I have updated the “Muslims Recognize Temple’s Existence” post with a link to a scanned copy of “A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif,” published in 1925. Thanks to Sean Q for finding and sharing the book.
From Arutz-7:
A group of 150 Israeli citizens have filed a class action suit against the Moslems who run the Temple Mount site for having destroyed Jewish antiquities there.
The suit, brought by the Shurat HaDin Israel Law Center, charges that Islamic officials have engaged in the deliberate destruction of ancient Jewish relics on the Temple Mount. The indictment was filed in the Jerusalem District Court last week, and Shurat Hadin sources say it is the first of its kind in Israeli legal history….
She explained that the 150 plaintiffs are acting as representatives of the Jewish People, who are the owners of the Temple Mount and therefore the injured party as a result of the Waqf actions at the holy site…
The suit accuses members of the Waqf of intentionally demolishing priceless Jewish artifacts, including remains from the Second Temple. In recent months, the Waqf has brought in bulldozers and heavy digging equipment for the purpose of digging a long trench on the Mount, supposedly to replace electrical cables. “Israeli archaeologists who sifted through the discarded earth,” the Law Center reports, “were shocked to discover a great number of Jewish artifacts brutally trashed by the bulldozers. A wall from the outer courtyard of the Second Temple is believed to have been completely pulverized.”
The full story is here.
- Tagged Jerusalem, Temple Mount
I don’t have access to the particular guide referenced, but I don’t doubt that it is true. Of course, the statement was made in a different day and age. But now that politics are different, so is truth.
From a letter to the editor, Jerusalem Post, Oct 31, 2007:
Sir, – I read with interest “Jerusalem mufti: Western Wall was never part of Jewish temple” (October 25).
The kind of denial by former mufti Ikrema Sadi is somehow disputed by no more and no less than the institution he represents: the Supreme Muslim Council. In an official guide published by the council in 1930, it states: “This site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest times. It’s identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute. This, too, is the spot, according to universal belief, on which ‘David built there an altar unto the Lord, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings’ from 2 Samuel XXIV, 25.”
The rest is here.
UPDATE (11/21): Reader Sean Q has located a copy of the guide and has scanned it. You can download it in pdf format here.
- Tagged Jerusalem, Temple Mount
There is news for three items related to the Temple Mount:
Quarry: The Orthodox Union has new photos online (or if you prefer a slide show)
First Temple Period Remains: Leen Ritmeyer has marked out the find location on a couple of diagrams. The discovery matches his previous conclusion that this area was within the temple area of Hezekiah’s time.
Temple Mount Destruction: The transcript from the government meeting about the bulldozer excavations is now online in Hebrew. Yitzhak Sapir has made the following observations:
Present at the meeting were archaeologists Yuval Baruch (district archaeologist of Jerusalem for the IAA), Gabriel Barkai and Meir Ben-Dov, as well as Shuka Dorfman, head of the IAA. Eilat Mazar was also invited but she doesn’t appear to speak during the meeting.
Aside from their statements on the topics, which are really interesting, there are also some interesting statements by Limor Livnat, who was in the past Minister of Education and responsible for the IAA, and an architect who claims that when the dig began two months ago, he found a segment of the Northern Wall of the Temple, that was covered up the next day.
- Tagged Jerusalem, Temple Mount
The Jerusalem Post story on the on-going saga of “excavations” on the Temple Mount is here. The abbreviated version follows:
Genius #1: Shmuel Dorfman
“There was no damage to the remains of buildings or artifacts.”
Sir, can you tell me if you excavated with a tractor?
“They were under time pressure.”
It’s good to know that you can excavate with a tractor and cause “no damage” to ancient remains.
This guy wouldn’t pass Archaeology 101. Unfortunately he is the Director-General of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
Genius #2: Meir Ben-Dov, retired archaeologist
“There were no archeological findings in the ground,” Meir Ben-Dov told the committee. “They dug
a total of 50 cm. [18 inches] deep and all of it was fill-in from the earlier infrastructure that had been installed.”
Somebody should have told this guy about the Iron Age remains from an undisturbed layer that were discovered in this trench. Ben-Dov is not an honest man. He just expected that the Muslims would have destroyed it all so thoroughly that no one would ever be able to prove him wrong. Fortunately somebody was watching “the excavation” between tractor scoops and not all was lost.
The good news:
“The Knesset State Control Committee on Monday decided to ask the State Comptroller’s Office to investigate procedures for allowing the Wakf Islamic trust to excavate on the Temple Mount, amid claims by archeologists that the laying of electric cables there in August endangered ancient artifacts.”
- Tagged Analysis, Jerusalem, Temple Mount
A remarkable discovery of undisturbed archaeological material from the Temple Mount and dating to the Old Testament period was announced yesterday by the Israel Antiquities Authority. This is remarkable for a few reasons:
By all appearances, there was little apparent archaeological supervision of the Muslim digging of a trench on the Temple Mount last month. That’s why lots of people were screaming. It’s not that digging itself is bad, but digging without proper archaeological procedure is simply destruction.
Undisturbed layers from the First Temple period (1000-586 B.C.) are not often found anywhere in Jerusalem. This is because of later building activities and because of current inhabitation of the city.
No undisturbed layers from any period have been excavated on the Temple Mount, ever. This is owing to Muslim control of the site and their prohibitions against archaeological excavation. This dates back to the earliest “archaeologists” in Jerusalem, including Charles Warren in the 1860s.
It has been expected that the construction of the present Temple Mount by King Herod in the 1st
century B.C. was so extensive and destructive that little would remain (in stratified contexts) from the previous eras. The present discovery does not seem to constitute significant material in and of itself, but it certainly gives hope that more could be recovered should excavations be permitted. Similar discoveries from this time period have been made by Gabriel Barkay in his Temple Mount Sifting Project, but they were not from a stratified context as this was.
Enough of the significance of the discovery, here are some details:
Items discovered: ceramic table wares, animal bones, olive pits, bowls, juglet base, storage jar rim.
Date of items: 8th-6th century (roughly the times of Hezekiah to Josiah)
Location of discovery: southeastern corner of raised platform on Temple Mount
Archaeologist in charge: Yuval Baruch, Jerusalem District Archaeologist
Consulting archaeologists: Sy Gitin, Director of the W. F. Albright Institute of Archaeological
Research in Jerusalem, Israel Finkelstein of Tel Aviv University and Ronny Reich of Haifa University
The key statement making this an important discovery: “The layer is a closed, sealed archaeological layer that has been undisturbed since the 8th century B.C.”, Jon Seligman, Jerusalem regional archaeologist.
The skeptic: Eilat Mazar, “I think it is a smoke screen for the ruining of antiquities.”
The future: examination of the discoveries in a future seminar to be organized by the Israel Antiquities Authority
More information: Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs (with photos), Israel National News (with wrong dates), Haaretz, Jerusalem Post, Maariv (more detailed article in Hebrew)
- Tagged Discoveries, Jerusalem, Temple Mount