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Jewish World Review
Sept. 10, 2007
/ 28 Elul, 5767
A thundering silence on Temple Mount's depredation
By
Hershel Shanks
The "Jewish State" is allowing Judaism's holiest site to have its priceless artifacts destroyed and nobody seems to care
http://www.JewishWorldReview.com |
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.
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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?
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.
Hershel Shanks is editor of Biblical Archaeology Review and author of
Jerusalem's Temple Mount — From Solomon to the Golden Dome (Continuum,
2007).
Let him know what you think by clicking here.
© 2007, Hershel Shanks
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