By Andrew L. Jaffee

Israel functions as a civilized society, seeking to keep Muslim pilgrims safe, and in return it gets riots, racial slurs, and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. In a BBC article entitled, “In Jerusalem archaeology is politics,” author Paul Reynolds describes why Palestinian objections to Israel’s attempt to restore a walkway to the Dome of the Rock are completely baseless, yet understandable. First, I present Reynolds’ justifications for Palestinian hysteria, then the truth of the matter — rationality; a word absent from the Arab/Muslim lexicon. It is people like Reynolds who reinforce Palestinian childish behavior, as he produces sophistry which contains truth, yet negates truth (i.e., the facts don’t really matter), all in the same essay:

The reason for the protest does not really have much to do with archaeology in fact. It is a protest about presence. The Palestinians and the wider Muslim world have an objection to anything the Israelis do that touches on the Haram.

Such work is seen as symbolising a threat to Palestinian and Muslim identity and a rallying point for Palestinians to express their desire for their own space, their own state.

In this atmosphere, the arguments of the archaeological academics do not carry much force.

So, in “this atmosphere,” Palestinian hatred gets another free pass, even though it has no basis in reality:

An independent observer, Father Jerome Murphy-O’Connor, from the French institute the Ecole Biblique in East Jerusalem, said that the work was “completely routine”.

“This work is not inside the Haram. It is outside, leading to the Moors’ Gate. The earth ramp fell down and has to be replaced,” Father Murphy-O’Connor, author of an Oxford University guide “The Holy Land”, told me.

“I do not know why the Palestinians have chosen to make an issue out of this. It is a recognised Jewish area under the arrangements that prevail in the Old City.

“One can contrast this to the extensive excavations just round the corner in a Muslim area where huge pilgrim hostels from the 8th Century were revealed, with no protest. There has also been no protest over digs at the City of David nearby.

“There is absolutely no danger to the foundations of the al-Aqsa mosque since that is built on the huge Herodian blocks that are still there.”

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Related: Israel, Palestinians, Anti-Semitism

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