Alexander Wiegmann, excavation director for Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), working in an ancient Mikve, a Jewish ritual bath, which was discovered inside an underground cave in Jerusalem August 5, 2015. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
A typical day on a Christian archaeological excavation begins with a reading from the Bible. "Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life," recites the group of twenty evangelical Christians, mostly Americans. It is just five in the morning in Jerusalem, time for the Associates for Biblical Research to board a bus to Tel Shiloh in the West Bank. It is there, they claim, that the original tabernacle - the tent that sheltered the Ark of the Covenant in Moses’ time - has lain for nearly four centuries.
The site is bathed in a soft morning light. Covering his face with sun tan lotion, a cowboy hat and sunglasses, team leader Dr. Scott Stripling displays a bright smile, he looks just like the stereotypical Hollywood archeologist. However, his work is far from conventional. A proud evangelical, this Texan and his team believe that the Bible should be read literally and that it can serve as a guidebook for their archaeological research.
"Is the Bible a reliable historical document? I have Israeli peers who may not agree with me, but I do think so,” he said. Dr. Stripling speaks of "prejudices " against the Old Testament which, according to him, is no less of a valuable historical resource than texts from ancient Egypt or Mesopotamia. "I do not wander around with a Bible in one hand and a pickaxe in the other. I am religious, but that does not mean that I am biased. I am able to compartmentalize,” he added.
This is the third year of excavations in the Tel Shiloh settlement in the West Bank’s Zone C, an area under total Israeli control. This time, Dr. Stripling hopes to find new evidence that will confirm that the mythical tabernacle used to be found here. Last year, they discovered a ceramic pomegranate, a fruit symbolically associated with the sacred sanctuary.
Emeline and Perry Ginhart, a newly married American couple, hope to make further discoveries that will help them support the authenticity of their messianic vision of Christianity. Under the scorching sun, the couple are spending their honeymoon examining the plot assigned to them. "By helping Israel, we are helping our cause. Our Creator has given us these lands to take care of," said Mr. Ginhart.
Opportunistic inter-religious relations
"I often see American idiots who pay fortunes to come here and scrape the earth. It's simply a type of faith-based archeology. That's the key word. And since it is faith based, it sets itself apart from the orbit of science,” bitterly asserted a European archaeologist working in the Middle East. "Evangelicals and archeology are fairy tales. They do not make any sense. The Israeli army must stop this archaeological massacre in the Territories,” implored the archeological expert, who wishes to remain anonymous
The pieces unearthed at Tel Shiloh are brought back daily to Jerusalem to be analyzed in collaboration with the government agency responsible for the country’s heritage. However, the entire process can be described as opaque to say the least. In mid-May, the Supreme Court ruled that Israel was not obliged to disclose information about archaeological excavations in the West Bank, rejecting an appeal by two non-governmental organizations. It should be noted that under the 1954 Hague Convention, it is forbidden to hold archeological excavations in occupied territories, except in the event of a threat to cultural property, which, is in fact an argument regularly used by Scott Stripling to justify his work. "Everything we find is stored in Israel, and if a political solution to the conflict is reached, the officials of the concerned territory will then have access to these objects. But I'll be dead before it happens," he laughed.
Leah Tramer, one of the few Israelis on the team, regularly collaborates with American evangelicals who come to dig in the area, and consider "Judea and Samaria" - the biblical name of the West Bank - as a natural extension of the State of Israel. "It's wonderful that Christians are helping us rediscover our past," said the assistant at Ariel University, which is located in a large settlement.
The inter-religious relationship between some Israeli Jews and "Christian Zionists" is sometimes described by its critics as opportunistic. Christian Zionists, a subset of the evangelical community are convinced of the Biblical significance of the return of the Jews to the land of their ancestors, a prophetic prerequisite for the return of the Messiah and the end of time, while the Israelis are seeking allies to legitimize their half-century-long military occupation.
Archeology as a political tool
Though there is no doubt that Jews have a historical connection to the West Bank, however, it is the way in which archaeological discoveries are leveraged to shed light on the heritage of one people while ignoring that of another, for political and ideological reasons that is the source of controversy. "Israel uses archeology as a political tool in East Jerusalem and the West Bank to try to justify its presence. This explains why they work with evangelicals who support the same narrative," said Yonathan Mizrachi, director of the Israeli NGO Emek Shaveh, one of the two organizations that signed the petition dismissed by the Supreme Court. "Evangelicals do not do research for the benefit of the local community, but for their own benefit and to support the occupation," he argued.
In 2013, Scott Stripling found human remains in Khirbet el-Maqatir that he believed belonged to Jews killed during the great revolt against Rome about 2,000 years ago. He handed them over to the settlement of Ofra which then secretly buried them in 2017. "The burial served as a symbol for the residents, according to whom the settlement - illegal under international law - is in fact a continuation of the ancient Jewish settlement on this land," said Michael Press, an archeological expert on Israel and the Palestinian territories. "The fact that the results of these excavations serve to strengthen Israeli control over the West Bank is very damaging. But there is no institution to enforce international law and nobody wants to exert pressure, so nothing will change.”
Several other sites across the Occupied Territories have caused similar controversy, such as the "City of David", an archeological-tourist complex believed to be, according to biblical references, the original location of Jerusalem at the time of King David, some 3,000 years ago. Since its early development, the site has been fueling controversy given its location in the heart of the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem. The site is administered by controversial private organization, Elad, with the explicit objective of "residential revitalization", a euphemism for a colonization policy that aims to promote the settlement of Israeli Jewish families in the neighborhood.
“Nothing is more important than the people who live on the surface”
According to the local Palestinian population, underground archaeological excavations have severely damaged about 15 homes. Mazen Aweida, 48, wearily shows the thick cracks running along the walls of his house. The kitchen sink is half-collapsed, and the floor of the room is so curved that it seems on the verge of collapsing "I have young children, and I'm afraid debris will fall on them. It stresses me a lot. I'm always afraid that my son will be hurt," said the father of seven, glancing at his little boy, sitting next to a gaping crack running from floor to ceiling. "The only option is that they find a solution to stop the degradation. In any case, I will not leave, even if the house collapses on us," said Aweida.
The underlying belief of some residents is that the excavations are part of a strategy to drive out Palestinian residents in order to seize their land. Despite being contacted several times, Elad's management did not respond to our interview requests. In the past, it has brushed aside these allegations, denying any responsibility for the deterioration of Palestinian homes. "They have the right to look for remnants of their history - if such remains exist there," said Sahar Abassi, coordinator at a social center in Silwan. “But whatever they find underground will never be more important than the people who live on the surface.”
At 1 pm sharp, the sound of a shofar, a traditional Jewish horn, resonates through the rocky hills of Tel Shiloh, marking the end of a working day. Stripling and his team will be back at dawn, looking for the tabernacle, although they have not found any conclusive evidence yet. It does not matter. "Absence of evidence," says Stripling, "is not proof of absence."
(This article was originally published in French in L'Orient-Le Jour on the 28th of May)
