How Archaeology Became an Israeli-Palestinian Battleground A controversial Unesco vote and new finds in Jerusalem highlight the struggle over the past and future of a divided Holy Land By Ilan Ben Zion
http://www.wsj.com/articles/how-archaeology-became-an-israeli-palestinian-battleground-1478267201
Archaeology has long been used by the state of Israel as a means of demonstrating modern Jewish rights to an old land. Palestinians, for their part, have often resisted these findings, either rejecting them outright or pointing to other ancient artifacts to support their own national claims. In the Holy Land, historical heritage is one of the few truly abundant resources, and it stands at the center of the latest battle in the decades-old conflict.
Last week, the U.N.’s culture and heritage body, Unesco, passed a resolution referring to Jerusalem’s Temple Mount exclusively by its Arabic name—the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary—and only mentioning its significance to Islam. For Muslims, Jerusalem is the third holiest city, behind Mecca and Medina. For Jews, it is the most sacred: Two Jewish temples stood there in antiquity.
The Unesco resolution outraged Israel. The head of the Israel Antiquities Authority, the government body in charge of archaeology and artifacts, likened Unesco to Islamic State in its destruction of cultural heritage. The Palestinian Authority praised the move for preserving the city for the three monotheistic faiths and saw it as a political win, with one official accusing Israel of “using archaeological claims and distortion of facts as a way to legitimize the annexation of occupied east Jerusalem.”
In its more than 3,000 years of habitation, Jerusalem has known many masters, including Canaanites, Judeans, Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Hasmoneans, Romans, Byzantines, Arabs, Crusaders, Mamluks, Ottomans and Brits. Both Israelis and Palestinians consider Jerusalem the historic center of their national identity and claim it as their capital.
Excavations in Jerusalem, particularly around the Temple Mount, have provoked protests from both sides. Israelis contend that maintenance projects carried out by the Muslim organization that manages the contested site have resulted in the destruction of artifacts and the geological strata critical to modern archaeology. The Palestinians, in turn, claim that Israeli excavations south of the site ignore Muslim history in the pursuit of Jewish artifacts that could be used to lay claim to the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem.
As it happens, just as Unesco was passing its controversial resolution, the Israel Antiquities Authority was holding its annual conference, which focused on new archaeological discoveries around Jerusalem. The finds announced at the gathering included artifacts from limited excavations on the Temple Mount carried out over the past decade in concert with Islamic authorities and a 2,700-year-old papyrus bearing the oldest known reference to Jerusalem in Hebrew outside the Bible.
Although some scholars have raised questions about the authenticity of the ancient text, Israeli politicians immediately pointed to it as incontrovertible proof of the ancient Jewish link to Jerusalem—Unesco be damned. An Israel Antiquities Authority spokeswoman insisted that the timing of the announcement was coincidental. “There is no connection whatsoever, no relevance,” she said. “The conference was planned months in advance.” CONTINUE AT SITE
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