Palestinians Complain That Archaeology is 'Judaizing' Jerusalem

Temple Mount in Jerusalem — Photo: Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

The Palestinian Authority has had a good run at rewriting the history of this region. A large chunk of the international community today believes its narrative history of the Holy Land.

Unfortunately for them, modern archaeology is now putting the lie to the Palestinian version of events on an almost weekly basis.

We know from the Bible that the people of Israel were commanded to visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem three times every year – on Sukkoth, Passover and Shavuot. According to the Palestinians, who insist the Jews are colonizers here, none of that ever happened.

But after six years of excavations, archaeologists at the end of June unveiled evidence lining up with the biblical account – a broad pilgrims’ road to the Temple Mount that could accommodate the large throngs of Israelites arriving for the aforementioned feasts.

The Palestinian Authority was angered by the fact that the unveiling ceremony was attended by senior US officials, including US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt, and US Senator Lindsey Graham.

The Palestinian Authority called the unveiled pilgrims’ path just another in a long line of attempts to “Judaize” the city, and denounced the Americans for aiding Israel in this nefarious endeavor.

Greenblatt took to Twitter to urge the Palestinians to consider introducing a bit of reason into their arguments, especially if they’re serious about concluding a genuine peace agreement: “We can’t ‘Judaize’ what history/archeology show. We can acknowledge it & you can stop pretending it isn’t true! Peace can only be built on truth”

PA claims our attendance at this historic event supports “Judaization” of Jerusalem/is an act of hostility vs. Palestinians. Ludicrous. We can’t “Judaize” what history/archeology show. We can acknowledge it & you can stop pretending it isn’t true! Peace can only be built on truth https://t.co/PmcahhzvIz

— Jason D. Greenblatt (@jdgreenblatt45) June 30, 2019