a committee to look into claims of intimidation of students who held that Israel was not a racist, apartheid state, and his hand-picked committee members whitewashed all the incidents without interviewing any of the students who were harassed by professors. It also failed to criticize when Columbia professors canceled classes during an anti-Israel rally and encouraged students to attend.

Joseph Massad, associate professor, wrote an article for Al-Ahram that was effectively anti-semitic.

And then an anthropology professor, Nadia Abu el-Haj, wrote a book denying any Jewish connection to the biblical land of Israel, even as she admitted that she was not interested in using scientific methods to validate the huge amount of archaeological evidence.

Now, in the same tradition of embracing terrorists and despots, Columbia is inviting Iranian thug-in-chief Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to speak there on Monday at their World Leaders' Forum.

At least Columbia University is consistent.

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A thundering silence

The Waqf continues its destruction of priceless antiquiities, and the Israeli government - and Israel Antiquities Authority - continue to do nothing. Here is an article by Herschel Shanks, editor of Biblical Archaeology Review:

No one really cares. But that puts me in an elite group: It includes two of Israel's most prominent Jerusalem archaeologists (Gaby Barkay and Eilat Mazar) — and me.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Waqf goes on tearing up Jerusalem's Temple Mount, where once the Jewish Temple stood. The week before last, they hit an ancient wall that might be the foundation of a wall from the Second Temple complex built by Herod the Great.

It's an old/new story. For the past 35 years the Muslim religious authority known as the Waqf, to whom Israel has been given custody of the Temple Mount, has been periodically digging it up — illegally. (That's the Israel Supreme Court's characterization.) Several years ago, for example, the Waqf used mechanical equipment to dig a huge hole for a wide stairway down to a greatly expanded underground mosque, dumping hundreds of tons of dirt from the mount into the adjacent Kidron Valley.

When Zachi Zweig, a graduate student of Barkay's, started looking for antiquities in the Waqf dump, the Israel Antiquities Authority had Zweig arrested for digging without a permit. Since then, Barkay has obtained the permit and, with Zweig, they have engaged in a multi-year project sifting this archaeologically rich dump. They have found thousands of ancient artifacts going back 3000 years, including a seal impression of a probable brother of someone mentioned in the Bible.

Now the Waqf wants to lay new telephone and electric lines on the mount. Under Israeli law, in an area that might contain antiquities, the trench must be excavated by professional archaeologists. (The same holds true for construction: Such areas must first be professionally excavated, most often by the Israel Antiquities Authority.) The Waqf simply ignores this law, however. A few weeks ago they began digging a utilities trench almost five feet deep, often going down to bedrock. Worse still, the workmen were using mechanical equipment — anathema to any professional archaeologist in such a site.

It's certainly all right for the Waqf to lay new telephone and electrical lines. But there would seem to be no reason why the trench could not first be excavated by professional archaeologists who dig by hand and with great care to document the context of all discoveries — no reason except the Waqf's unwillingness to recognize Israeli law.

On July 18, 2007, I published an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, headed "Biblical Destruction," protesting the Waqf excavation. It has had no effect. Since then, the excavation has been extensively expanded.

Observers have reported seeing numerous antiquities in the excavated dirt and in the trench, including mosaic tesserae, a quantity of pottery vessels (some of which had been freshly broken by the tractor scoop) and carefully carved and decorated building stones typical of the Second Temple period. Last week, as I said earlier, the excavation hit part of an unusually wide wall that has now been destroyed. It could well have been part of the Temple complex.

Barkay and Mazar continue to protest vehemently and publicly. But they have mostly been met with silence. The archaeological community as such has not raised its voice. Each archaeologist is concerned with his or her own dig, not someone else's violation of the antiquities law. And why jeopardize a career by making trouble when all the well-known political names and faces remain silent? Yes, a few newspaper articles have appeared, but nothing serious. The Antiquities Authority has been queried on several occasions about this violation of Israel's antiquities laws — on Judaism's holiest site — but the response has always been the same: "No comment."

This thundering silence perhaps explains why the Israeli embassy in Washington has not provided any account or explanation of this depredation on the Temple Mount. Why raise questions and create a problem when nobody really cares?

I wrote to the Prime Minister's office (prime.minister'soffice@it.pmo.gov.il) and received a very inadequate reply:

We acknowledge receipt of your recent e-mail to the Prime Minister's Office regarding excavations on the Temple Mount.

Please be assured that the Israeli Antiquities Authority is closely following the work being carried out on the Temple Mount, and is ensuring that there is no damage to any antiquities unearthed.

Thank you for writing to express your concern.

To which I replied:

I'm sorry, but this is not an acceptable answer. The very fact that bulldozers are being used in the holiest part of the planet shows that politics is trumping archaeology, not to mention Judaism.

It is shameful that the Jewish state cares more about Muslim reaction to careful excavations than Jewish concerns over much more sensitive desecrations that are being carried out now.

You can also write to the Israel Antiquities Authority here.

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Second Temple wall possibly destroyed by Waqf (photo)

A bit more news about the Waqf's desecration of Judaism's holiest site:

Portions of what appear to be a carved wall have been seen in the rubble left by the Islamic Waqf as they continue to use heavy machinery to destroy priceless and holy antiquities:



I'm no archaeologist, but this is man-made.

The Waqf is engaging in a crime against Judaism, history and archaeology, and Ehud Olmert is complicit in this crime by allowing it to happen:

Leading Temple Mount archaeologists, including Mazar and Gavriel Barkai, petitioned the Israeli government to immediately halt the dig and allow experts to inspect the emerging wall.

But Mazar and other archaeologists say they are being blocked by the Israeli government.

"The Antiquities Authority tells us to coordinate with the police. The police send us back to the Antiquities Authority," said Mazar, who is a professor of Hebrew University and member of the Public Committee for Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on Temple Mount.

Mazar also is the discoverer and lead archaeologist of Israel's City of David, believed to be the palace of the biblical King David, the second leader of a united Kingdom of Israel, who ruled from around 1005 to 965 B.C.

"It's crucial this wall is inspected. The Temple Mount ground level is only slightly above the original Temple Mount platform, meaning anything found is likely from the Temple itself," the archaeologist said.

