The Jerusalem Governorate announced that Israeli occupation authorities continue to carry out extensive excavation operations and dig tunnel networks beneath the town of Silwan, located south of Al-Aqsa Mosque, as part of projects aimed at changing the area's landmarks and erasing its historical Palestinian identity, amid warnings of the risks associated with these moves.
The Palestinian News Agency (Wafa) quoted the Governorate as saying that the danger of these works is not limited to reshaping the city's history according to a one-sided narrative, but extends to threatening Palestinian buildings, given reports of cracks, collapses, and damage to homes resulting from continuous excavations beneath them, which endanger the safety of residents and their right to housing and remaining on their land.
The Governorate pointed out that occupation authorities select excavation sites to serve the narrative they seek to entrench, focusing on specific archaeological layers, particularly those linked to the 10th century BCE, while marginalizing other historical periods that reflect the succession of civilizations in Jerusalem. It clarified that these excavations extend through the area known as the "Holy Basin," between the Old City and Mount of Olives, including the neighborhoods of Silwan, Wadi al-Hawa, Bustan, and Wadi al-Rababa, reaching northern areas towards Sheikh Jarrah.
The Governorate added that archaeological findings are being linked to the Biblical narrative, and Biblical names are being applied to sites and landmarks, thereby turning archaeology from a field of scientific research into a tool for entrenching a political narrative and justifying control over the land, in a context aimed at Judaizing Jerusalem's geography and erasing its Palestinian identity. Archaeological excavations and tunnel digging are among the most prominent tools used by Israeli occupation authorities and settler associations to change the demographic and historical identity of occupied areas, foremost among which is the city of Jerusalem.
United Nations organizations, headed by UNESCO, reject these excavations, considering them illegal under the 1954 Hague Convention, which prohibits an occupying power from making changes to the landmarks of occupied lands or excavating their antiquities.
Source: Syrian Arab News Agency (SANA)
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