1. Tour for Soldiers at Silwan/City of David

2. A Report from the Official Tour by the City of David Visitor’s Center

3. Upcoming Tours

4. Facebook

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1. Tour for Soldiers at Silwan/City of David

According to information which we have received from the IDF, for the last several years more than twenty thousand soldiers per year have toured the Old City.  The “City of David”, which is adjacent to the Old City, has received on average a little under twenty thousand visits from soldiers per year.  The spokesman for Elad has commented in the past how important it is to bring soldiers to the “City of David”: “…you see them suddenly understand why they’re here, what they are fighting for…”

From the very beginning we have argued that Elad uses the archaeological site to appeal to key sectors of Israeli society, including soldiers in the IDF, and to confer legitimacy on the Israeli settlement of Silwan as a national enterprise to preserve the site as one belonging to the Jewish people. Many times, IDF soldiers, like many visitors to the site, are unaware of the agenda of the settler group Elad, and are exposed to ideology under the guise of an official tour in national archaeology park.

Appropriation of the past by a particular ethnic group will not strengthen the IDF, or turn them into better soldiers.   In our opinion, it is essential that all of Israel’s archaeological sites, and the “City of David” in particular, be preserved as places to study the many  diverse cultures which have existed there.  They should be seen as an integral part of the places and populations in which they have developed over the ages,  rather than as the exclusive property of one or another ethnic or religious group.  This is the only correct way to represent historical artefacts, and it is important that the Israeli public, including soldiers, see the past (and the present) for the complex, diverse, and multi-cultural phenomenon that it is.

2. A Report from the Official Tour by the City of David Visitor’s Center

Every now and then “Emek Shaveh” manages to update itself on the state of affairs at the Visitor’s Center at the City of David.   Recently, we participated in a tour called “New Discoveries at the City of David” which promised to reveal the most recent developments in the research being carried out there.   In actuality, as our guide explained, we would hear “principally about the second Temple and a little about the First Temple,” – that is,  we would hear nothing of the current excavations next to the spring and in the Givati parking lot, which had revealed findings from the pre-Israelite period, as well as from the Roman, Byzantine, and early Islamic periods.  After a quick visit to “David’s Palace” (so identified with the appropriate tentativeness) we heard a long lecture on some seals which were found several years ago in a sewage drain near Area G.   Afterwards we visited the “tombs of the House of David” -  a Roman quarry  excavated over one hundred years ago – with a longer stopover at Theodotus’ inscription, discovered in 1913.   This inscription commemorates several generations of public officials who apparently administered to worshippers visiting the Second Temple.  It was not an accident that our guide included in her list of “new discoveries” this long-known inscription, the Yemenite neighborhood which stands near it, the Meyuchas house and the houses of the Elad settlers.

The focus of the tour is the network of excavated tunnels which branches out from the Shiloach Pool.  In the eastern tunnel dozens of meters of a stepped road dating from the Roman period had been discovered (the end of this excavation tunnel collapsed last winter).  Here we were treated to a long and emotional description of the Jewish uprising and its grim conclusion (“due to hate among brothers”) and of the perfect correlation between the account of Yosef ben Matityahu and the archaeological findings (although several of the findings raise question marks to this so-called account).   “Ideology aside” said our guide “ you can imagine how we will soon be able to recreate the entire route of the temple worshippers, from the Shiloach Pool to the Hulda Gate just south of the Temple Mount. “

Our visit to the western tunnel demonstrated that whatever situation may exist today does not affect the determination of the site’s developers.  After hiking a short way up the tunnel that had been cut out along the western side of the ancient road, we crossed a series of steps and scaffolding to an ancient sewage tunnel. The period to which this sewage tunnel belongs, and its connection to the ancient road are altogether unclear, though this did not stop the Antiquities Authority from declaring to the media and the court that the tunnel showed evidence of the Jewish uprising.  As if that were not bad enough, a serious water (sewage?) leak in the tunnel prevented safe passage, and indicates unsolved engineering problems in the tunnel, which passes underneath the houses on Wadi Hilwe Street.

To conclude, in our view it is clear that the primary goal of the site’s managers is the development of the underground passages in order to recreate the route taken by worshippers to the Temple Mount.   In their view,  this will allow the settlers to fulfill their historic role as hosts and guardians of the temple worshippers, with an eye towards the redemption of the Temple Mount itself, in the fullness of time.  Until then, it appears that all of the activities related to the site’s other historical periods, including those problematic remnants from the time of King David, are but a rehearsal for the main event.

3. Upcoming Alternative Archaeological Tours

The archaeological tour “From Shiloah to Silwan” offers a unique experience of the “City of David” archaeological site located in the Palestinian town of Silwan in East Jerusalem.
This is an unusual tour because along with an introduction to the archeological splendor of the site, it also introduces the visitor to the role of archaeology in the Israeli – Palestinian conflict, and its impact on the residents living near the site.
The tour is guided by an archaeologist, as well as town residents.

The English tour will take place on Saturday September 25, at 3 pm
The Hebrew tour will take place on Friday September 24, at 2 pm

For registration: http://www.alt-arch.org/tours.php

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