Here’s what the Biblical Archaeology Society says:
…in the early 1990s, Palestinian leader Yassar Arafat took over control of the Waqf, and a systematic destruction of any vestige of Jewish presence on the Mount was begun. Arafat claimed that there never was a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, an opinion often referred to as “Temple Denial.â€
During the ten-year “reign†of Arafat on the Temple Mount, and in the years since his death, numerous unauthorized and archaeologically unsupervised construction projects have been carried out.
In 1996 the Waqf began converting the underground area of the Mount popularly known as Solomon’s Stables into a large mosque. It has bulldozed parts of the top of the mount to make way for “open†mosques, cleaned ancient cisterns, paved over ancient areas, damaged an ancient wall, dug a trench for a utility line, and removed thousands of tons of “debris,†from the site, dumping it in the Kidron valley.
They’ve also employed a huge electric saw to cut up ancient stones from the Temple Mount, destroying any historical evidence the stones may have offered. An analysis in the early 1990s found that the Waqf had committed more than 35 violations of Israeli antiquities law on the site.
Despite the fact that religious Jews as well as archaeologists have complained, the Israeli government has done nothing to stop the desecration of Judaism’s holiest site, out of fear of arousing Arab passions.
Read the article by Hershel Shanks of the BAS here. It’s infuriating.
Technorati Tags: Temple Mount, Waqf, Archaeology