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Stand for Israel Blog

Israel Underground: History in the Dirt

February 23, 2010

In Israel, a land rich with Bible history, renovating your home can lead to archeological revelations.

That’s what happened this month to a couple in Jerusalem’s Old City. A white marble plaque was found that dates back 1100 years, according to Israeli archeologists. Hebrew University Professor Moshe Sharon traced it to 910, when the city was under Muslim rule.

For archeologists and students, Israel is an ideal location for an archeological dig, since interesting finds are everywhere. A few of the recent significant finds:

The Jaffa Gate

A Byzantine-era road in the heart of Jerusalem near the Jaffa Gate beneath present-day David Street was found by municipality workers. The find supports the Madaba Mosaic Map, the oldest known cartographic representation of Jerusalem dating from the 6th century A.D.

Subsequent to the discovery of the street, another Roman artifact was found nearby: an aqueduct from the days of King Herod.

But Jerusalem’s history goes back farther than the Romans. A few fortunate U.S. college students were involved in a  privately-funded excavation that discovered a 231-foot long, 20 foot-high section of stone wall near the Temple Mount. The wall, dating back to the time of King Solomon, was part of a city complex.

Volunteering on an archeology dig in Israel is an excellent way to gain a deeper appreciation of the country’s historical and Biblical context–something the students involved in the wall excavation no doubt discovered–but usually requires a lot of hard work and weather.

Then again–as others have discovered–sometimes, in Israel, archeology finds you.

Erasing Ezekiel’s Jewish identity

January 15, 2010

For centuries Jews, Christians and Muslims came to Al-Kifl, a small town south of Baghdad, to visit the tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel and pray.

The distinctive Jewish character of the Al-Kifl shrine, namely the Hebrew inscriptions and the Torah Ark, never bothered the gentile worshipers. In the 14th century a minaret was built next to the shrine, but the interior design remained Jewish. The vast majority of Iraq’s Jewish community left some 60 years ago, but Shi’ites took good care of the holy site.

Until now.

Recently “Ur,” a local Iraqi news agency, reported that a huge mosque will be built on top of the grave by Iraq’s Antiquities and Heritage Authority, while Hebrewinscriptions and ornaments are being removed from the site, all as part of renovations.

Prof. Shmuel Moreh of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, winner of the 1999 Israel Prize in Middle Eastern studies and chairman of the Association of Jewish Academics from Iraq, speaking to The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, confirmed the report.

“I first heard the news of tomb desecration from a friend of mine who is a German scholar. After visiting the site he called me and said that some Hebrewinscriptions on the grave were covered by plaster and that a mosque is planned to be built on top of the tomb. He told me that he found the changes at the tomb disturbing and warned me that I’d better act quickly, before any irreversible damage will be inflicted,” Moreh said.

“I had contacted Mr. Shelomo Alfassa, US director of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries, and told him about this situation. Then I saw the report from the Ur news agency, mentioning the decision of the Antiquities and Heritage Authority to build a mosque and to erase the Hebrewinscriptions and ornaments,” Moreh said.

He asked friends to check out the developments at the site. The most recent to visit the shrine said that some of the inscriptions are now hidden by a layer of plaster.

Iraqi press reports claim that the building must be destroyed because of its poor condition. However, Alfassa believes that Iraq’s Antiquities and Heritage Authority “has been pressured by Islamists to historically cleanse all evidence of aJewish connection to Iraq – a land where Jews had lived for over a thousand years before the advent of Islam.”

According to the Baghdad-born Moreh, many of the Muslims who visit the tomb today are unaware Ezekiel was a Jew.

Iraq, the biblical Aram Naharaim, is rich in Jewish religious sites. Not only Ezekiel is buried there, but also Ezra, Daniel, Nehemiah, Nahum and Jonah. (Another tomb attributed to Ezekiel is located in Dezful, in southwestern Iran.)

Soon after the US-led invasion in 2003, Iraqi authorities indicated that they intended to take good care of the Jewish sites, which might become an powerful tourist magnet. In May 2009, the Tourism Ministry declared that it intended to preserve all of Iraq’s heritage sites, regardless of creed, and would soon begin the renovation of Ezekiel’s tomb.

But the future of Jewish sacred sites looks grim in the intolerant current climate of post-Saddam Iraq, where only eight Jews are left, the Christian minority is severely persecuted by the fundamentalists and ancient Shi’ite mosques are blown up.

