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January 31, 2010 Archaeology Digs Up Controversy in Jerusalem Time MagazineThe controversial history of an area called the City of David in East Jerusalem fuels tempers between Israelis and Palestinians Read more: http://www.time.com/time/video/player/0,32068,64098268001_1957917,00.html#ixzz0eHLFGsmJ
September 16, 2009 Shooting at the City of David YouTube
October 3, 2009 Head of Elad reveals how he tricked the Israel Antiquity Authority Anonymous, YouTube
January 1, 2008 Digging for Trouble - Israel/Palestine Natasha Dudinski, DigressMedia
June, 2009 ELAD co-funds municipal construction plans in East Jerusalem Ha'im Rivlin, Israel Channel 2
June 24, 2009 Holy Land Grab Jacky Rowland, Al-Jazeera English
July 9, 2008 The City of David Sergio Yahni, AIC - Alternative Information CenterThe City of David Visitor's Center is ranked among the top five tourist attractions in Israel, growing from 25,000 visitors in 2001 to 350,000 visitors in 2008. Like other Palestinian neighborhoods, the barbed wire, security guards, and Israeli flags hanging from houses speak the true story, a story...


February 25, 2010 Critics slam heritage plan for omitting non-Jewish sites Nir Hasson, HaaretzThe national heritage proposal that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented to the cabinet this week is attracting criticism for including only sites that are part of the Jewish and Zionist narrative. The NIS 400 million heritage project, which is geared toward supporting the preservation of...
February 5, 2010 Archaeology and the struggle for Jerusalem Katya Adler, BBC News"I like to travel and when I travel, I like to have a guide book. Here in Jerusalem, that guide book is the Tanah, the Bible." This is how guide Asher Altshul likes to start his tours at the expansive City of David archaeological site in Jerusalem. The site stretches along and down one of Jerusalem's...
February 9, 2010 In Jerusalem archaeology is politics Paul Reynolds, BBC NewsThe very stones of Jerusalem are political weapons in the age-old struggle for possession of the Holy Land. And nowhere is more sensitive than the great platform built by King Herod, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to the Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary. To understand...
February 8, 2010 Archaeology in Jerusalem: Digging Up Trouble Tim McGirk, Time MagazineThe Jerusalem syndrome is a psychological disorder in which a visit to the holy city triggers delusional and obsessive religious fantasies. In its extreme variety, people wander the lanes of the Old City believing they are biblical characters; John the Baptist, say, or a brawny Samson, sprung back to...
November 20, 2009 Digital map reveals Israeli archaeology Suzanne Muchnic , Los Angeles TimesA searchable map detailing 40 years of Israeli archaeological work in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, developed for the USC Digital Library, has won the 2009 Open Archaeology Prize from the American Schools of Oriental Research. A nonprofit organization founded in 1900 and located at Boston University,...
October 19, 2009 Will preservation of ancient Roman road destroy the Western Wall? Nir Hasson, HaaretzOne of the country's leading archaeologists has publicly condemned the Israel Antiquities Authority's failure to object to a plan to construct a building over a site in the Western Wall plaza where a well-preserved ancient Roman road was recently excavated. "I would like to take advantage of this...
October 8, 2009 Shallow and brutal archaeology Raphael Greenberg, HaaretzAs usual during the Jewish holidays, the Israeli public has been inundated with reports of "amazing discoveries" in excavations in Jerusalem. One might dismiss them as a combination of public relations and the need to fill the holiday newspapers, but in fact they attest to a worrying process whereby...
October 5, 2009 WATCH: Organizer admits City of David endangers Arab homes Akiva Eldar, HaaretzA video tape made during a guided tour of the archaeological excavations at Silwan (the City of David) near Jerusalem's Old City walls reveals how Elad, the association that runs the dig, works together with the Israel Antiquities Authority, the Israel Nature and Parks Authority and the Jerusalem municipality...
May 26, 2009 "Unser Herz schlägt hier"(In German) Von Clemens Höges, Der SpiegelGeheime Tunnel, meterdicke Mauern, 3000 Jahre alte Siegel: Archäologen suchen nach dem Ursprung Jerusalems und wollen König Davids Palast entdeckt haben - aber unter einem arabischen Viertel. Das Rauchen hat sich Jawad Siyam angewöhnt, als die Israelis ihn mal wieder eingesperrt hatten. Er war...
