First Person: Assessing “the Situation”
A recent trip to Israel finds few tourists but plenty of archaeology
006
I went to Israel in late June to film part of a video the Biblical Archaeology Society is producing on “An Archaeological Search for Jesus.” (It won’t be out for at least another year, however.) It has three principal segments—Galilee, Jerusalem and Qumran (near where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found); on this trip we filmed most of the Galilee segment. Israel was as exciting and wonderful as usual—except there were almost no tourists. Israelis were pleased and grateful that I had come, despite what they refer to as “the situation.” The near-absence of tourists was noticeable all over. It is painful for Israelis, who feel somewhat abandoned by their American friends. For me, it had some advantages. On the overnight flight, which I dread, I had a row of three seats to spread out on. When we arrived, I got through passport control and picked up my car in ten minutes flat. On the other hand, Beni Dagim (Benny Fish)—where for 30 years I’ve been eating Jerusalem’s finest grilled St. Peter’s fish with a side of marinated eggplant topped with leban (yogurt)—is now closed.
People ask me if it is safe to visit Israel. The State Department has issued a travel advisory telling Americans not to go. Israelis and many Americans feel this is excessively cautionary. I tell people that there are places you don’t go, other places where you can go and some places where you need to inquire on the ground on any particular day. The locals all know. That the chances of getting killed in a car accident in Detroit are greater than getting killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem, however, is no answer to the fear of random terror. Each person must decide for himself or herself whether to go and where to go.
Some excavations canceled their season because so many of their volunteers stayed home. On the other hand, many excavations continued as usual. The dig at Beth-Shemesh, directed by Shlomo Bunimovitz and Zvi Lederman, was fully staffed with groups from Indiana University and Louisiana College. Diggers at Bethsaida from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and the University of Hartford, under the direction of Rami Arav and Richard Freund, were already perspiring early in the morning when we visited them. The dig at Tell es-Safi was also on, under the direction of Aren Maeir, of Bar-Ilan University, and Carl Ehrlich, of York University.
In Jerusalem we had dinner with a Palestinian journalist whom I had regarded as a moderate. It was clear that since our last visit his position had hardened. Palestinians and Israelis are further apart than ever. It is hard to foresee a peaceful resolution.
Joint Israeli-Palestinian archaeological study projects have simply ended. Personal relationships continue as before in some cases. Sometimes they involve old friendships. But the Palestinians fear their lives will be 057threatened if it is perceived in their own communities that they are working with Israelis—even on archaeological matters.
Despite “the situation,” all was serene, as far as we were concerned. Israeli archaeological projects proceed unabated. New excavations at the southern wall of the Temple Mount, directed by Ronny Reich and Yuval Baruch, for example, are clarifying several matters left unsettled by the decade-long excavations there by the late Benjamin Mazar. Apparently a street ran along the southern wall similar to the street on the western wall until both were destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. The Temple Mount’s southern wall has two ancient gateways, both blocked today: the Double Gate and the Triple Gate. Digging outside the Triple Gate, Reich and Baruch found that its foundation was exactly the same width as the Double Gate. The current Triple Gate is a much later construction than the Herodian Double Gate. The new excavations suggest that the Triple Gate, originally the same width as the Double Gate, was originally also a double gate. This should change all the reconstruction drawings of the southern wall of the Temple Mount.
Another small item for the aficionado: The number of stones discovered from the original Herodian construction of what is now the Triple Gate has been increased by 100 percent. As many of our readers know, there is only one stone that is original in the Triple Gate: a lovely molded jamb in the farthest left of the three arches. In the new excavations, Reich and Baruch have found a piece of a lintel that precisely matches the elegant molding of the previously known vertical jamb. The newly found piece of the lintel clearly belonged to the original gateway to Herod’s Temple Mount. And instead of only one piece of the original gate, we now have two, an increase of 100 percent.
I won’t reveal the many other fascinating things we saw. They will unfold in future articles in BAR. In the meantime, don’t hesitate to go to Israel. Just be careful.
I went to Israel in late June to film part of a video the Biblical Archaeology Society is producing on “An Archaeological Search for Jesus.” (It won’t be out for at least another year, however.) It has three principal segments—Galilee, Jerusalem and Qumran (near where the Dead Sea Scrolls were found); on this trip we filmed most of the Galilee segment. Israel was as exciting and wonderful as usual—except there were almost no tourists. Israelis were pleased and grateful that I had come, despite what they refer to as “the situation.” The near-absence of tourists was noticeable all over. […]
You have already read your free article for this month. Please join the BAS Library or become an All Access member of BAS to gain full access to this article and so much more.