Disproving 'Temple Mount Denial' One
Bucket at a Time
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full article at http://www.jpost.com/Magazine/Disproving-Temple-Mount-denial-one-bucket-at-a-time-506539
When Wakf bulldozers illegally ascended the Temple Mount in 1999
to surreptitiously remove thousands of tons of ancient soil to make way for a
subterranean mosque, two archeologists found hope in recovering some of the
Jewish heritage that crime destroyed.
As countless invaluable artifacts dating from the First Temple
period at Judaism’s holiest site were dumped in a garbage heap in the capital’s
Kidron Valley, Dr. Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Dvira saw an opportunity.
Five years later, under the auspices of Bar-Ilan University, the
two archeologists procured a government license to have the ancient debris
transferred to Emek Tzurim National Park on the western slope of Mount Scopus,
where they established the headquarters of the Temple Mount Sifting Project.
Today some 70% of the 400 truckloads of earth has been scrutinized
by a staff of 15 employees and thousands of volunteers from around the globe,
one bucket at a time.
OVER 200,000
volunteers from all facets of society,
both Israelis and foreigners, have taken
part in sifting
earth from the Temple Mount. (Tommy Chamberlin)
Since then, more than 500,000 artifacts – from a 3,000-year-old
seal from the time of King David to coins, stone vessels, jewelry and flooring
tile fragments from the Second Temple period – have been painstakingly
documented for future generations.
Nevertheless, to the outrage and utter befuddlement of millions,
last October UNESCO approved a resolution denying Jewish ties to the Temple
Mount.
“Temple denial started in the 1990s, even though the Islamic Wakf
itself in the 1920s and ’30s issued booklets which were given to visitors of
the Temple Mount in which they said the existence of the Temples is beyond any
doubt,” said Barkay last month.
“It was accepted and in the Islamic literature through the
generations there is a plethora of mentions of Solomon’s Temple and the Temple
of the Jews in Jerusalem, so it is very strange that they deny it now.”
“The place was shown as the Temple Mount by Muslim guides to
visitors all the time for centuries,” he continued. “The whole change came when
a very naïve Bill Clinton wanted to solve all the problems of the world, and
somebody whispered into his ear that the Temple Mount is the crux of the Middle
East conflict, and he wanted to solve the conflict by solving the problem of
sovereignty on the Temple Mount. “They claimed that Jerusalem has no
significance to the Jews, and want to have sole control of Jerusalem and the
Temple Mount,” he said. “The whole thing is a political matter and misuse of
ancient history for current political purposes.”
Noting the fact that the Bible, Mishna and Greek and Roman
historians wrote in depth about the Temples’ existence, Barkay deems Temple
denial “shameful” and “anti-civilized,” because “UNESCO’s decisions are
politically based on majority and self-interests.
“If it would be in their interest to declare that the Earth is
flat, they would have a majority vote [claiming so]. They can vote about
anything they wish, but this is to the shame of that institution. No civilized
person in the world can claim Temple denial or lack of a Jewish link to
Jerusalem.
In the meantime, Barkay said proving Jewish ties to the Temple
Mount and Jerusalem is akin to “proving that water is wet.”
Barkay noted that roughly 10% of the datable finds sifted were
linked to the 400 years of the Davidic dynasty of the First Temple period.
“From the Second Temple period during the fourth century BCE we
have a large amount of coins from the Persian period with Hebrew inscriptions
with the name of the province of Judah, ‘Yehud,’ which is a name mentioned in
the Book of Ezra in the Bible. And those tiny silver coins are the earliest
discovered that were minted in Jerusalem.”
Nonetheless, Barkay contends that there is no need for Jewish
evidence from the Temple Mount during antiquity, because it has been
universally accepted by scholars and researchers for centuries.
Meanwhile, despite being in need of funding to keep the enterprise
operational, the celebrated archeologist said the tens of thousands of
volunteers of all ages from all corners of the world have become as invaluable
to the project as the historic relics they sift through.
