Friday, December 22, 2017
Elder of Ziyon
The Temple Mount Sifting Project (formerly known as the Temple Mount Salvage Operation) is an Israeli archaeological project begun in 2005 dedicated to recovering archaeological artifacts from 400 truckloads of topsoil removed from the Temple Mount by the Waqf during the construction of the underground el-Marwani Mosque from 1996 to 1999.[1] The project is under the academic auspices of Bar Ilan University and until 2017 was funded by the Ir David Foundation and Israel Exploration Society.The destruction of so many tons of property from the Temple Mount was the biggest archaeological crime in history.
The project webpage is now warning of other large-scale destruction of Jewish history by Palestinians, ISIS-style.
In full view of people passing on the highway 90, Palestinians are using bulldozers and other heavy equipment to destroy Second Temple-era Jewish settlements in order to build a new village.
This is all happening in Area B, under Palestinian administrative control.
Moreover, it looks like Palestinian antiquities thieves are working in the area at night to steal whatever ancient artifacts they can find to sell on the market.
The article notes that similar destruction has recently begun in the area of the Hasmonean palaces in Jericho.
These areas are under Israeli military control, but complaints have gone unheeded. At a time that Jerusalem's Jewish history is in the news, the Israeli government is allowing Jewish history in Judea and Samaria to be wantonly destroyed.
In Israel, any construction project must be checked out - and stopped or modified, if necessary - by archaeologists to see if anything of historic value would be destroyed. Muslim artifacts are protected as well as Jewish ones.
The Palestinian Authority, on the other hand, wants to destroy any vestiges of Jewish history from areas under its control.
This is another crime being done in broad daylight.
(h/t Yoel)
