by Yochanan Visser
Archeological finds prove biased UN wrong on Jewish history in the land of Israel, from the Temple Mount to Magdala at the Sea of Galilee.
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Last Wednesday the General Assembly of the United Nations (UNGA) once again denied Jewish history in the land of Israel by adopting a resolution that disavowed Jewish ties to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.
In a resolution approved by a 129 to 11 majority, the UNGA used only the Muslim name of al-Haram al-Sharif for the Temple Mount and made it clear that the site is a Muslim holy place exclusively.
Although the United States and some European countries announced they opposed the omission of any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount most Western countries refrained from voting against the resolution.
The EU, for example, issued a statement reiterating “that whenever referring to the Temple Mount/al-Haram al-Sharif (in the Jerusalem resolution), both terms, i.e., Temple Mount and al-Haram al-Sharif should be used.”
Despite this statement, a fair number of EU members, among them Italy and France, approved the text of the new UNGA Jerusalem resolution by voting in favor of it.
That showed that most Western nations still prefer to appease the Palestinian leadership and some Arab countries over standing up for the truth about Jewish history in the land of Israel.
The Palestinian Authority was behind the adoption of the resolution that should make us begin laughing if it were not so deeply sad.
Jewish history is all over the land of Israel and all one has to do to discover this is to examine the results of the many archeological excavations that have been carried out since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948.
In this respect, Israel should present the UN with the latest archeological find in Migdal, a village (moshav) located at the shore of the Sea of Galilee.
On Sunday, Mayor Nathaniel Alfassi of Migdal announced the latest sensational archeological find by the Israel Antiques Authority.
In a Facebook post, Alfassi wrote that an additional synagogue (!) had been unearthed during new excavations at the so-called Mango junction near Magdala, ancient Migdal that was destroyed by the Roman army during the last battle of the Great Jewish Revolt (67 AD).
The discovery was made before a construction company started to turn the dangerous junction at Highway 90 into a roundabout.
According to Alfassi, the new unearthed synagogue was located in the western quarter of Magdala at the foot of Mount Arbel.
The well-known history of Jewish life in Magdala gives irrefutable evidence of the existence of an independent Jewish Kingdom long before any Arabs were in the land at all and way before Palestinian Arabs and their cronies began to claim all of the land of Israel.
So, let’s take a brief look at that impressive history and the archeological evidence supporting what first-century Jewish Roman historian Flavius Josephus wrote in his epic works The Jewish War (75 CE) and Antiques of the Jews (94 CE).
The first historical work describes in detail the Jewish revolt against the Roman occupation while the second book deals with the Jewish view on the history of the world.
Magdala features prominently in Josephus’ description of the Great Jewish Revolt against the Romans.
The Jewish-Roman historian described in detail the siege the Romans laid on the city of 40.000 prior to the destruction of the ancient Jewish town.
Josephus wrote that the siege ended with the murder of the 40.000 Jewish residents of Magdala and that their bodies were dumped in the Sea of Galilee turning the water red for days.
Magdala was initially more important than Tiberias, one of the four holy Jewish cities in the land of Israel, and had a flourishing fishing industry.
The city also features prominently in the Christian gospels which said that Mary Magdalena one of the female Jewish followers of Jesus, was born and lived in the city while Jesus held lectures in Magdala.
After the destruction of Magdala, the area remained mainly fallow until the beginning of the 20th century when Russian Zionists began to purchase land that was later used to build the current Moshav Migdal on it.
According to a British census from 1922, only 51 people were living in the area of Migdal, but that number changed quickly after the establishment of the State of Israel, and today more than 2.000 Jews live in the villlage.
From 1971 on, changes started that eventually led to the discovery of the ruins of ancient Magdala or Migdal, which means 'tower'.
Part of the land on which Magdala once stood was sold to Christian organizations who wanted to establish a new pilgrimage site and later a hotel.
Another part of the land was later bought by the Arab businessman Saleh Dabah who built a small shopping center and a large supermarket there. There are also four restaurants in the commercial center and three hotels have been built nearby so far.
The Christian organizations first had to do fundraising before they could realize their plans, but in the meantime, they started excavations on a small scale that laid bare the ruins of a small Byzantine city.
It wasn't until 2006 that the real major excavations began prior to the construction of the spiritual center by the Magdala Organization.
These excavations are required by law in Israel and have to be done before the beginning of every new construction or infrastructure project.
The Israeli Antiquities Authority led the excavations, and soon sensational discoveries were made that showed that Magdala was a predominantly Jewish village until it was destroyed by the Romans during the last battle of the Great Jewish Revolt (67 AD).
The first evidence of this was the discovery of ritual baths (Mikva'ot) in the destroyed houses.
These ritual baths are found in every religious Jewish community to this day and enable religious Jews to maintain ritual purity.
Subsequent excavations in 2009 and 2013 showed other very unique finds, including the oldest synagogue in Galilee, and the so-called 'Migdal Stone'.
This big stone had an inscription from the menorah, the seven-armed candlestick that also stood in the Temple which hadn’t been destroyed yet when the synagogue in Magdala was opened.
It was the first inscription of a menorah found outside of Jerusalem.
The stone was found in the excavated synagogue and was probably the base of the 'bima', the table on which the Torah scrolls are placed before the weekly Torah portion is read
The Christian Magdala organization, which now manages the complex where the excavations were done, writes on its website about the disciples of Jesus and about the village where Mary Magdalene lived.
The organization now also recognizes that Jews lived in the village, however.
There had previously been criticism of the organization's guides for omitting any mention of indisputable evidence that Magdala was a Jewish village when touring the archaeological site with groups of tourists.
Now, for example, the Magdala organization writes that two rabbis of the Talmudic period lived in Magdala: Isaac of Magdala and Yudan of Magdala, who lived in the third and fourth century BCE respectively.
Another article on the website of the Magdala organization tells the story of Rabbi Shimon Ben Lakish who also lived in the third century and took refuge in Magdala after a conflict with Rabbi Yochanan.
Ben Lakish was consulted by the remaining Jews in the village about using the stones from the destroyed synagogue in order to build a new one.
The Talmud reported that Ben Lakish forbade the use of the stones because then any evidence that there was a synagogue in Magdala would disappear, according to the article.
Thanks to this advice from Rabbi Ben Lakish, the synagogue of Magdala can now be seen by visitors and hopefully, the other ancient synagogue will be open to the public soon, as became apparent on Sunday.
Yochanan Visser
Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/318562
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