Israeli Supreme Court Blocks Removal of Temple Mount Rubble

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The Israeli Supreme Court sided against the Government of Israel and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and issued a temporary injunction barring a plan to remove thousands of tons of earth and rubble dug up during construction work on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount by the Waqf, the Islamic religious trust that has custody over Islamic sites on the Mount.

The September 6 ruling came only hours after the Committee Against the Destruction of the Antiquities on the Temple Mount, a group consisting of archaeologists and prominent Israelis, filed a petition asking the court to stop the removal of the rubble, which is assumed to be rich with archaeological artifacts. The court decision blocks removal work until a further ruling, and it gives the state 45 days to present its case. The rubble has been sitting on the eastern side of the Temple Mount for at least four years following what the archaeologists on the committee say was the illegal construction of monumental gates for a new underground mosque in the area popularly known as Solomon’s Stables.

The removal plan involves using tractors to load the earth onto dump trucks under the supervision of an IAA archaeologist, hauling it to another location and then sifting through it in search of artifacts. Committee members, however, reject the idea that an archaeologist can adequately supervise such a removal. In a letter sent to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in August, just before the scheduled work, the committee said it was inconceivable that removing earth from such a delicate site be conducted with tractors and dump trucks. They noted that over the past few years archaeological objects had been found in the piles of dirt uncovered during the construction. Among the signatories of the letter and the plaintiffs of the appeal are leading archaeologists, including Gabriel Barkay, a professor of archaeology at Bar-Ilan University; Ami Mazar, former head of the department of archaeology of the Hebrew University; Eilat Mazar, a researcher at the Hebrew University; Moshe Kochavi, past head of Israel’s Archaeology Council and former chairman of the department of archaeology of Tel Aviv University; Ronny Reich, head of the department of archaeology at Haifa University; and Eliezer Oren, of Ben-Gurion University and deputy head of Israel’s Archaeology Council. Prominent Israeli writers A.B. Yehoshua and Yizhar Smilanski are also signatories to the letter and among the plaintiffs.

An IAA spokeswoman said the committee had approached IAA director Shuka Dorfman with their concerns just prior to filing their appeal with the court. At the time Dorfman said he would freeze the whole 014project “until further notice,” the spokeswoman said, but the committee nevertheless continued with its plans to get a legal order to prevent the work from continuing. “We were afraid the freeze would be for only a few days,” Barkay explained. “If we were sure the freeze would hold, then the legal appeal would have been unnecessary.”

Barkay said that he would prefer to sift through the rubble where it is rather than remove it first to another location. He would, however, be satisfied if the mound just sat there untouched. He insists that some large archaeological remains, such as parts of a Byzantine church, can be seen on the surface of the pile. “But what is important,” he adds, “is not what you can see but what you can’t see with the bare eye. There are coins and [other small archaeological artifacts] which need to be checked. You don’t remove Pompeii to New York to review. You can’t move the Temple Mount, either.”

Barkay complains that several thousand tons of earth and rubble have already been removed illegally. “If one crime has already been committed, we can’t do another one,” he said. “The IAA has to protect the antiquities of Israel and assure that illegal actions are not taking place on the Temple Mount. They need to have a professional person to supervise the work there at all times to make sure the law is followed, not just someone sometimes. It is the most important place in Jewish history and tradition.”

Barkay added, “The Temple Mount is part of a cultural intifada [Arabic for “uprising”] of which people are not aware.” Barkay notes that Palestinians have destroyed ancient synagogues in Jericho and Gaza and observes that, “there is a political and military war but there is also this cultural war … and very massive propaganda war which says that the Jews never had a Temple on the Temple Mount and that the site is all Islamic. This is very deplorable.”

“Everybody was all [incensed] over the bombing of the Buddha statues in Afghanistan,” Barkay said, but they are “less [concerned] about the destruction of the Temple Mount. They need to be aware.”

The Israeli Supreme Court sided against the Government of Israel and the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) and issued a temporary injunction barring a plan to remove thousands of tons of earth and rubble dug up during construction work on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount by the Waqf, the Islamic religious trust that has custody over Islamic sites on the Mount. The September 6 ruling came only hours after the Committee Against the Destruction of the Antiquities on the Temple Mount, a group consisting of archaeologists and prominent Israelis, filed a petition asking the court to stop the removal of the rubble, […]