Pilgrim Road sparks political tensions as NGO claims it’s about politics

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The Sunday inauguration of Pilgrim Road at the City of David was hotly contested by activists from the NGO Emek Shaveh who argued that, due to its location in Silwan, it’s a “Fighting Road” and that the decision to excavate it is motivated by politics rather than searching for truth. The event included US Ambassador to the State of Israel David Friedman and White House Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt.

The Prime Minister’s Wife Sara Netanyahu, Minister of Education Rafi Peretz, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon and Israel Antiquities Authority Director Israel Hasson were also present. Friedman said: “The City of David brings biblical Jerusalem back to life. It enables every one of us to stroll the corridors where the ancient prophets of Israel gave voice to revolutionary ideals of freedom, liberty and human dignity."Friedman and Greenblatt slammed the activists, “the City of David brings truth and science to a debate that has been marred too long by myths,” said Friedman in an earlier statement. He argued that this discovery, among others, will “bring an end to the baseless efforts to deny the historical fact of Jerusalem’s ancient connection to the Jewish people.”  Greenblatt said that Emek Shaveh activists “misunderstand the meaning of archeology,” and claimed that “peace can only be built on truth.” Pilgrim Road was discovered in 2004 when a sewage pipe burst and workers found long and wide stairs near to the water pool Jewish pilgrims used to purify themselves in before ascending to the Temple. The discovery lead to further research by the City of David , an archeological site which studies the history of Jerusalem from the Bronze period until the Middle Ages. The road now offers visitors the chance to walk the ancient path of Jewish pilgrims from the ritual pool, the Shiloah, to the Western Wall – the last surviving architectural element related to the temple destroyed by the Romans in 70 CE. The political tension is that the site is situated in the neighborhood of Silwan, which used to be controlled by Jordan until the Six Day War of 1967, in which the IDF asserted control over it. The former-Jordanian part of Jerusalem is seen by many Palestinians as the future capital of their own future-state and questions around it, and indeed the status of Temple Mount, on which the Al-Aqsa Mosque is situated, are at the heart of any future resolution to the Arab-Israeli conflict. Israel currently controls the whole of Jerusalem and sees the unified city as its capital. A view that US President Donald Trump seemed to agree with when he moved the US Embassy to Jerusalem in 2017. While the whole world is riveted when a Heinrich Schliemann discovers ancient Troy or Hiram Bingham III discovers the Inca city of Machu Picchu in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict a dig is much more than just a dig. Some Zionist thinkers were tempted to focus on the Kingdom of David and Solomon as a golden age for Jewish political life on their own soil. Leading some to view the whole of regional history after the Roman conquest as less relevant, as if the land ‘went to sleep’ until Zionist archeologists and historians were able to resume the living connection to it. Others argue that while Biblical and Jewish-oriented archeology is certainly important, to argue that the wheels of time stop turning until a particular people do something is a little naïve. They argue for an expanded view of regional history which would include not only Jewish history but also Arab, Frankish and Turkish history – among others. Zeev Hertzog and Israel Finkelstein are two famous archeologists who argue that there are few proofs, if any, that the biblical narrative is founded in historical reality. Their approach is known as the minimal approach, meaning, if there are no evidences that it happened we can’t say that it did. On the other hand, the late Adam Zertal was positive he found Joshua’s altar, a direct proof that the biblical conquest of Canaan took place at least in part, he believed.            

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Source: The Jerusalem Post

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