Fed up, Mazar and other top archaeologists last week ascended the Mount to hold a news conference and inspect the site without government permission, but they were blocked from the trench by the Israeli police.

"It is unconscionable that the Israeli government is permitting the Waqf to use heavy equipment to chop away at the most important archeological site in the country without supervision," Mazar told WND.

"The Israeli government is actively blocking us from inspecting the site and what may be a monumental find and is doing nothing while the Waqf destroys artifacts at Judaism's holiest site," she said.

Rabbi Chaim Rechman, director of the international department at Israel's Temple Institute, was among those on the Mount last week with Mazar. He told WND he attempted to take pictures of the damage the bulldozers are allegedly wrecking on the wall, but his digital camera was confiscated by Israeli police at the direction of Waqf officials.

"If Israel was building a shopping mall and they found what may be an ancient Buddhist structure, the government would stop the construction and have archaeologists go over the area with a fine tooth comb. Here, the holiest site in Judaism is being damaged, a Temple wall was found, and Israel is actively blocking experts from inspecting the site while allowing the destruction to continue," Rechman said.

Rechman charged the Waqf was "trying to erase Jewish vestiges from the Temple Mount."

The last time the Waqf conducted a large dig on the Temple Mount – during construction 10 years ago of a massive mosque at an area referred to as Solomon's Stables – the Wafq reportedly disposed truckloads of dirt containing Jewish artifacts from the First and Second Temple periods.

After the media reported on the disposals, Israeli authorities froze the construction permit given to the Wafq, and the dirt was transferred to Israeli archeologists for analysis. The Israeli authorities found scores of Jewish Temple relics in the nearly disposed dirt, including coins with Hebrew writing referencing the Temple, part of a Hasmonean lamp, several other Second Temple lamps, Temple period pottery with Jewish markings, a marble pillar shaft and other Temple period artifacts. The Waqf was widely accused of attempting to hide evidence of the existence of the Jewish Temples.

The civilized world must write and call the Prime Minister's office and have him stop this crime immediately.

You can email him through the Prime Minister office website, or his office can be called at 011-972-3-610-9898 .

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A little more Temple Mount hypocrisy

When Israel tries to do anything around the Temple Mount, even though it does it transparently and with utmost care for archaeological treasures, the Arab world howls with rage about "desecration" and how Israel is trying to "Judaize" Jerusalem.

But when the Waqf really does desecrate the holiest site on the planet, they just call it "maintenance" and howl about Jewish "interference." From Al Hayat al-Jadida, autotranslated:

Aqsa Institution said that the parties and Israeli figures trying to interfere in the affairs of Al Aqsa Mosque, and these days a campaign of incitement and extensive body of Islamic Endowments in Jerusalem.

It said in a statement that those parties are trying to prevent maintenance work at Al-Aqsa Mosque, described as acts of barbarism.

The Aqsa Foundation that the Islamic Waqf in Jerusalem and the ages are Bulmer right to manage affairs of the Holy Mosque, in the right of the institution or the Israeli-hand subcommittee intervention even one grain of soil from Al Aqsa Mosque.

Aqsa Foundation also rejected Israeli incitement Wakfs Authority and the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and declared full support to the Wakfs Authority to confront all the Israeli schemes aimed to intervene in the affairs of Al-Aqsa Mosque, or Harming him.

The amount of priceless Jewish (and Byzantine) historic and religious relics destroyed by the Waqf is huge.

The amount of Arab projection towards Jews of their own crimes appears to be infinite.

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Waqf destroying parts of Temple Mount again

A followup to an earlier post, from Ynet:

Israeli archaeologists said on Wednesday they fear priceless relics could be damaged by a mechanical digger being used by Muslim caretakers to carve out a utility trench at one of Jerusalem's holiest shrines.

The work is being carried out on the plaza revered by Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif (Noble Sanctuary) and by Jews as the Temple Mount.

"It is appalling that in one of the most important archaeological sites in the country, heavy machinery is used in a barbaric way to dig a ditch 120 meters long and 1.5 meters deep," said Gabriel Barkay, an archaeologist at Bar-Ilan University near Tel Aviv.

He and other members of the Israeli-based Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, have criticized Israel's Antiquities Authority for allowing the Waqf, the Muslim caretakers of the site, to conduct the work.

Dalit Menzin, a spokeswoman for the Antiquities Authority, an Israeli government agency, declined to comment.

Sheikh Abdel al-Azeem Salhab, president of the Waqf Council, which is charged with day-to-day administration of the compound, denied the digging would cause any archaeological damage.

The trench is being dug to replace decades-old electric wiring at the complex, which now houses the al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock Mosques and was the site during biblical times of two Jewish Temples.

Barkay said earth from the trench contained pottery shards dating to the Byzantine period. He cautioned that more relics still underground could be harmed.

Christian, Muslim and Jewish heritage could "fall victim to this heinous act", Barkay said.

Other articles about Israeli complicity in this crime can be seen here and here. A BBC report is linked to here.

It also appears that Israel is violating its own laws by allowing this dig to go forward, not to mention when it limits Jewish access to the Temple Mount. This is from the text of Israel's "Protection of Holy Places Law":

Protection of Holy Places Law, 5727-1967

Protection of Holy Places.	1. The Holy Places shall be protected from desecration and any other violation and from anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings with regard to those places.
Offences.	2.(a) Whosoever desecrates or otherwise violates a Holy Place shall be liable to imprisonment for a term. of seven years. (b) Whosoever does anything likely to violate the freedom of access of the members of the different religions to the places sacred to them or their feelings with regard to those places shall be liable to imprisonment for a term of five years.

The only explanation is that this government does not recognize any Jewish attachment to the Temple Mount. Which must mean that the Kotel is just a wall with no real significance, if the Temple Mount has no Jewish meaning.

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Huffington Post publishes a great legal history of the "territories"

Sorry for quoting the whole thing, but it is as good and accurate a history of the disputed territories as one will ever find. By Robert Eisenman:

Christiane Amanpour in her "God's Warriors: The Jews" broadcast on CNN this weekend - aside from giving voice to as many anti-Israel and anti-"settlement" critics as one might imagine and almost no "Jewish" (really?) God's Warriors, except to portray them in the most trivialized manner - must have used the term "Occupied Territories" an endless number of times at every juncture in her narrative from start to finish, so much so that one could be left in no doubt that this was a critique of Israel's or "the Jews"' pre-sence in them (whatever one might mean by "them") and not about supposedly "Jewish" "Warriors for God" at all.

