In an unlikely turn of events, the ultra-Orthodox Zakaa organization, whose members gather the remains of victims after terrorist attacks and other disasters, and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), who are often at odds with each other over the excavation of ancient Jewish graves, found themselves cooperating this past spring when two looters approached Zaka representatives to sell them four ancient inscribed ossuaries, or burial boxes, with bones still inside. The two thieves, who, it was later revealed, were residents of the east Jerusalem village of Issawyia, told Zaka director Yehuda Meshi-Zahav they were from the West Bank city […]
