In 1999, the Islamic Waqf—the Jordanian-controlled organization that administers the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem—together with the Northern Branch of the Islamic Movement—the Israeli chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood—decided to build a new, subterranean mosque underneath al-Aqsa. To do so, they destroyed the structure known as Solomon’s Stables, built by King Herod around the beginning of the Common Era. Israeli archaeologists have since then been trying to rescue artifacts that were displaced in the process, but their funding has recently run dry. David M. Weinberg writes:
Without any scientific supervision whatsoever, [the Waqf] bulldozed 9,000 tons of the most sensitive and valuable earth on the globe and unceremoniously dumped close to 400 truckloads of it as “garbage” in the Kidron Valley [which runs between the Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives]. I have no doubt the Islamists were seeking not only to expand their prayer space but deliberately to destroy any traces of Jewish history on and under the Temple Mount.
In a bold move, the archaeologists Gabriel Barkay and Zachi Dvira of Bar-Ilan University waded into the dump, and in 2004 they started sifting it. Their initiative became the Temple Mount Sifting Project, the goal of which is to rescue ancient artifacts and to research the archaeology and history of the Temple Mount.
Over the past twelve years, it has grown into a project of international significance. With the help of nearly 200,000 volunteers, half a million valuable finds have been discovered from the First and Second Temple periods, the late-Roman, Byzantine, Crusader, and Islamic periods, and the Middle Ages. . . .
These constitute the first-ever archaeological data from below the Temple Mount. Though the artifacts have been wrenched from their archaeological context (again, nefariously), the project has used innovative methodology and survey techniques . . . to analyze the finds. . . . All of this has transformed our understanding of the history of the Temple Mount. . . .
The project needs 8 million shekels ($2.2 million) over the next four years to resume sifting of the remaining 30 percent [of the material], and to continue scientific research and publication efforts. Until now, for twelve long years, private donations and the Ir David Foundation have funded the project. Now it is time for the government to back the project generously.
Read more on Israel Hayom: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_opinion.php?id=19769