But it was an altogether too-easy victory. If you start by assuming what in the end you wish to prove, then you have really only indulged in an endless propaganda exercise ostensibly dealing with concepts you haven't really seriously investigated at all. A case in point - the highpoint of her investigation was clearly a revelation of a supposedly secret Israeli legal memorandum written by someone identified as a "legal adviser" alerting the then 1967 Government to the "illegality" of settlements and their potential violation of the Geneva Conventions and an actual interview (on the streets of London) with the now evidently-retired lawyerly Jewish author some forty years later (had he retired to London?) verifying, though a little more hesitatingly, that he still held the same view today.

That was all Amanpour needed. She then proceeded to run on with a series of cut-ins from a Jimmy Carter interview - as if he with his callow sophistries about Israeli "Apartheid" were some sort of expert too - interspersed with some "B-roll" of shots of James Baker and his Carlyle Group partner George Bush Sr., even the long-vanished Chuck Percy of Illinois! But where was the counter-indicative position stated in any depth to what was after all just another "legal opinion" (though in the sensationalist manner in which she was presenting it to a presumably legally-unsophisticated and unsuspecting public it was being given the appearance of the force of "a finding" or "a legal fact")? There was none.

Nor was there any serious background to how one came to the Six-Day War as if that was the be-all and end-all of the political situation. History began in 1967 - period. Or, for instance, of the Ottoman Empire previously or the British Mandate, or even the results of the Jordanian Annexation of the West Bank in the early 1950's, transforming what was once the British-named "Transjordan" (with obvious implications) into "The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan," i.e., "Jordan" on both sides of the River. No nothing - just bald statements nurturing present propagandistic fantasies.

"The Occupied Territories" -- let us start with that. When was the legal status of the territory in between the present territory of Jordan (now back on the other side of the River where it began) ever resolved? This is a good term for popular journalism or congenial conversation. Afterall, people must communicate, but it has no real presence in legal fact. That is what we meant by saying Ms. Amanpour achieved an all-too-easy victory on this point - from the beginning assuming what she had set out to prove, but the language you use from the beginning and throughout cannot contain the seeds of what you are going to conclude. You must give all sides to an argument or legal discussion a hearing.

In the first place, in Ottoman times, this whole area was part of the "Wilayet" or "Province of Damascus." There was never a "Province" called "Palestine," a name which like "Iraq" (i.e., the newly-discovered archaeological "Uruk") came from the British love of classics - in this instance, their love of classical literature which their professional bureaucrats learned at elite "Public Schools" and which was the legally-designated Roman term for the area after the Jewish presence had been largely eradicated following two Uprisings in 66-70 and 136 CE (interestingly enough, this was based on the Biblical term "Philistia" - the "Mycenaean" or "Greek" area of the Coast occupied by "the Philistines" which even modern Arabic has picked up for the name for its present-day extension - "the Philistinin"/"the Palestinians", the implications of which should be clear even though these aren't "Philistines," or are they?).

Jerusalem only became a separate quasi-administrative entity within this 'Wilayet" as Western Christian tourism and pilgrimage picked up during the Nineteenth Century and the Ottomans had to deal with Western Consulates that had started to grow up in it. There was never a "Palestine" per se except in late Roman times and there was never one again until the British came in 1917-18.

So it is best to start here with the First World War and its aftermath. The "Mandate" for Palestine and other "Mandates" were awarded to Britain and France by the League of Nations (basically as spoils of war) from the decomposing Ottoman Empire and German colonial possessions in Africa after the Conference of San Remo in 1920 and the Peace Treaty of Lausanne in 1923. This has to be considered the first "legal" building block if one wants to start with anything - whether colonial-minded or non-colonially-minded depending on the observer is besides the point.

Palestine was a "Class B" Mandate meaning, unlike some others ("Iraq" and "Syria" for Instance), its eventual independence was considered to be a ways off in the future. Whether one likes it or not, the fabled "Balfour Declaration" was appended to the Mandate for Palestine as a preamble. It is too bad it was never really observed, not even in spirit, because if it had been, history's first recorded "Holocaust" (or perhaps its second if one considers the Armenians and Turks) in which some six million were systematically annihilated might never have occurred. But, never mind, this is merely 'water over the dam' as it were.

It was at this point that all these results or positions were incorporated into the Palestine-Order-in-Council of 1922, which set forth the legal structure of the new "Mandate" absorbing all previous law including the League of Nations' Mandate and its controversial rider, "The Balfour Declaration." I needn't go into the terms of these. They are pretty obvious. By contrast "Transjordan" (as it was called) received an "Organic Law" after the British unilaterally cut away about two-thirds of the Mandate which originally applied to both sides of the river and gave it, presumably for 'services rendered,' to the Hashemite family of Mecca which coincidentally or otherwise was itself being thrown out of the Arabian Peninsula by "the House of Saud" - a dislodgement which had to do with "Arabian" legal affairs and nothing to do with "Palestinian" at all.

Moreover, it is hard to say if this was ever legally recognized by anyone but it didn't matter, as legal Mandatee, Britain presumably had the right to do this. In any event this threw the whole "Jewish-Palestinian" problem onto the Western Side of the Jordan River while at the same time making the eventual emergence of "Three States" (now possibly "Four") from the old Mandated Territory inevitable. Be this as it may, events eventually overtook this as well, though the establishment of "The Kingdom of Jordan" out of the old Palestine Mandate became more-or-less an unquestioned legal "fact" over the next 80 years.

Responding to various "Arab" uprisings in the Nineteen Twenties and Thirties (to some extent themselves responding to the rise of Nazism on continental Europe and elsewhere - the Baath Party in Syria, for instance, and further East), the British Administration in Palestine ("the man on the spot" as it was often called) became more and more anti-Jewish immigration - in contradistinction to the terms of the Balfour Declaration which in the end became more or less a dead letter - and came up with various "Partition" plans and finally "The White Paper" of 1939 which cut off Jewish immigration in Palestine (of course, just when it was most needed!).

