Digging And Destroying The Past

Excavations on the Temple Mount itself continues with little outcry, despite the fact that such excavations may destroy vital historical evidence of what happened on the Temple Mount through the centuries, especially the historical ties of Jews to their holiest spot on the planet.

A group of Israeli archeologists has condemned the Antiquities Authority for authorizing Islamic trust officials to carry out a dig on Jerusalem's Temple Mount as part of work to repair electrical lines.

The work started last week on the northern section of the Temple Mount, with the approval of the Israel Police and the Antiquities Authority, Israeli and Wakf Islamic trust officials said, drawing the wrath of Israeli archeologists who said that the work, being carried out with a tractor and leaving an 80-meter-long, one-meter deep trench, had damaged the holy site.

The Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, which is composed of archeologists and intellectuals from across the political spectrum, has lambasted Israel's chief archeological body for permitting the work.

"The Antiquities Authority would never have allowed such damage to antiquities at any other archeological site in Israel," said group spokeswoman Dr. Eilat Mazar, a leading Temple Mount expert.

Carl in Jerusalem has had the video of some of the excavation work, which includes bulldozers and earth moving equipment to cut lines through the Temple Mount.



There is no way to know what has been disturbed by the digs on the Temple Mount because scientists have been prevented from examining the work done. That compares with the way the Islamists made much ado about Israel's work to build the Mugrabi Gate access to the Temple Mount. There is no outcry over this current work - precisely because it's all to update utilities for the al Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock. Double standards, and the Israeli government is more than willing to look the other way despite the possibility of destroying Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount to placate the Islamic Waqf.