just.sound.stories

When archaeology is at the sevice of the Israeli state and the Bible is used to justify a national myth and breaches of international law.

The 5,000 year history of the ancient city of Jerusalem is layered with the remains of settlements and conquests by many different peoples and cultures, including the early Canaanites, Assyrians, Persians, Hellenistic Kingdoms, the Islamic Dynasties, the Ottomans, The British and the current Palestinian and Israeli presence.

In the last 50 years, the story of this rich archaeological heritage has become highly politicised as Israel’s claims to the whole city and its heritage have increased.

Israel annexed the Palestinian neighbourhoods of East Jerusalem after the Six-Day War in 1967 and since then consecutive governments have facilitated the growth of large-scale archaeological sites in this area.

Listen to this radio documentary here:
https://soundcloud.com/cathypeters/jerusalem-archaeology-and-religion-an-unholy-mix

Much of the archaeology is paired with biblical stories relating to the small period of time when Israelites held power in Jerusalem.  This is particularly evident in the controversial ‘City of David’ excavation and tourist park in the Paletinian neighbourhoold of Silwan, which claims to have found evidence of King David’s palace in an area where the ruins of the earliest settlement of the city occurred.  The ongoing archaeological dig here is now coordinated by Elad, a private Israeli nationalist and religions settlement group. They have also been involved in evicting East Jerusalem Palestinians from their homes and replacing them with Jewish settlers.

Israeli archaeologist, Yonathan Mizrachi, has characterised the different Israeli archaeological projects in East Jerusalem as being ‘weapons of dispossession’ whereby archaeological digs are part of a concerted campaign to expel Palestinians from their ancestral lands.  He claims that Elad also makes decisions about the way the site is presented and the interpretation of archaeological evidence.  Critics have described this process as ‘heritage manufacturing’.

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