September 23, 2009 Court rejects Silwan residents' petition against City of David archeological work Abe Selig, The Jerusalem PostThe Supreme Court on Monday dismissed a petition submitted against the Israel Antiquities Authority by residents of the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, concerning excavations being conducted at the City of David archeological park in the neighborhood's Wadi Hilweh section. The petition, which...
September 11, 2009 Row as Jerusalem tunnel is extended in Silwan Dominic Waghorn, Sky NewsA controversial tunnel under Jerusalem has been extended in a move that is angering Palestinians, Sky News can exclusively reveal. Mobile phone footage shows the extent of the excavations Footage filmed on a mobile phone shows the extent of the excavations Mobile phone footage proves that archaeologists,...
September 11, 2009 Silwan archaeological tunnel extended jpost.com Staff, The Jerusalem PostThe extension of an archaeological tunnel under the City of David has caused upset among Palestinians, according to a Sky News report Friday, which featured mobile phone video footage. According to the report, the archaeological project is funded by settlers, and aims to uncover a road which led...
June 3, 2009 War of the Graves: The Mount of Olives vs. Mamilla Yonathan Mizrachi, AIC - Alternative Information CenterDuring the past two to three years, the Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem has enjoyed a flourishing period of development. The cemetery overlooks the Old City from the East and according to tradition is the place from which the Messiah will arrive during the resurrection of the dead....
June 1, 2008 Islamic-era skeletons 'disappeared' from Elad-sponsored dig Meron Rapoport , HaaretzDozens of skeletons from the early Islamic period were discovered during excavations near the Temple Mount, on a site slated for construction by a right-wing Jewish organization. Contrary to regulations, the skeletons were removed, and were not reported to the Ministry of Religious Services. The Israel...
March, 2009 Where's King David's Garden? Yonathan Mizrachi, From Shiloah to SilwanRecently, some articles praising the archaeological significance of the Al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan have appeared in various newspapers, in attempt to justify the plan to demolish the 88 houses in the neighborhood. Most of the houses in the neighborhood, which is located at the feet of the archaeological...
November, 2008 Archaeological Views: Archaeology Adding to the Powder Keg David Ilan, Biblical Archaeology Review (BAR)
March, 2009 Archaeology in Jerusalem 1967 - 2008 Raphael Greenberg, Public ArchaeologyThe village of Silwan, in East Jerusalem, contains the remains of most ancient Jerusalem, often termed “The City of David”. In recent years the excavation and presentation of the archaeology of Silwan has been placed in the hands of a Jewish settler non-governmental organization. Their incorporation...
July 30, 2008 Archaeological Digs Stoke Conflict in Jerusalem Adina Hoffman, The NationSomething of the street punk and village elder mingle in Jawad Siyam. Wiry, dark and stubble-chinned, with a cigarette often dangling from the side of his mouth and a slightly amused look in his eye, he bears more than a passing resemblance to Jean-Paul Belmondo--if, that is, one can imagine the star...
May 30, 2008 Jewish tunnel worries Palestinians AFP, The Taipei TimesPalestinian and Israeli critics are wary of the principal financial backer of an archeological project, the Ir David Foundation, and its political agenda. Amin al-Siyam says he is awakened nearly every night by the sound of Jewish settlers tunneling under his east Jerusalem house toward the Old City's...
May 1, 2008 Archaeologists for hire Yigal Bronner , The GuardianIn the early 1990s, a settler organisation by the name of Elad (a Hebrew acronym for: "To the City of David") began to plot its takeover of Silwan, a densely populated Palestinian neighbourhood located a stone's throw from the Temple Mount and the al-Aqsa mosque. Silwan is also home to one of the...
April 17, 2008 A separate peace Meron Rapoport , HaaretzThe guests who arrived at the Jerusalem Van Leer Institute this week were archaeologists, as their footwear attested to. Most of them wore hiking boots, though some showed up in biblical-style sandals, toes poking out on a chilly Jerusalem evening, and others in slippers of the type kibbutzim once gave...