In any event, after the Second World War and all the horrific events everyone is familiar with in connection with that, the legal question of "Palestine" ( though not of "Jordan" which had become an established "fact" as already explained) was once again 'on the table' of the heir of this League of Nations - the illustrious, still-functioning "United Nations." A version of one of these "Partition" plans was eventually adopted in 1947 but was immediately rejected by all of the surrounding "Arab States" by then themselves (several formerly "Class A Mandates") all independent: Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, etc. - only Lebanon does not seem to have been legally clearly regulated, nor does it seem to be today (let's leave present-day "Iraq" aside) - who immediately invaded looking forward to an easy victory.

What followed was the so-called Israeli "War of Independence," whose "Cease-Fire Lines" became the eventually demarcations of the 20-year "Truce" that then descended - the official name of which dropped into popular parlance as "the Old Green Lines." But where was the legal or "official" regulation here? There was none. What followed too was the eventual annexation of "the West Bank" (Jordanian parlance meaning the west bank of their Jordan River) in 1951 by the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan making it "Jordan" on both sides of the River. But where was the legal outcry here? There was none. But equally, where was the legal recognition or basis in international jurispru-dence? There was none - no more than the annexation by Israel of the City of Jerusalem and its surroundings after the Six-Day War in 1967 fifteen years later.

In other words, the status of the area in between Israel and Jordan, which had been part of the original Mandate for Palestine which had been legally recognized, was in a kind of legal limbo and was still to be regulated. This has to be done by Treaty and negotiations. Two such negotiations have occurred for better or for worse between Israel and Egypt and Jordan in the 1970's and 1990's. Ok, those situations are more or less legally defined and regulated whether rightly or wrongly.

But what of "the Occupied Territories"? These have not been defined in any legal sense and not even the famous Resolution 242 after the Six Day War in 1967 which called upon the Israelis to "withdraw from territories" in exchange for Peace drew back from doing this and did not - and this apparently purposefully - define which "territories" were to be so regarded and to what extent. This again was to be resolved by negotiations, but these "negotiations" are what are supposedly taking or not taking place; and, in any event have been marred by violence (from whatever the direction or from whosever's point-of-view) on a continuing basis.

Nevertheless, the term "Occupied Territories" itself would appear to be a misnomer, however it is used in fact, since it is difficult to "occupy" a "territory" which has no legal status to begin with - except that conferred on it perhaps by the illegal annexation by Jordan - and, therefore, it is difficult to see how the Geneva Conventions should apply to it anymore than they earlier did to Jordan (are all Jordanian-constructed buildings, et. al., therefore, "illegal"?). This is especially true in the light of a finding that "settlement" activity on the part "Jews" (if not "Israelis") in such areas was permissible - in fact, "looked upon with favor" according to the first officially-recognized legal entity, the Balfour Declaration.

However these things may be, the terms of all such legally-binding resolutions or enactments have been systematically violated by all either responsible for or a legal party to them from the beginning up to the present day. The British violated the terms of the Balfour Declaration which had been appended to their "Mandate for Palestine" from the beginning, in effect, doing away with it from two-thirds of the territory appertaining to it in a unilateral manner as early as 1920-21 or thereabouts (no protests here) and abolishing it altogether in 1939. The Jordanians also violated the terms of this Declaration, prima facie (and, as a result therefore, the Mandate for Palestine) allowing no "Jewish Settlement" - which they would have seen as a contradiction in terms - on the territory allotted to them from the beginning on up to the present day. As a footnote to this, it should be observed that even "Palestinian" groups like "Black September" opposed the kind of sovereignty these Authorities were exercising on whatever side of the Jordan.

The British also violated the terms of the Mandate for Palestine by the various unilateral actions they took already enumerated above. All so-called "Arab States," such as Egypt, Syria, Iraq, and Transjordan (many - the last three the beneficiaries of "Class A Mandates" - whose independence had already been consolidated as already explained), absolutely rejected the internationally-adopted "Partition of Palestine," making this crystal clear by their immediate invasion. And even those who did not invade like Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Kuwait, etc. supported this rejection and invasion in no uncertain terms. Even the so-called "Palestinians" themselves rejected this, rendering it too a dead letter - many making this clear by their flight whether by choice or involuntary (however one views this and whatever the claims involved) and even more so by their "National Charter" which unequivocally rejects it even to the present day.

So what is, therefore, the legal status of the so-called "Occupied Territories" and what is their extent? There is none. They are in a kind of legal limbo, that is, they are, strictly speaking, legally unrecognized and who knows their extent? This has yet to be determined by negotiation and, like most of the arguments one usually hears (including those on Amanpour's program), superficial. So how can the Geneva Conventions supposedly be applied to an area whose legal status was never legally or rightfully determined in any meaningful way in the first place, except for the Mandate for Palestine in 1920-23 by the League of Nations and manhandled ever since by all legal parties concerned but still rightfully recognizing a Jewish right of settlement all the way up to the Jordan River and, if the truth were told, beyond? This is one legal nicety which has never been gainsaid, whether one likes it or does not like it.

In any event, "Settlement" has to do with 'Lands" - "Dead Lands" as they were called in the Ottoman Empire previously, "Mewat." As in the American West and something in the manner of "Homesteading," these were and are (Ottoman Land Law having been absorbed into both Israel and Jordan Law) lands outside of cities and public spaces connected to cities whose title according to the Ottoman Land Law of 1856 (and, in fact, strict Islamic legal theory and customary practice upon which it was based) had never either been determined or registered by anyone, but which carried with it a right of "Vivification," that is, if you fenced off an uninhabited area of this kind with no registered legal title and cultivated it for three years continuously, you had the right to register it as "mulk" - freehold property. Anyhow, these are legal complexities for which the reader might wish to look at my book: Islamic Law in Palestine and Israel: A History of the Survival of Tanzimat and Shari'a in the British Mandate and the Jewish State, E. J. Brill, Leiden, 1978.