“Let’s hope that the Jewish sites will be spared, but someone must intervene before it’s too late,” Moreh warned.

Pottery shard strengthens case for David’s kingdom

January 10, 2010

A pottery shard uncovered in an archaeological dig in Israel’s Elah Valley (which lies between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv roughly in the area of the modern city of Beit Shemesh) may provide important information in the ongoing academic dispute over whether or not the Biblical account of the Holy Land’s history can be considered accurate.

The shard’s inscription is earliest known Hebrew writing, the University of Haifa’s Prof. Gershon Galil says. The inscription itself was written in ink on a 15 cm X 16.5 cm trapezoid pottery shard. The inscription will likely become part of the academic debate over whether the kingdom of King David existed.

In recent decades, different schools of archaeology have battled over the “historicity” of the Bible, whether or not it can be considered a reliable source of information. Those who say it is unreliable–called Biblical Minimalists–have been ascendant (and they have focused especially on David and the 10th century BCE). Some recent discoveries have called their theories into question, though, including the large stone structure unearthed by archaeologist Eilat Mazar, which she believes is King David’s palace.

While people of faith won’t be moved by whether or not academics believe in the veracity of the Biblical account, the ongoing research not only affects many unsure of their beliefs. It also profoundly affects attempts by Palestinians to erase Jewish claims to the Holy Land.

Come again?: Ancient Hebrew fragments of Jewish Bible are part of Muslim country’s “cultural heritage”

January 4, 2010

This ancient Hebrew scroll of the Book of Psalms is part of... the Muslim cultural legacy?

Here’s how this will get reported: Canada declined to get involved in a controversy over ownership of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls, which Jordan alleges Israel seized illegally from east Jerusalem during the Six-Day War.  

What actually happened: Canada didn’t get involved when Jordan–ostensibly the most moderate of Israel’s neighbors–demanded that Canadian authorities seize a traveling exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The scrolls, ancient Hebrew manuscripts including segments of the Hebrew Bible, are of enormous significance to Christians and Jews and have little or nothing to do with Islam, the religion of the majority of Jordanians. Canadians are too polite to have snorted in the Jordanians’ faces.  

***  

The ancient caves near Qumran where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found.

So let’s go over this again: Jordan told Canada that, according to the Hague convention, the scrolls are their ”cultural property.” Back in April, Salam Fayyad, Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority, wrote to the Canadian Prime Minister to claim ownership and tried to get the Canadians to refuse the show altogether. When that didn’t work, a bunch of “pro-Palestinian” groups demonstrated outside the museum for daring to show them. (Around 200,000 people viewed them anyway.)  

As a reminder, the Dead Sea Scrolls are ancient Hebrew parchments that were discovered in caves near Qumran, a valley in the desert between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, between 1947 and the late 1950s. The scrolls are believed to have been written by the Essenes, a Jewish sect that lived there around the time of the Second Temple. (Many scholars believe that Jesus might have been an Essene.)  

The scrolls include fragments from most books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms and Isaiah, as well as a number of other books from the Aprocrypha — books that were not included in the Hebrew Bible when it was a cannonized — and writings that were new to scholars. They shed enormous light on the theology and practices of different groups and sects of Jews during the Second Temple period, which includes the time of Jesus.  

The WSJ ad through which Hebrew University professors bought the scrolls.

They were found by Bedouin shepherds, who tried to sell fragments to tourists. Eventually, people realized the value of what they were dealing with and–to make a long story short–the scrolls ended up being advertised for sale in the Wall Street Journal (strange but true — see the photo) and two Hebrew University professors purchased them for $250,000.00, a princely sum in those days. The scrolls became part of the permanent collection of the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. 

However laughable it might be for the Palestinian Authority or Jordan to lay claim to these, it makes sense. And it’s scary. 

The Dead Sea Scrolls–if nothing else–are tangible and fascinating proof of the long history of the Jewish people in the Holy Land. The Palestinian Authority, along with far too many Arab leaders, have made historical revisionism one of their sharpest tools: Those who claim that the Holy Temples never stood and dispute Jewish ties to it will have no problem claiming that the Dead Sea scrolls mean nothing. 

Given the bull-dozing of antiquities on the Temple Mount, the mind reels wondering what fate would await the scrolls.

For those of you in Wisconsin or elsewhere in the mid-West, the scrolls go next to Milwaukee. The exhibit opens January 22.

