The Antiquities Authority has been waging widespread destruction in
recent days and past months at various ancient cemeteries throughout
Eretz Yisroel, while dismissing all objections to the shameful
disregard for the honor of the dead.
Figures involved in the matter say during the past year the
Antiquities Authorities has declared war on the living and the dead,
removing skeletons, constantly razing various cemeteries and uprooting
more and more Jewish graves around the country.
They report that extensive work is currently under way at the cemetery
in Yavneh to make room for a railway project, with an enormous team of
100 archaeologists working at the site, destroying graves
continuously. They have laid out five huge tarps, under which they are
carrying out their work tirelessly.
Activists who visited the site were appalled to see boxes containing
human bones destined for research at museums. "The archaeologists
working at the site refuse to allow any oversight, and those who came
to protest were kept at a distance," said one observer.
Excavation work is also taking place in the Haifa area, at the
cemetery near Kiryat Bialik, where the work is being carried out by
the National Roads Company after the Antiquities Authority applied
heavy pressure on government companies to carry out the project. For
years the National Roads Company complied with the halachic
instructions issued by rabbonim, yet now, for the first time, company
personnel are carrying out excavation work at the cemetery.
Another Jewish grave site under attack is taking place near the
memorial for the tanna, Rav Avdimi of Haifa, where skeletons
are being unearthed to pave the highway. Activists on their way to
protest were stopped and subjected to brutal treatment. Some were
jailed for several days. Here as well, no rabbinical supervisors are
allowed access. If an inspector arrives, they halt the work and summon
the police.
The honor of the dead is also being disregarded in Farod by the
Housing Ministry. At the Upper Galilee community a burial cave near
the grave of Rav Yishmael Hakohen was maliciously destroyed based on
top-level orders.
And in Jaffa, the destruction of graves in the ancient cemetery
continues without relent. The builders, through the Antiquities
Authority, are preparing for a fast-track operation to unearth graves
from the Second Temple Period and have brought in equipment to
accommodate personnel reinforcements.
