by Shlomo Cesana
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and others have denied that the two temples ever existed atop Temple Mount; they would like to obscure this fact. But thanks to the excavations, the truth has been exposed for everyone -- from all nations -- to see.
"Jerusalem, the way
down," read the headline of a two-page feature in Haaretz's edition last
Friday, the Passover edition. I was infuriated by this headline.
It dealt with the
underground spaces in the "Historic Basin of Jerusalem" (the Old City
and its environs). I really hoped it would be an informative piece about
the history of those sites, but upon reading it I noticed it was just
an inciting propaganda piece that could feed conspiracy theories and
stir tensions. The subhead read: "Several years from now, visitors to
the Old City would be able to visit another city -- underground
Jerusalem. It will have archeological finds, secret pathways and various
venues where people can hold events. But what would not be there?
Arabs, or anything that attests to their existence several meters above.
This will be a journey in the caves of Jerusalem with only one nation
present."
Reading that excerpt,
you would think the only goal of this project was to make sure "there
are no Arabs in sight." But here is a reminder: We have been here for
4,000 years. It all started on and at the foot of the Temple Mount: The
United Monarchy of Israel and Judah, the two temples, and the collective
prayer that remains: "Next year in a rebuilt Jerusalem."
The article mentions
that one day the area known as the Western Wall Tunnels will connect
other sites. This is an apparent effort to remind the readers of the
riots following Israel's 1996 inauguration of a new exit from the main
tunnel in the complex, which resulted in 17 dead Israeli soldiers. The
Palestinian national movement, including the present-day Palestinian
Authority and the Islamic Movement, has always claimed that Israel was
carrying out excavations beneath the Temple Mount in order to sabotage
the Islamic holy sites in the area. That is of course a blatant lie
because the tunnel network being excavated doesn't go up toward the
mountain.
It is clear that
Haaretz wanted to criticize Israel's actions. The Gihon Spring for
example, the site just off the Temple Mount where some of our ancient
kings were anointed, is referred to by its Arabic name. In case you
forget, earlier this month, the Palestinians managed to change the
language of a UNESCO resolution by omitting the words "Temple Mount" and
keeping the reference to "Al-Aqsa mosque/Al-Haram al-Sharif and its
surroundings."
Ir David Foundation,
which seeks to bolster the Jewish ties to the city, is portrayed in a
negative light in the Haaretz piece, but the left-wing nonprofit group
Emek Shaveh is presented to the readers with supposed objectivity. It
just happens that in 2015 Emek Shaveh published an online report that
had striking similarities to the Haaretz piece. The report is called
"Underground Jerusalem: The excavation of tunnels, channels, and
underground spaces in the Historic Basin."
According to Emek
Shaveh, the report aims to shed light on "Israeli efforts to undermine
the Palestinian ownership [of sites]." I am sure the Haaretz piece just
happened to be similar to the report. Then again, the fact that Emek
Shaveh published a large advertisement in Friday's Haaretz edition day
made me squirm.
The Haaretz piece
includes a map that suggests that the excavations have run, for the most
part, for decades, and that in some cases they are being conducted
within mosques and Christian monasteries. It's sad to see the group go
there. Why use bitter and divisive language to discuss this interesting
subject?
By the way, the tunnels
our enemies dig from the Gaza Strip are supposed to serve as a
game-changer against Israel. The excavations here in Jerusalem are first
and foremost an archeological undertaking and a scientific endeavor
that serves the tourism industry and the economy. And on a day-to-day
level, the excavations in Jerusalem give Israel its own game-changing
weapon in the battle over the truth – it allows Israel to expose the
true facts regarding our history here. Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas and others have denied that the two temples ever existed
atop Temple Mount; they would like to obscure this fact. But thanks to
the excavations, the truth has been exposed for everyone -- from all
nations -- to see.
Haaretz found a good story, a
very interesting story, but the way in which it presented it to its
readers matched the libelous Palestinian narrative, according to which
the excavations are politically motivated and are part of an Israeli
plot.
Shlomo Cesana
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=15899
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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