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Waqf, PA leadership attempt to rewrite biblical history

March 8, 2010

We told you before about the ongoing (low-burn) violence and media circus surrounding the Jewish state’s adding two major tourist and spiritual pilgrimage spots to a list of sites of “Jewish cultural heritage.”

Well, on Friday, worshipers at the Western Wall were stoned by rioters on top of the Temple Mount and 15 Israeli policemen and dozens of the rioters were injured in the resulting scuffles. (Don’t Islamic leaders mind their followers using the high ground of what is ostensibly a holy site to attempt to maim worshipers below?)

So let’s go over this again: Israel added two spots to a list that designates sites of historical and cultural relevance. And this caused Palestinians to riot? (Continuing the long tradition of the Palestinian Authority using violence or threats of it where other governments use diplomacy.) And countries ranging from Jordan, Egypt, and other Arab league states, to–predictably– the UN felt the need to condemn the list-making (while not condemning the violence fomented by the PA). And, of course, the U.S. hasn’t retracted the State Department’s comments on the matter, which were that the Israeli list was “provocative and unhelpful.”

So what are these sites anyway?

What exactly are these sites? One is Rachel’s Tomb, which sits on the edge of Bethelehem close to Jerusalem. The second is the Cave of the Patriarchs, which sits in the middle of Hebron. Just how “provocative” is it to add these to the list of sites of Jewish cultural import?

Rachel’s Tomb is identified in Genesis 35:19-20: “So Rachel died and was buried on the way to Ephrath (that is, Bethlehem). Over her tomb Jacob set up a pillar, and to this day that pillar marks Rachel’s tomb.” As the Bible relates, the site has been holy to Jews for thousands of years — more than a thousand years before Islam even came into existence! (And holy to Christians hundreds of years before…)

The case of the Cave of the Patriarchs is even more ironic: Genesis 23 records how Abraham insists on purchasing a burial cave near his home in Kiryat Arba (next to modern-day Hebron) from Ephron the Hittite, even when Ephron offers it to him as a gift:

Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said, “I am an alien and a stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.” (Genesis 23:3-4)

The Hittites offer him “the choicest of our tombs,” but Abraham asks them to “intercede with Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf so he will sell me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him and is at the end of his field. Ask him to sell it to me for the full price as a burial site among you.”

Ephron offers to give Abraham the cave for free: “No, my lord,” he said. “Listen to me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead.” (Genesis 23:11-12)

A recorded real estate transaction

But Abraham insists on paying for it:

Again Abraham bowed down before the people of the land and he said to Ephron in their hearing, “Listen to me, if you will. I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead there.”

Ephron answered Abraham, “Listen to me, my lord; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver, but what is that between me and you? Bury your dead.”

Abraham agreed to Ephron’s terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites: four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weight current among the merchants.

So Ephron’s field in Machpelah near Mamre—both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field—was deeded to Abraham as his property in the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city. Afterward Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre (which is at Hebron) in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site. (Genesis 23:12-20)

The Jewish Sages comment that part of the reason that Abraham was so eager to pay for the burial cave was so that no one could ever dispute that fact that the Jewish people owned it. (The only other sites so recorded are the Tomb of Joseph, which is near the Biblical Shechem, now present-day Nablus, and the site of the Holy Temple, the Temple Mount – both of which Palestinians claim as being of dubious import to the Jewish people.)

Commentator Michael Freund says it best:

Sites such as Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs are part of the national and religious patrimony of the Jewish people, and we do not need anyone’s permission to renovate and maintain them. Our reverence for these sites and attachment to them predates Muhammad and precedes Jesus, and no one has the right to lecture us about where and how we choose to serve God.

In fact, this entire episode provides a revealing glimpse of just how transparently hypocritical our critics have become. After all, it was nearly 15 years ago, in the September 1995 Oslo II Accords, that the Palestinians themselves recognized Israel’s attachment to Rachel’s Tomb. In Article V, Annex I to the agreement, the Palestinians agreed that “the present situation and existing practices in the tomb shall be preserved,” meaning that they clearly consented to Israeli control and use of the site, which has never been anything other than a place of Jewish worship.

So for chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat to say last week that Israel’s move amounts to a “unilateral decision to make Palestinian sites in Hebron and Bethlehem part of Israel” is not only absurd, it is patently false.

And since the accords were signed on the White House lawn in front of the world, and were formally witnessed by representatives of both the US administration and the European Union, one would expect them to see right through the Palestinians’ shenanigans.

Worse yet, by playing along with the feigned outrage of the Palestinian leadership, the international community is merely giving credence to their boorish denial of the Jewish essence of these sites.

You don’t have to be a Biblical scholar or a learned archeologist to recognize the long-standing and incontestably Jewish nature of Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs. Arguing otherwise is akin to asserting that the earth is flat, Elvis is still alive and the moon is made of cheese, and that is how the Palestinian claims should be viewed.

Is it offensive to call Jesus’ birthplace a Christian site?

Can the world imagine a case in which Israel would list the Church of the Manger (Jesus’ birthplace) in Bethlehem and Jesus’ family home in Nazareth as sites of historical importance to Christians — and the Palestinians would protest?