Another point, which perhaps should be emphasized for the unsuspecting reader - to call these "towns" or 'bedroom suburbs," which have been founded or mainly grown up on such lands ("Palestine," "the Wilayet of Damascus," "Transjordan," or whatever you want to call it being comprised of large swaths of such lands), "Settlements" at this point is also a misnomer - as any clear-eyed observer who has seen them might be able to understand - of immense and tendentious proportions whose basic purpose is to delegitimatize them (as clearly Christiane Amanpour was intent upon doing whether intentionally or otherwise) before their legal status even comes under consideration or is negotiated. She like many of her colleagues and confreres just seem to facilely assume these things are obvious without any in-depth examination - forgetting the ancient proverb that "the unexamined life is not worth living."

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Arabs digging at Temple Mount again

From Arutz-7:

The Islamic Wakf is digging large ditches on the Temple Mount without archaeological supervision to protect antiquities at Judaism’s holiest site.

Photos of the construction were publicized earlier this week. Investigation revealed that the dig had been approved by the police, though not coordinated with any archeological authorities. The ditch is being dug in the direction of the Dome of the Rock, the site of the Holy Temple, according to most opinions.

Police approval of the project, which involves heavy machinery, as well as a JCB tractor, was apparantly approved by the head of Israel’s Antiquity Authority. "The trench depth varies from 50 – 100 cm deep!" reports Zachi Zweig, an archaeologist that has been involved in exposing the Islamic Wakf's campaign of destroying Jewish artifacts on the mount. "Grey earth was removed from the dig, which indicates that it is archaeologically significant. In addition, signs of ancient architecture was exposed beneath the current platform slabs. It should be mentioned that the bedrock level at this location is very close to the current platform."

Zweig, who started the Temple Mound Debris-Sifting Project following his publicizing the dumbing of artifacts by the Wakf in the Kidron Valley, says the Antiquities Authority shares responsibility for the destruction. "It is an atrocity for which Antiquities Authority Director Shuka Dorfman, who authorized the dig, is responsible," Zweig said. "Ancient architectural remains were exposed during this dig in the northern section of the trench. No reasonable archaeologist would justify conducting a mechanical dig in such a sensitive location. The core problem here is that the IAA director is not an archaeologist - but rather a politician."

Past excavations carried out by the Wakf resulted in tons of priceless archaeological artifacts being mixed with garbage and dumped in the Kidron Valley. Some of that dumped earth was transported to the Tzurim Valley, below Hebrew University, where Zweig organized a group of archaeological students and volunteers who are still sifting through it after finding antiquities from the First and Second Temple periods.

Two archaeology students were detained by police Tuesday after asking workers questions about the dig. “The workers ignored us and called a Wakf official over. He complained to the police and upon our exiting the mount we were detained,” one of the students told Arutz-7.

Another group of archaeologists, the Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities, has protested the latest unsupervised construction by the Wakf, demanding that archaeologists be brought in to conduct the digging in a professional and documented manner.

Deadly riots by bloodthirsty extremist Jews should start any minute now. After all, all religious fanatics are the same.

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Reuters' bias shines through yet again

Unbelievable.

A single Arab family decides not to sell their house in the middle of one of the most important archaeological sites on the planet. Their neighbors do.

Israel does not condemn and demolish the Arab house. New Jewish neighbors try to be friendly, only to be rebuffed by the Arab family. The Arab can sell her house for a fortune if she decides to. She might be killed by Arabs if she does decide to sell to Jews.

The artifacts that are found at an undeniably Jewish historical site that belong to the Islamic period are not destroyed but sent to museums, including a dedicated Islamic museum in Jerusalem.

All of these facts are in the article below - but they are written in such a way as to make the homeowner some sort of hero and Israel to be the villain. Every Arab claim is made first, with an Israeli response afterwards. Indisputable facts are treated as claims. Comparisons to how Arabs have historically treated Jews in Jerusalem are never brought up. (Israel's birth is also distorted in a single, amazingly inaccurate sentence.) And Reuters proves yet again that it has an agenda, including a headline that generalizes the situation in an absurd way:

Jewish history crowds out Jerusalem Arabs

Fri Jun 8, 2007 9:09AM BST

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Widad Sha'abani is living history -- and not liking it much.

Many of the Palestinian widow's original neighbours are gone, bought out by an Israeli heritage trust. Now there are Jewish settlers next door. Beyond sprawls an archeological dig with a political programme in which she is, at best, a guest.

"We used to have a sense of community here, but I find myself a stranger among all these people," Sha'abani, 74, said in the courtyard of her two-room home, which forms an uncanny centrepiece to the open-air museum known as City of David.

Carved out of the teeming Silwan valley, below the walls of the Old City, the development is among several projects Israel has pursued in Arab East Jerusalem since capturing it 40 years ago this week -- in the Six Day War of 1967 that many Jews saw heralding a "return" to the biblical Zion of King David.

For Palestinians like Sha'abani, Israeli annexation -- never recognised abroad -- has brought some improvement in conditions but also a sense of innate alienation under the Jewish state.

Resentment runs especially deep in Jerusalem, where vying religious claims underscore a national struggle that, decades after the city's physical unification, is nowhere near resolved.

City of David's organisers receive funding from foreign donors and the Israeli government. They make no bones about their vision of boosting the nationalist Jewish population in parts of the city abounding with 3,000-year-old Judean relics.

"In the state of Israel today we have Jews and Arabs living side by side, and also in City of David are Jews and Arabs living side by side," said Doron Spielman, the project's international director of development.

"However, we believe City of David -- biblical Jerusalem, this little 14 acres of land -- should be a project which is uniquely Jewish," he said. "The roots go back to King David."

Sha'abani, a Christian who was married to a Muslim, endures a daily din of archaeologists' drilling. Tourists peer at her from City of David's reconstructed ramparts, and sometimes wander into her property thinking it is part of the dig.

BLANK CHEQUE

There are also visits from City of David's financiers, who try to persuade her, or her sons, to sell the house and leave.

"Once they offered $50,000, and another time a blank cheque on which they said we could write any sum we wanted. But no, we refused, and we will continue to refuse," Sha'abani said.

She recalled efforts by some of her Jewish neighbours to be friendly but said cultural difference and political mistrust were insurmountable problems: "You have to be careful of their intentions. As an Arab, you know you could be manipulated."

Palestinian officials complain that East Jerusalem Arabs who sell their property to Jews often do so after years of exasperation with an Israeli municipality that is less than attentive to Muslim and Christian residents of the city.

