{"id":140,"date":"2007-08-29T16:45:49","date_gmt":"2007-08-29T16:45:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/2007\/08\/dig-at-jerusalem-site-brings-i.php"},"modified":"2007-08-29T16:45:49","modified_gmt":"2007-08-29T16:45:49","slug":"dig-at-jerusalem-site-brings-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/08\/dig-at-jerusalem-site-brings-i","title":{"rendered":"Dig at Jerusalem Site Brings Ire"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Associated Press &#8211; August 29, 2007<br \/>\nJERUSALEM &#8211; Israeli archaeologists on Wednesday criticized the extension of an underground cable at Jerusalem&#8217;s holiest site for Muslims and Jews, saying that digging the trench defies professional standards for such a sensitive historic site and could damage Bible-era relics.<br \/>\nIslamic authorities responsible for the Al Aqsa Mosque complex, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, said the digging is necessary infrastructure work at the site to replace 40-year-old electrical cables ahead of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.<br \/>\nThe site is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It is home to Al Aqsa Mosque and the gold-capped Dome of the Rock, Islam&#8217;s third-holiest shrine. It is also the holiest site in Judaism: Archaeological finds show that the remains of the temples are beneath the mosque compound, although Muslim clerics dispute that.<br \/>\nThe Public Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, a group of Israeli archaeologists, said using a tractor to dig a trench &#8211; said to be 500 yards long and up to 5 feet deep &#8211; is &#8220;not archaeology but destruction.&#8221;<br \/>\nEilat Mazar, a member of the committee, said the infrastructure work using heavy machinery and with little documentation can damage ancient relics and erase evidence of the presence of the biblical structures.<br \/>\nMazar said any excavation, even if for technical reasons, must be documented, photographed and the dirt sifted for any remains of relics.<br \/>\nYusuf Natsheh, an antiquities official in the Waqf, the Muslim authority responsible for the site, said the criticism by the Israeli group was &#8220;politically motivated,&#8221; and the area would not be damaged by the tractor.<br \/>\n&#8220;We don&#8217;t hide anything,&#8221; he said, adding that anyone can see what the digging has unearthed. &#8220;These are all assumptions with no evidence, and lack scientific considerations.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe Israeli Antiquities Authority had no comment.<br \/>\nThe digging for the new cable, carried out by the Jerusalem Electricity Co., was completed Wednesday, Natsheh said, and a team of antiquities engineers oversaw the work. He said only the laying of the cable and filling the trench remain.<br \/>\nArchaeological digs earlier this year by Israeli authorities next to the holy site sparked protests by Muslims. The Israelis said they were excavating outside the mosque site before improving an entry ramp.<br \/>\n<em>Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Associated Press &#8211; August 29, 2007 JERUSALEM &#8211; Israeli archaeologists on Wednesday criticized the extension of an underground cable at Jerusalem&#8217;s holiest site for Muslims and Jews, saying that digging the trench defies professional standards for such a sensitive historic site and could damage Bible-era relics. Islamic authorities responsible for the Al Aqsa Mosque complex,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Dig at Jerusalem Site Brings Ire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/08\/dig-at-jerusalem-site-brings-i\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dig at Jerusalem Site Brings Ire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Associated Press &#8211; August 29, 2007 JERUSALEM &#8211; Israeli archaeologists on Wednesday criticized the extension of an underground cable at Jerusalem&#8217;s holiest site for Muslims and Jews, saying that digging the trench defies professional standards for such a sensitive historic site and could damage Bible-era relics. Islamic authorities responsible for the Al Aqsa Mosque complex,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/08\/dig-at-jerusalem-site-brings-i\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beliefnet News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-08-29T16:45:49+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"nsymmonds\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dig at Jerusalem Site Brings Ire","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/08\/dig-at-jerusalem-site-brings-i","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dig at Jerusalem Site Brings Ire","og_description":"Associated Press &#8211; August 29, 2007 JERUSALEM &#8211; Israeli archaeologists on Wednesday criticized the extension of an underground cable at Jerusalem&#8217;s holiest site for Muslims and Jews, saying that digging the trench defies professional standards for such a sensitive historic site and could damage Bible-era relics. Islamic authorities responsible for the Al Aqsa Mosque complex,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/08\/dig-at-jerusalem-site-brings-i","og_site_name":"Beliefnet News","article_published_time":"2007-08-29T16:45:49+00:00","author":"nsymmonds","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/08\/dig-at-jerusalem-site-brings-i","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/08\/dig-at-jerusalem-site-brings-i","name":"Dig at Jerusalem Site Brings Ire","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-08-29T16:45:49+00:00","dateModified":"2007-08-29T16:45:49+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/08\/dig-at-jerusalem-site-brings-i#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/08\/dig-at-jerusalem-site-brings-i"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2007\/08\/dig-at-jerusalem-site-brings-i#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dig at Jerusalem Site Brings Ire"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/","name":"Beliefnet News","description":"Top Religious News From Around the World","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/f960b23e9c3a51222269c557a209b4f2","name":"nsymmonds","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/13d\/13ddfa3407d6847bc2fbd32a13b67708x96.jpg","caption":"nsymmonds"},"description":"Nicole Symmonds is Beliefnet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Prayer editor and also covers Christianity. A New Yorker by birth but a Floridian by tenure, Nicole graduated from Florida A&M University with a B.S. in Public Relations and a minor in Sociology. She moved to NY to pursue a career in journalism which started at In Style magazine. There she learned the ropes of magazine reporting, researching, and writing\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand became exponentially more stylish. But what seemed like a deep interest in fashion and entertainment would soon be revealed as merely the vehicle that moved her closer to discovering her purpose, writing and covering matters of the Christian faith. While in her purpose-driven vehicle she can be found traveling between Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens for life, work and worship, respectively. From fashion to faith and the journey isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t over yet\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/author\/nsymmonds"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}