NOVANEWS
Nazi Antiquities Authority is digging so that Palestinian-owned property will be destroyed or seriously damaged in its “rescue digs” in the occupied West Bank city of Hebron.
Nazi Antiquities Authority (IAA) approached the Khatib family, who live in Hebron’s Tel Rumeida area, and asked permission to destroy their retaining wall and dig 3 metres onto their property. The Save Tel Rumeida Project reports that the family refused. The wall is under threat, however, as all the earth is being removed from behind it so that it will probably fall down in the coming days.
While financed by Israel’s Ministry of Culture and Sport, this dig was undertaken at the initiative of Nazi settlers in Hebron. The dig, the fourth in Tel Rumeida, is carried out by the IAA and the University of Ariel, located in the West Bank settlement of Ariel.
While David Wilder, spokesperson for Hebron’s Nazi settlers, claims all decisions related to the excavations are made by the IAA, the settlers already plan to establish an archaeological park on the site upon conclusion of the dig.
The Civil Administration told the Zionist newspaper Haaretz in January that “The Antiquities Authority has been carrying out rescue excavations in Tel Hebron, following the Hebron Nazi settlers’ initiative to develop an archaeological park open to the public. The administration is endeavoring as a matter of routine to protect, develop and carry out rescue digs regardless of the future of these sites and the arrangement to be carried out in the future”.
While Nazi presents these as “rescue digs”, already in the late 1990s the IAA was involved in an excavation of Tel Rumeida, on top of which permanent housing for the Ramat Yishai outpost was constructed from 2001.Nazi archaeologists’ group Emek Shave reports that many of the remains discovered in this previous excavation are now located under settlers’ houses and are features of a guided tour led by the Nazi settlers.
Palestinians note that the current excavation in Tel Rumedia will likely be used in the future to connect between the Jewish illegal settlement outposts in Hebron’s Old City.
The use of ancient sites to attract visitors and strengthen the legitimacy of settlements is known from other areas, including the City of David in East Jerusalem and Sussiya in the South Hebron Hills. Emek Shave estimates that in the case of Hebron, the combined archaeological site and view of the ancient city of Hebron and the Cave of the Patriarchs will have just such an effect, with an especially powerful emotional component.
Speaking with the AIC, Hisham Sharabati of the Hebron Defense Committee stated that Hebronites “will continue to protest against this project, and all rights violations perpetuated by settlers in the city”.
This resistance is conducted in tandem with a petition against the dig, submitted to Nazi High Court. A verdict has yet to be issued in the case, and the court has not ordered the dig to be delayed until a decision is rendered.