Israelis say the transactions -- sometimes in the millions of dollars -- are legal and consensual, and brokered amid vigilante death threats to the Palestinian seller. An East Jerusalem Arab was shot dead in the West Bank last year after it emerged that a house he had sold ended up in Jewish hands.

City of David's sleekly produced Web site includes a timeline of history at the site. It skips though from 70 A.D., when the Romans razed the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, to 1882, when modern Zionism first took wing.

Israel was founded amid a war in 1948 as imperial Britain withdrew from Palestine.

Spielman acknowledged that the intervening 18 centuries after the destruction of the Temple saw extended Arab, Crusader and Ottoman rule in Jerusalem. Non-Judaic antiquities uncovered at City of David are handed over to Israeli museums, including one in Jerusalem dedicated to Islamic culture, he said.

"Our dream is to have the entire world come to Jerusalem and look to the city and see the fact that Jewish families have returned after 2000 years of exile," Spielman said.

"They live above ground and beneath their feet there is Jewish history, Arab history and Christian history."

Hat tip: Zionist Spy

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How Israel treats Muslim archaeological finds

As I've mentioned before, the major issue that the Muslims have with any archaeological digs in Jerusalem is the possibility that Jewish items and buildings will be found, and hence the digs will end up "Judaizing" Jerusalem.

What they refuse to admit is that many of the digs have uncovered critical periods of Islamic history as well.

There was a recent report claiming that Israeli archaeologists had found an ancient Islamic prayer room three years ago and had covered it up. In response, the Israeli authorities pointed out that they had not determined what the find was yet, and if it was found to be an important Islamic find then they would preserve it. Of course, the Muslims accused Israel of being more nefarious:

Adnan Husseini, chairman of the Muslim council that oversees affairs at the holy site, expressed anger that Israel withheld news of the discovery for three years. "We didn't hear anything about this," he said. "They are always hiding things."

Let's see whether that argument has any merit.

When the Israeli archaeologists started digging at the southern part of the Temple Mount, they found the remains of an Omayyad palace as well as other finds that illuminated early Muslim life in Jerusalem. Rather than destroy this palace as the Muslims would have you think, they shared the information with the local Islamic authorities - who appreciated the gesture and allowed the Israelis to dig in other areas near the Temple Mount.

This story illuminates how Muslims have traditionally tried to politicize archaeology as much as possible:

(Meir) Ben-Dov (field director of southern Mount dig) tells the story of a visit to the excavation by Rafiq Dajani, the deputy director of the Jordanian Department of Antiquities. Dajani remarked to Ben-Dov, “If we could leave politics to the politicians, I would heartily congratulate you on your work, revealing finds of which we knew very little up until now. The finds from the early Moslem period are thrilling, and frankly I’m surprised the Israeli scholars made them public.”

A foreign correspondent overheard Dajani’s remarks and included them in his story.

Two weeks later Dajani was summarily dismissed and later died in the prime of life.

And how did the hated Zionists sweep the discovery of this palace under the rug?

By placing it on a stamp, of course.

Contrast this with how the Waqf treats Jewish archaeological finds on the Temple Mount, and you can see yet another example of Muslim projection of their own attitudes and actions onto the Jews.

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Who's afraid of the truth?

As I've mentioned before, the major problem that Arabs have with any digs in Jerusalem has nothing to do with mosques, holy places or weakening foundations. Their major concern is that they don't want anything Jewish to be found by archaeologists, because they want to keep their myths alive that Jerusalem has no Jewish history.

Another proof that the issue is "Judaizing" and not anything else comes from the Palestine Center for Human Rights press release concerning the digs, with the headline "As the International Community Remains Silent, Israeli Occupation Authorities Continue the Judaization of Occupied Arab Jerusalem."

Again applying Elder's First Rule of Arab Projection, let's look at the Palestinian National Commission for Education, Culture and Science webpage and specifically its page about Jerusalem.

Almost nothing is mentioned about any Jewish rule or influence in Jerusalem's history. No David, no Solomon, and the Second Temple is only mentioned as possibly existing for less than a century. Here's the only section (out of 30) that acknowledges any Jewish claims on the area, and interestingly it is the only section that does not include a picture:

23. Al-Buraq (The Western Wall, Wailing Wall)

One of the Islamic holy places, this wall is part of the western wall of the Haram al-Sharif. It is named after al-Buraq (the elevation) that carried the prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) on his journey from Mecca to Jerusalem. Moslems believe that it was tied up at this site.

The Jews called it the Wailing Wall. They claim it as part of the wall around their Temple that was built by Herod the Great in 18 BC and was destroyed by Titus in 70 AD. It is a holy place for them and they used to weep whenever they visited it, thence the name Wailing Wall.

The site is an endowment of the Algerian family Abu Midain. In the reign of Muhammad Ali Basha Jews used to obtain permits to visit the site in return for 300 pounds a year. During the British Mandate some Jews broke the “status quo” by bringing seats, lamps and curtains and claiming it as their property. The result was a revolt, called the al-Buraq revolt, of August 1929. More than 116 martyrs fell, 232 people were injured, 1000 were imprisoned and three were executed, namely Ata al-Zear, Muhammad Jamjaum and Fu’ad Hijazi.

The decision was taken in 1930 that the Moslems are the sole owners of the wall, but Jews were given the right to pray there under the conditions stipulated by the committee.

The simple fact is that Jews, by digging in Jerusalem, are not afraid of what will be found. Jerusalem archaeology is replete with finds from not only Jewish periods of history but also Byzantine, Roman, Islamic and Jebusite. This is not considered a threat, as the truth is not something to be feared.

But even a cursory look at this one entry in the Palestinian Arab "educational" site shows that the truth is the furthest thing from the minds of those who create the PalArab educational curriculum - it is nothing short of brainwashing. To mention the 1929 riots purely in terms of numbers of Arabs killed (by the British, not Jews) and to ignore the massacres against Jews in Hebron, Tzfat and Jerusalem is astonishing.

