The Director-General of the Prime Minister's Office, Avigdor
Yitzchaki, informed the Chairman of the Knesset Interior
Committee, Moshe Gafni, that the next stage of the
archaeological excavations planned by the Antiquities
Authority near Moshav Maor, on the route of the Trans-Israel
Highway, is to be postponed until a meeting takes place the
middle of this week among all the parties involved, however
as we went to press it was not clear if this promise was
honored.
This follows an appeal by MK Gafni to the Director- General
of the Prime Minister's Office, in which he warned that the
Antiquities Authority was carrying out archaeological
excavations in violation of the Coalition Agreement, which
states that any problem that would arise in this area was to
be solved through dialogue. Over the past two years all the
problems had indeed been solved quietly, but after the
Antiquities Authority started acting in violation of the
Agreement and against the law, his urgent intervention was
required to prevent the destruction of the ancient graves
situated inside the caves.
MK Gafni also spoke to the Director-General of the Transport
Ministry and the Director-General of the Antiquities
Authority, stressing the severity of their actions, following
the outrage at the excavations of part of the graves last
Wednesday.
It should be pointed out that despite this announcement and
in the light of the Antiquities Authority's original
intention to continue its destruction of the graves,
activists of the Association for the Prevention of Grave
Desecrations will follow up this announcement to make sure
that the promise made by the Director- General of the Prime
Minister's Office will be kept in practice.
After a two-year break in grave-diggings by the Antiquities
Authority, archaeologists last week started to dig ancient
graves at the invitation of the Derech Eretz company, which
is constructing the Trans-Israel Highway. In the wake of the
archaeological excavations, some avreichim arrived at
the location to protect the graves from being desecrated,
after having been notified by activists of the Association
for the Prevention of Grave Desecrations, but they were
forcibly dragged away by police.
Several months ago, a large burial field consisting of burial
caves and caves hewn inside rocks was discovered on a hill
next to Kibbutz Maor in the Chefer valley, which is on the
route planned for the Trans-Israel Highway. According to the
plans, the hill is due to be removed to make way for one of
the intersections of the highway. The Trans-Israel Highway is
being built by a company belonging to Africa-Israel, which is
owned by Lev Levayev.
Following the discovery of the graves, and the subsequent
fear that they may become intentionally destroyed, deputy
Housing Minister Meir Porush requested the assistance of the
Transport Ministry, which is the ministry responsible for the
company constructing the Trans-Israel Highway. The Director-
General of the Ministry, Ben-Zion Salman convened all the
parties involved and instructed them to have this issue
reviewed by the Chief Rabbinate.
However, archaeologists from the Antiquities Authority were
nonetheless asked to come and start destroying the graves.
Following this development, the Director- General of the
Transport Ministry again convened all the parties, and
undertook that no unilateral action would be taken and that
the issue would only be resolved following discussions on the
matter, as provided in the government agreements.
Last week more openings of burial graves were discovered at
the site, sealed, with the original burial stone covering the
grave. This proved that this site was a cemetery. Following
this discovery, the Trans-Israel Highway Company applied
increasing pressure on the Antiquities Authority to destroy
all the graves so that it could proceed with constructing the
Highway.
The Director of the Chief Rabbi's Office, Rabbi Refoel Frank,
sent an urgent letter to Ehud Savion, Managing Director of
the Derech Eretz Company, in which he wrote that the
discovery of the burial caves meant that the excavations in
the area had to be stopped immediately, since a halachically
acceptable solution had to be found that would not chas
vesholom harm these ancient burial caves.
Despite this, it became obvious that the Antiquities
Authority intended to start its work of grave destruction
straight away. Rabbi Meir Porush immediately set out to
prevent this, demanding that the graves not be harmed. When
he failed to receive a clear answer he announced that he
would go to the site himself and prevent the desecration of
the graves with his own body. Following this, the Director-
General of the Transport Ministry announced that the plan to
destroy the graves would be cancelled immediately.
However, none of the promises were kept, and last Wednesday
morning many policemen and security officers from a private
security company arrived at the site. Archaeologists from the
Antiquities Authority dispersed workers to all the graves,
who wildly dug the graves with pickaxes. Their contents were
spilled onto the neighboring site, without any examination
being undertaken of the clay pottery fragments that were
discovered. The only item the archaeologists bothered to
preserve was an ancient vessel that was taken out of a grave
with great care. All the contents of the other graves were
emptied out [and thrown] to the ground like dung.
A group of avreichim, who came to the site after
having been notified by activists of the Association for the
Prevention of Grave Desecrations, attempted to protect the
graves with their bodies, but they were violently dragged
away by the police. Four of the protesters were arrested, and
released after several hours. Three hours after the
excavations started they were stopped, following police
orders, acceding to the request of the Deputy Housing
Minister.
The Antiquities Authority justifies its decision to undertake
the excavations with such speed, thus greatly offending the
dignity of the mes, by citing the fact that they were
under immense pressure from the company constructing the
Trans-Israel Highway. Members of the Antiquities Authority
announced that only several days remained for a dialogue with
the Derech Eretz Company and, if no solution would be found,
they would continue their excavation work. The Derech Eretz
Company claims that any alternative engineering plan, which
would prevent the damage to the graves, is unacceptable,
since it would result in a delay in the construction of the
Highway. Such a delay, they say, would make the company
liable to a fine, due to the disruption of the timetable to
which it undertook to the government to adhere.