Unfortunately, I think we can. But that doesn’t make it any more crazy.

UK’s Guardian gives an amen to indignation over “heritage sites” violence and historical revisionism

March 6, 2010

London’s Guardian rails against the attempt to blot out Jewish history via the fracas over the “Jewish historical sites”:

Palestinian protests against the restoration of Jewish heritage sites are part of a campaign of delegitimization against Israel. The inclusion in Israel’s heritage restoration project of two of the most sacred Jewish sites, the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb, has sparked riots and led supposedly moderate Palestinian leaders to burst forth with disturbingly inflammatory rhetoric, with the U.S. State Department and the UN secretary general both reprimanding Israel for the decision as well.

This latest uproar is another example of the general Palestinian unwillingness to accept and acknowledge the deep-seated historical roots of the Jewish people in the region. The Cave of the Patriarchs is mentioned in the Bible and has been a focus of Jewish pilgrimage for more than 3,000 years as the burial place of the people’s three forefathers. The refurbishment of two shrines central to Jewish history in no way threatens Palestinian political ambitions. What it does do is present an obstacle to those who wish to erase Jewish history in the region.

Historical preservation triggers Hebron violence

February 25, 2010

Jewish communities in Hebron have faced violence this week, following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement of two new additions to the official list of Israeli national heritage sites.

The sites are Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb, both located in the contested West Bank zone (where Hebron is the largest city). “People must be familiar with their homeland and its cultural and historical vistas,” Netanyahu said on Sunday of his plan to dedicate $100 million to rehabilitate the two sites.

Rioting started in Hebron following the announcement, with further violence after a statement made by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday. In what Netanyahu called “a dishonest, hypocritical campaign,” Abbas claims the move illustrates that Israel’s leadership has no desire for peace.

Abbas also warned of a “war of religions” that could be triggered by enshrining Israel’s faith heritage at the sites. Netanyahu pointed to to Israel’s demonstrated freedom of religion policy in response.

The U.S. also criticized the move. “US State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the administration viewed the move as provocative and unhelpful to the goal of getting the two sides back to the table,” reported the Jerusalem Post.

But the Palestinian response is ongoing: “Dozens of Palestinians are burning tires and are throwing stones at IDF soldiers,” according to the IDF. “Soldiers responding to the violence are doing so with demonstration dispersal methods. No casualties or damage to property have been reported.”

Israeli groups call on lovers of Israel around the world to mark first-ever “Temple Mount Awareness Day”

February 23, 2010

"A view of the Dome of the Rock sitting on top of the Temple Mount, with the new city of Jerusalem spreading behind it."

A coalition of Israeli organizations is calling on Jewish and gentile lovers of Israel to participate in next month’s first annual Temple Mount Awareness Day, set for Wednesday, March 16.

Jewish tradition identifies the Temple Mount as “Mt. Moriah,” the holiest spot in the world: It was there that both the first and second Temples stood; there where Abraham nearly sacrificed his son, Isaac; and is considered the spot where God’s Presence Dwells in this world.

The Mount is holy to Christians not only because of the Jewish roots of Christianity, but also because of the significant role the Temple played in the life of Jesus.

It is holy to Muslims not only because Muslim tradition incorporates the holy sites of other religions (and turns them into Islamic sites), but also because the Koran records that Mohamed ascended to heaven from there. The surface of the Mount–which was plowed down following the destruction of the second Temple in 70 A.D.–is now occupied by two Islamic shrines: The familiar gold-topped “Dome of the Rock” and the Al-Aksa Mosque, the black compound on the Mount’s southern end.

Although Israel regained control of the Temple Mount when Jerusalem was reunified following the Six-Day War, Israel immediately ceded effective power over it to the Islamic Waqf, the Muslim religious land trust. Since then, many Israelis charge, the Waqf has done all it can to undermine Jewish claims to the site and has imposed ludicrous restrictions on them (see this post about a bride arrested the day before her wedding for the “crime” of praying on the Mount).

The group organizing the Awareness Day–which is comprised mostly of organizations on the right–wants to raise awareness about the facts that “non-Moslems are denied the right to pray in groups, and even as individuals” and that Jews are especially subject to “constant degradation,” including being followed and harassed by police and Waqf guards when they attempt visits.

Organizers also want to call on the Prime Minister’s Office to include the Temple Mount among those sites of historical, cultural and religious significance to the Jewish people that will receive government protection and funds for the improvement of access, upkeep, and beautification of the sites.

Further, they want to condemn the Waqf for:

  • Illegal digs causing unparalleled destruction of archeological evidence of the Holy Temple and the historical Jewish presence on the Mount.
  • Endless incitement against the Jewish State and Nation from within the Mosques.
  • Physical attacks against Jews on the Mount and down below at the Western Wall

For more information, go here or visit the group’s facebook page here (be sure you’re logged into your facebook account when you click the link).

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.

Late Hall of Famer Reggie White’s spiritual journey into scripture — in the original

December 5, 2009

Watch this moving ESPN story from 2004 about Reggie White, the famed NFL football star and preacher, which explores the spiritual journey he took in his last years: While remaining a committed Christian, White learned Hebrew so that he could learn scripture in its original form and, in doing so, deepened his already complex and meaningful faith.