And this aversion to truth, and stubborn adherence to clear lies, is endemic even among the Arab intelligentsia. Look at this article that has been spread widely among Arab and far left website in the past day by "journalist" Nicola Nasser:

The eye of the present storm is Bab al-Magharibah, located in the southern section of al-Haram al-Sharif's western wall, which connects Al Aqsa Mosque compound with Jerusalem's southern neighborhoods; it was used by the residents of the Magharibah Quarter which was demolished by Israeli bulldozers in June 1967 to build the “Jewish Quarter” in its place. On 28 September, 2000, the comatose former Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon, used Bab al- Magharibah as his entry point to “visit” the Haram al-Sharif, igniting a firestorm of protest and sparking the Al Aqsa Intifada (uprising), which brought the peace process to a deadlock until now. In August of 1929, the same site sparked an uprising known in Palestinian political literature as the “Al-Buraq Revolt.”

Al-buraq is the Arab-Islamic name of Al Aqsa compound’s western wall, which the Jews called the “Wailing Wall” before changing it to the “Western Wall (of the Temple Mount, a widely-spread knowledge that has yet to be vindicated by historical fact or archeological findings) after the creation of Israel in 1948. The Israeli Occupying power after its overwhelming victory in 1967 confiscated by force the keys to Bab al-Magharibah from the Islamic Waqf to make them ever since Israel’s “Achilles’ heel” or “Joha's nail” to claim its imposed “partnership” on the Haram al-Sharif, later using that self-proclaimed “partnership” at the Camp David negotiations in 2000 to demand joint sovereignty over the mosque area.

How many lies can you find in this article? But these lies are the currency of discourse among Arabs, and their greatest fear is the existence of hundreds of Jewish buildings, ritual baths, coins, pottery shards, Hebrew inscriptions and other evidence of how Jerusalem has been the center of the Jewish universe since King David.

Finding this evidence - uncovering the truth - is the greatest fear of the Arabs.

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Archaeological Temple artifacts drive PalArabs crazy

A few years ago, in a major crime against history, religion and archaeology, the Waqf in Jerusalem excavated and trashed tons of material from the most valuable archaeological site on the planet, the Temple Mount. It was a clear attempt to erase any shred of Jewish history from the area so the Muslims can continue to lie about the supposed ancient mosques that they claim were there, a story that gets mosre insane with each passing year.

Since then, many volunteers have been sifting through the rubble, finding priceless antiquities. I quoted an article last year about it, and now more has been found. From Ha'aretz:

By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent

The project of sifting layers of Temple Mount dirt has yielded thousands of new artifacts dating from the First Temple period to today. The dirt was removed in 1999 by the Islamic Religious Trust (Waqf) from the Solomon's Stables area to the Kidron Stream Valley. The sifting itself is taking place at Tzurim Valley National Park, at the foot of Mount Scopus, and being funded by the Ir David Foundation. Dr. Gabriel Barkai and Tzachi Zweig, the archaeologists directing the sifting project with the help of hundreds of volunteers, are publishing photographs and information about the new discoveries in the upcoming issue of Ariel, which comes out in a few days.

The bulk of the artifacts are small finds - the term used for artifacts that can be lifted and transported, rather than fixed features. The dirt was removed in the course of excavating the mammoth entrance to the underground mosque built seven years ago in the southeastern corner of the Temple Mount. The Waqf and Islamic Movement in Israel separated dirt from stones, then used the ancient building blocks for rebuilding, in case the police barred construction materials from being brought in.

Most of the finds predate the Middle Ages. The finds include 10,000-year-old flint tools; numerous potsherds; some 1,000 ancient coins; lots of jewelry (pendants, rings, bracelets, earrings and beads in a variety of colors and materials); clothing accessories and decorative pieces; talismans; dice and game pieces made of bone and ivory; ivory and mother of pearl inlay for furniture; figurines and statuettes; stone and metal weights; arrowheads and rifle bullets; stone and glass shards; remains of stone mosaic and glass wall mosaics; decorated tiles and parts of structures; stamps, seals and a host of other items.

The sifting project is precedent-setting: This is the first time dirt from any antiquities site is being sifted in full. Among the many volunteers are soldiers, tourists, high-school students and yeshiva boys. Visitors over the past few months have included ultra-Orthodox MKs and rabbis, who usually steer clear of archaeological digs.

When the dirt was originally trucked out, the late director of the Israel Antiquities Authority, Amir Drori, termed it "an archaeological crime," and the attorney general at the time, Elyakim Rubinstein, said it was "a kick to the history of the Jewish people." Now it turns out that the dirt removed from the Temple Mount harbors thousands of small finds from diverse periods.

...The most striking find from this period is a First Temple period bulla, or seal impression, containing ancient Hebrew writing, which may have belonged to a well-known family of priests mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah.

Many other findings date from the Persian period (Return to Zion), Hasmonean, Ptolemaic and Herodian periods, as well as from Second Temple times. Second Temple finds include remains of buildings: plaster shards decorated a rust-red, which Barkai says was fashionable at the time; a stone measuring 10 centimeters and on it a sophisticated carving reminiscent of Herodian decorations; and a broken stone from a decorated part of the Temple Mount - still bearing signs of fire, which Barkai says are from the Temple's destruction in 70 C.E.

The project has also yielded artifacts from the Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and Early Arab periods. According to Barkai, the Byzantine finds radically alter the assessment that the Temple Mount was empty at that time.

The Muslim reaction in the Arabic papers is predictable. Notice his title, which may or may not be an accurate translation from Google of an al-Hayat article:

Sheikh Taysir Al Tamimi, the Chief Judge of Palestine, chairman of the Supreme Council for the Elimination of Forensic and preacher of Al-Haram Al-Ibrahimi reports of the allegations and claims Israeli official in archeology found relics of the structure of Jews under the foundations of Al Aqsa Mosque in 1999, He described the allegations as sheer lie and a falsification of historical facts, If this claim is true for the established minimum and Agaadoha Since then, archaeologists have announced that the Jews repeatedly not finding any trace of their alleged temple, or of Jewish history in Jerusalem. Despite this, they decided to continue the excavations in order to undermine the foundations of the mosque and causing the collapse of its architecture.

"Supreme Council for the Elimination of Forensic?"

Notice the bald-faced lies: it was the Arabs who excavated under the Temple Mount, and archaeologists all agree that the Second Temple existed at that site (although there is still controversy about the First Temple) - let alone that the city was a Jewish city at that period.