  

Photos and details about Nazareth find: 1st century house sheds light on life in Jesus’ era

December 24, 2009

An aerial view of the house uncovered in Nazareth

The Israeli archaeologists who carried out excavations in Nazareth that revealed a house that dates to the time of Jesus (the 1st century CE) are saying that the dig sheds important light in the way of life in Nazareth at the time.

From the few written sources available, historians believe that, in the first 1st century CE, Nazareth was a small Jewish village nestled in a valley. Until this dig, only a few tombs from the time of Jesus had been uncovered; these remains are the first house to be found.

“The building that we found is small and modest and it is most likely typical of the dwellings in Nazareth in that period,” said Yardena Alexander, the archaeologist who directed the excavation.

The house was discovered during excavations prior to the building of a new visitors’ center as a part of the Church of the Annunciation compound, which is adjacent to the plot where the house lays. The Church sits on the spot that Catholic tradition identifies as the home of Mary, Jesus’s mother. It was built in 1969 on the remains of three earlier churches, which included a Crusader Church and one that dated to the Byzantine period (the fourth century CE). A cave that lies between the churches was identified by early Christian tradition as the home of Jesus’ family.

(Because Israeli soil is so rich in remnant of Biblical and post-Biblical history, Israeli law requires that any construction that requires digging be cleared with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) first. The IAA then makes sure that there aren’t any remains that might be damaged. –Alas, they’ve been a little more permissive when it comes to digging on the Temple Mount.)

The house is adjacent to the Church of the Annunciation

The house sat underneath remains of a broad wall that dated to the Mamluk period (15th century CE). (Israeli archaeologists generally have to work through layers of history since buildings from different eras are built on top of the remains of older buildings – as in the case of the Church itself being built on top of older churches.)

The house consists of two rooms and a courtyard that held a rock-hewn cistern that would have collected rainwater. Only a few artifacts were found inside and consisted mostly of pottery fragments that date to the Early Roman period (the first and second centuries CE). Several fragments from chalk vessels also were found, which were commonly used by Jews during that period since they did not become ritually unclean.

The dig also uncovered another hewn pit with a camouflaged entrance, which held pottery shards dating to the Early Roman period. Excavation director Yarden Alexandre theorized that it was “part of the preparations by the Jews to protect themselves during the Great Revolt against the Romans in 67 CE “

Christian scripture teaches that Jesus grew up in Nazareth, where Mary lived with her husband, Joseph.

The “Mary of Nazareth”’ association intends on conserving and displaying the remains of the newly discovered house inside the new building planned.

First Jesus-era house found in Nazareth

December 21, 2009

A new find in Nazareth may shed light on how shepherds (like those in this recreation) lived 2,000 years ago. (Photo by John LaRue)

NAZARETH, Israel — Days before Christmas, archaeologists on Monday unveiled what they said were the remains of the first dwelling in Nazareth that can be dated back to the time of Jesus – a find that could shed new light on what the hamlet was like during the period the New Testament says Jesus lived there as a boy.

The dwelling and older discoveries of nearby tombs in burial caves suggest that Nazareth was an out-of-the-way hamlet of around 50 houses on a patch of about four acres (1.6 hectares). It was evidently populated by Jews of modest means who kept camouflaged grottos to hide from Roman invaders, said archaeologist Yardena Alexandre, excavations director at the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Based on clay and chalk shards found at the site, the dwelling appeared to house a “simple Jewish family,” Alexandre added, as workers at the site carefully chipped away at mud with small pickaxes to reveal stone walls.

Nazareth holds a cherished place in Christianity. It is the town where Christian tradition says Jesus grew up and where an angel told Mary she would bear the child of God.

“This may well have been a place that Jesus and his contemporaries were familiar with,” Alexandre said. A young Jesus may have played around the house with his cousins and friends, she said. “It’s a logical suggestion.”

The discovery so close to Christmas has pleased local Christians.

Read the rest at the Washington Post.

Helping erase Biblical history

November 18, 2009

We could hardly say it better than Commentary’s incomparable Evelyn Gordon on the dust-up over building in the “settlement” of Jerusalem”:

… labeling half of Israel’s capital a “settlement,” as Jonathan has pointed out, may be hard to beat. But a New York Times report of a new book about the Temple Mount is definitely in the running. Seeking to give readers some background, the report offered the following gem: “The lack of archaeological evidence of the ancient temples has led many Palestinians to deny any real Jewish attachment or claim to the plateau.”

