Archaeologists have uncovered remarkable evidence of the ancient Jewish connection to Jerusalem in the very same week that UNESCO and the Palestinian Authority (PA) were declaring that Jews have no ties to Jerusalem. Talk about the irony.
The latest discovery of a site where the Roman army assaulted Jewish forces guarding the outer walls of Jerusalem, during the Second Temple period, completely destroys the lies of the U.N. and the Palestinian Authority. The Romans were attacking Jewish forces during the Second Temple period, which according to the Palestinians, never existed. To top it off, there was no evidence of any Palestinian forces in the area at all. The newest findings confirm an account in the book, The Wars of the Jews, by the ancient historian Josephus Flavius in the first century C.E. Josephus had never mentioned Palestine or the Palestinians.
Every time archaeologists dig in Israel, another piece of the Palestinian propaganda crumbles. Earlier this year, scientists unearthed two ancient document seals in Jerusalem, dating to the late eighth century and early seventh century B.C.E. One of the seals bears the name of a man, “Sa’adyahu ben Shebnayahu.” The other is the name of a woman, “Elihanah bat Goel” (or Gael). These are Jewish names, not Arab, Muslim, or Palestinian. The archaeologists noted the construction of the names were “in typical Judean fashion for this time period.” This is more concise, indisputable evidence of a Jewish presence in the Land of Israel more than 1,400 years before Mohammed founded Islam.
Another important archaeological discovery earlier this year found the world’s oldest glass kilns, alongside a railroad track at the foot of Mount Carmel, near Haifa. Professor Ian Freestone, of London’s University College, a specialist in the identification of the chemical composition of glass, noted the kilns prove that “Israel constituted a production center on an international scale, hence its glassware was widely distributed throughout the Mediterranean and Europe.” The kilns date from around the year 400 C.E., some 300 hundred years after the Romans destroyed the Second Temple, killed an estimated 600,000 Jews, and destroyed more than 1,000 Jewish cities and towns.
Despite that devastation, the Jews were so attached to the Land of Israel that they rebuilt their society, to the point of serving as a glass-production center that exported its wares throughout the Roman Empire. One of the most famous discoveries in this field is an edict by the Roman emperor Diocletian, carved on a stone tablet, setting the prices for what he called “Judean glass.”
With the latest findings, including the two earlier this year, it is undeniable that UNESCO’s resolution is an utterly baffling solution and denial to Jewish claims in Jerusalem.
Originally posted at JNS.