Palestinian Arab TV is repeatedly broadcasting even more absurd claims, such as that no Jews were in the area until the 16th century and that the Western Wall was built as part of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (which was built 11 centuries later!) And it gets even better:

In a previous interview with WND, Kamal Hatib, vice-chairman of the Islamic Movement, claimed the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built by angels and that a Jewish Temple may have existed but not in Jerusalem.

"When the First Temple was built by Solomon – God bless him – Al Aqsa was already built. We don't believe that a prophet like Solomon would have built the temple at a place where a mosque existed," said Hatib.

"And all the historical and archaeological facts deny any relation between the temples and the location of Al Aqsa. We must know that Jerusalem was occupied and that people left many things, coins and other things everywhere. This does not mean in any way that there is a link between the people who left these things and the place where these things were left," Hatib said.

These are the lies that get broadcast and printed in Islamic media every day, not to mention printed in their textbooks.

When truth is held in such low regard, how can anyone believe anything these clowns ever say?

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Second Temple virtual model

From the Jerusalem Archaeological Park website.

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Important archaeological relics saved from Wakf Temple Mount garbage

On the grounds of a Jerusalem national park with a view of the Temple Mount, a small group of Israeli archaeologists and volunteers sifting through piles of rubble discarded by Islamic Wakf officials from the Temple Mount into a city garbage dump have recently uncovered a series of history-rich artifacts dating back to the First and Second Temple periods.

The five-month old privately-funded project underway at the site, which is being directed by Bar Ilan University archeology professor Dr. Gabriel Barkay, is being called virtually unprecedented since archaeological excavation has never been permitted on the Temple Mount itself.

Six years ago, following the Islamic Wakf's unilateral construction of a mosque at an underground area of the Temple Mount known as Solomon's Stables, Wakf officials discarded more than 10,000 tons of rubble with history-rich artifacts, at a municipal garbage dump in the Kidron Valley and other locations outside the Old City.

The November 1999 destruction and removal of the antiquities in the wake of the mosque construction was later called "an unprecedented archaeological crime" by the head of Israel's Antiquities Authority, the state-run archaeological body nominally charged with supervision at Judaism's holiest site, as well as by Israel's leading archaeologists.

According to decades-old regulations in place on the Temple Mount, Islamic Wakf official administer the compound, while Jerusalem police are in charge of overall security at the site.
[...]
Starting in November, the archaeologist and a small team, led by his 32-year-old former student Zachi Zweig, transferred 68 truckloads of rubble saturated with archaeological finds from the garbage dump to the Emek Zurim National Park, on the western slopes of Mount Scopus. Using a mechanical sifter, the rubble was then separated into heaps based on size, before being hand-checked for antiquities.

Over the last five months, Zweig a small team of six workers -- and an equal number of daily volunteers -- who have sifted through 15 percent of the rubble to date have uncovered scores of history-rich artifacts, from the First Temple Period until today amidst the rubble, including a large amount of pottery dating from the Bronze Ages through modern times, a large segment of a marble pillar's shaft, and over 100 ancient coins, among them several from the Hasmonean dynasty.

The one meter tall marble column, streaked with purple veins and white spots, is thought to date back to Late Roman or the Byzantine period, Barkay said, and is similar to column shafts near the southern wall of the Temple Mount.

The first coin recovered from the rubble was from the period of the First Revolt against the Romans that preceded the destruction of the Second Temple, he added.

The coin bore the phrase "For the Freedom of Zion," and was particularly meaningful as the Temple Mount was one of the epicenters of the fight against the Romans.

Other finds include a spout of a Hasmonean lamp, an assortment of arrowheads, an ivory comb, a ceramic flask, various first temple figurines, and numerous pottery oil lamps.

The historical project underway is now in danger of going unfinished due to a lack of financial support, with the project director saying that the project will abruptly end in one week unless organizers receive urgent financial backing needed to complete the work.

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Major Arab vandalism on Temple Mount

The word "Allah" in Arabic hewed into the eastern wall of the Temple Mount

Once again, an egregious example of intolerance from Islam. This story is buried because it only happened to a Jewish holy site - imagine the world outrage if a similar incident happened in Mecca? Wars have been fought over less.

Notice also the absence of any response from the Arab world, the Waqf, and the Palestinian Authority.

The double standard is alive and well, and it is time for Jews to take control over Jewish holy sites. The Waqf has shown itself to be irresponsible time and time again, and Jews will protect Muslim holy sites fat better than any Muslim will protect Jewish holy sites. Some things are more important than the mythical "peace process", and when Jews willingly give up their holiest sites to the control of those who want to destroy them, they are giving up their major claim to the land of Israel.

The word "Allah" in Arabic was found hewn into the eastern wall of Jerusalem's Temple Mount, in one of the worst acts of vandalism at the history-rich site in the last several years, archaeologists and eyewitnesses said Wednesday.

The vandalism was discovered late Tuesday night on a half-meter section of the 2,000 year old wall, which is undergoing repair by a team of Jordanian engineers.

Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said that police suspect that one of the Arab workers repairing the wall was behind the vandalism, adding that police had opened an investigation into the incident.

"This vandalism, coupled with Israel's lack of archaeological supervision at Judaism's holiest site is simply lawlessness of the first order on the part of the Government," said Temple Mount expert and Hebrew University archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar.

Mazar's non-partisan 'Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount,' which has been decrying the lack of archaeological supervision at the site for five years now, launched a complaint with police against the vandalism, which
police said would be removed by mid-morning.

Israel's Antiquities Authority had no immediate comment Wednesday.

According to decades-old arrangements in place at the site, Israel maintains overall security control of the Temple Mount while the Wakf or Islamic Trust is in charge of the day-to-day maintenance of the compound.

In the late 1990's, following the construction of an underground mosque at the site, Islamic Wakf officials dumped more than 12,000 tons of earth, with history-rich artifacts, at a garbage dump outside the Old City, an action which Israeli archaeologists called "an unprecedented archaeological crime."

In contravention of the law, Israeli archaeologists from the Antiquities Authority have not been carrying out supervision for more than four years now at the bitterly contested site due to their concern about renewed Palestinian violence.

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