We’ll ignore the fact that the Second Temple is actually well-documented in extant writings from the period, and that several sections of the Temple compound’s outer walls, as described in these writings, have been uncovered (the Western Wall being one of them).

Instead, let’s discuss why there is a dearth of findings from the Temples themselves. (1) There happens to be a mosque on the exact site where, according to tradition, the Temples once stood. (2) Israel, contrary to Palestinian propaganda, is not out to “destroy al-Aqsa”; indeed, it scrupulously avoids any action that might endanger the mosque. (3) Israel is so deferential to Muslim sensibilities that, after capturing the Mount in 1967, it handed control of the site back to the Muslim waqf. Which brings us to (4): for all these reasons, Israel has never excavated the only place in the world where remnants of the Temple could possibly be found. Nor were any digs conducted there before 1967: al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock have stood undisturbed for hundreds of years. And yes, it is hard to produce archaeological evidence if you never even conduct a dig.

What is outrageous about this report is not just the way it abets Palestinian falsifications of history, though it certainly does that: since the reader isn’t told that this “lack of evidence” stems from the fact that nobody ever looked, he naturally assumes that archaeologists did, in fact, look and found nothing.

Even more outrageous, however, is the way Israel’s generosity is being used against it: its very restraint in eschewing excavations on the Mount — its concern, again, for Muslim sensibilities, its desire to avoid even the appearance of harm to the mosques — has been twisted into “evidence” that no Jewish connection to the Mount ever existed.

This is a standard Palestinian tactic: Israel’s refusal to let Jews pray on the Mount, also in deference to Muslim sensibilities, is similarly used as “proof” that Jews have no connection to the site. After all, Muslims pray there; Jews don’t; QED. And this tactic has been wildly successful: most of the world is completely convinced that Israel lacks any rights on the Mount.

But if Israel’s generosity is being exploited in this fashion, perhaps Jerusalem needs to rethink its tactics — and start demonstrating the Jewish connection to the Mount in actions rather than words. Excavating under al-Aqsa would be too drastic a first step. But letting Jews pray on a designated section of the Mount devoid of mosques would be an excellent place to begin.

More on attempts to erase Biblical history

November 9, 2009
The Temple Mount with the new city behind it (by David Hoaks)

The Temple Mount with the new city behind it (by David Hoaks)

Rabbi Leibel Reznick is writing from a Jewish perspective, but the Palestinian attempts to erase Biblical history are trying to erase Christian history as well:

In his 1925 autobiography, Mein Kampf, Adolph Hitler wrote that people would assume that an outrageous lie must be true because no one would have the audacity to have made it up. Later, that propaganda technique evolved into: If a big lie is repeated enough times it will become widely accepted as truth.

This bit of Nazi propaganda is being used today by the Palestinians. Their Big Lie is preached from the pulpits of the mosques and in the classrooms of their madrasas – and more and more of the untutored masses are believing it.

What is the Palestinian Big Lie? Palestinian Authority Mufti Ikrama Sabri was quoted in the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam (November 22, 1997) as saying that the Western Wall is part of the Al-Aksa Mosque and the Jews have no connection with it. …

In other words, the Jewish people have no historical connection with the Temple Mount, including the Western Wall, or with any part of old Jerusalem. No archaeological evidence has ever shown otherwise. So they claim.

Read the rest here.

There they go again…

November 5, 2009
Elaborate forgeries...

Elaborate forgeries...

This time, a senior PLO official and a Palestinian historian are denying that the Jewish people have any historical connection to the land of Israel at all. (The Bible? Apparently, a very well-planned forgery.)

In an interview on official PA television earlier this month, historian Nabil Alqam accused Israel of faking archaeological finds in order to manufacture Jewish history and blot out the “real” history, which he says shows Palestinian culture stretching back 4,000-5,000 years, reported the Jerusalem Post.

In addition to that, according to PLO Executive Committee Member Saleh Rafat, Israelis are also stealing Palestinian ”cuisine, clothing [and] architecture.” Rafat also denied that the holy Temples ever existed, dismissing the huge archaeological remains around Western Wall of the Temple as the remains of old aqueducts.

Denial is apparently also a river in… Palestine.

(The invaluable Palestinian Media Watch produced the report on the program.)