Archaeologists of the National Antiquities Authority are
continuing to desecrate ancient Jewish graves in the large
burial cave in Kfar Arah, in northern Israel, despite an
order from the head of the Ministry of Education demanding
that the desecrations cease.
As reported last week, a team of archaeologists from the
University of Tel Aviv first entered the cave under the cover
of Shabbos, in early December. Sent by the Authority, the
team found that the cave contained so many graves that not
all of the bones could be removed in one day. When the
archaeologists returned to the site in the middle of the
following week to continue their pilfering, their work was
inhibited by religious activists of the Organization for the
Prevention of Grave Desecrations. The activists then called
on Yitzchak Levi, head of the Ministry Education which has
jurisdiction over the Authority, asking him to stop the
desecrations and to protect the graves that remained in the
cave.
Levi ordered the Authority to keep its team away from the
cave. During the last week in December, however, the
Authority disregarded the order and sent in its team again.
The archaeologists broke into three additional crypts in the
large cave, and desecrated all the graves in all three
crypts.
Religious activists tried to stop the work, but as has
happened so often in the past, the Authority enlisted the
help of Israeli police to prevent the activists from even
approaching the cave.
Efforts are still continuing at the Organization for the
Prevention of Grave Desecrations, in hopes of saving the few
graves that remain in the cave. In the Knesset, MK Rabbi
Avrohom Yosef Lazerson bitterly complained about the
desecrations at Kfar Arah, and called on Israeli Prime
Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to personally intervene to put an
end to the current situation, where the Authority wantonly
attacks ancient graves all over Israel "in broad daylight,
and no one is able to stop them."
Rabbi Lazerson said that the prime minister "must intervene
immediately, to do everything in his power to put an end to
these terrible attacks on ancient graves." Not only do the
desecrations violate the rights of the dead, but they also
"cause pain and anguish to the gedolim of Israel, as
well as to tens of thousands of Jews who can no longer
tolerate the present situation."
Commenting on another aspect of the current dilemma, Deputy
Housing Minister Rabbi Meir Porush said that the Antiquities
Authority has become "one of the biggest obstacles to housing
construction in Israel." Rabbi Porush claimed that at the
present time "archaeological considerations" that the
Authority says must be taken into account are standing in the
way of the construction of approximately 32,000 homes in
Israel, units which are needed to help solve a growing
housing crisis.
In a recent Supreme Court ruling, the Authority was
criticized for abusing the law that requires public and
private firms to pay for "rescue digs" to save archaeological
artifacts which may be endangered by construction projects.
The court declared what has been common knowledge for years --
that the Authority has made it a practice to halt
construction projects and require such "rescue" digs even
where the chances are practically nil that any artifacts are
endangered. In addition, the Authority itself conducts these
digs, and consistently charges firms exorbitant fees for its
services.
The court ruled that the Authority should no longer involve
itself in the digs at all, for "it is not proper" that one
public body have the power to both determine the need for
digs, and also conduct the digs and collect fees for them. At
the same time, the court ruling supported the Authority's
right to freeze construction projects pending legitimate
rescue digs, wherever according to the Authority's "expert"
opinion, there is a reasonable suspicion that a threat to
archaeological artifacts exists.
According to Rabbi Porush, the court's criticism of the
Antiquities Authority angered the Authority's director, Amir
Drori, who is blocking the 32,000 home-building projects on
the familiar pretense that the projects pose a danger to
archaeological artifacts which allegedly are buried where the
projects are planned. For the time being, the Authority is
not letting the projects proceed until "rescue digs" are
conducted to determine whether, in fact, there are artifacts
that are endangered and should be excavated from the areas in
question.
Rabbi Porush said, "By freezing these important housing
projects, Drori is trying to put pressure on Knesset members,
in the wake of the court ruling which wants to stop the
Authority from amassing wealth through the collection of its
illegal fees."
The 32,000 units are "on hold" not only because of the
problem of "archaeological considerations," but also because
of different types of "legal complications," Rabbi Porush
said. As to the main reason for the delays, Rabbi Porush
admitted that the Antiquities Authority is the lesser of the
two problems, but the archaeological obstacle is nonetheless
a very serious problem, which must be solved in an effective
and permanent way, as soon as possible.