March 16, 2008 City of David tunnel excavation proceeds without proper permit Meron Rapoport , HaaretzThe excavation of a tunnel under Jerusalem's City of David has gone on for months without a license from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), as required by law. In addition, there is no operative plan for developing the site by the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority (INNPPA),...
March 2, 2008 Digging too deep? Michael Green, The Jerusalem Post'You can feel it here. It's life, real life," whispers a voice in the dim light illuminating a narrow tunnel hidden below the surface of Jerusalem's streets. "Life in Jerusalem ended here," says Doron Spielman, the Ir David Foundation's international director of development, crouching in the passage...
February 14, 2008 Archeologists battle over the history of Jerusalem Ben Lynfield, The Jewish ChronicleIn a softly lit subterranean passage at the City of David archeological park in East Jerusalem, guide Hila Levinger reads from the Bible an account of how King David captured the area, thought to be impregnable, before establishing his capital there. “It is possible he captured it through this...
November, 2007 Archaeology and The Battle For Jerusalem Raphael Greenberg, Jewish QuarterlyAny intellectual practice in Israel entails both the representation of politics and the politics of representation. The ideological implications of practising archaeology in Jerusalem are as many-layered as the cultures that lie buried beneath the city’s surface. Archaeology has always been implicated...
November, 2000 (Re)designing the City of David: Landscape, Narrative and Archaeology in Silwan Jeffrey Yas, Jerusalem QuarterlyThis article concerns the role of archaeological sites in the modern (re)creations of historical landscapes. Within the social sciences the word "landscape" increasingly refers to a subjective projection cast onto an ever-contested external terrain. In contrast to our positivist forebears, who so ambitiously...
December 18, 2007 Das Klingelschild von König David (German) Alex Rühle, Süeddeutsche ZeitungWie politische Archäologie in Jerusalem die Gegenwart entsorgt und wo der gefährlichste Ort Israels entsteht: Tausende von Touristen pilgern täglich zum angeblichen Palast König Davids. Silwan. City of David. Ein Ort, zwei Namen. Zum einen zieht sich hier, südlich der Mauern der Altstadt von...


January 22, 2010 Yediot exposé: Settler orgs fund police infrastructure in East Jerusalem Uri MisgavA Yedioth Ahronoth investigation reveals some very surprising facts concerning the funding of the new headquarters. According to our findings, only a small portion of the funding originates from the state. The bulk of the money comes from private organizations with a clear right wing orientation: the...
July 30, 2009 The City and the Dogs: A Psychedelic Tour through Jerusalem's More Peculiar Districts Yizhar Be'er, The Huffington PostYou have to see it to believe it. The photographs that appear here document the murals that stretch dozens of meters down the length of the road that leads from the neighborhood of Silwan -- that is, the City of David -- along the Eastern Wall of the Old City on the way to Dung Gate. The murals decorate...
May 9, 2009 Parks Fortify Israel’s Claim to Jerusalem Ethan Bronner and Isabel Kershner, The New York TimesIsrael is quietly carrying out a $100 million, multiyear development plan in some of the most significant religious and national heritage sites just outside the walled Old City here as part of an effort to strengthen the status of Jerusalem as its capital. The plan, parts of which have been outsourced...
June 27, 2009 IDF weekend trips hosted by East Jerusalem settlement group Anshel Pfeffer, HaaretzAn organization advocating Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem has led several Israel Defense Forces groups on weekend trips there, and the trips were approved and partially funded by the army. The trips, which have taken place over the past several months, include tours of Jewish homes in the area...
January 17, 2008 Settler group refuses to vacate land slated for school for the disabled Or Kashti and Meron Rapoport, HaaretzThe right-wing Elad settlement organization is refusing to vacate an area in the Jerusalem Peace Forest that had been promised to the special education organization Hadvir Hahadash. The Jewish National Fund signed an agreement in 2004 with Hadvir, which wants to build a boarding school for young...
November 21, 2007 Group 'Judaizing' East Jerusalem accused of withholding donor information Meron Rapoport , HaaretzThe registrar of associations is considering demanding the dissolution of the Elad association, which promotes the "Judaization" of East Jerusalem. Elad has been operating in East Jerusalem for about 20 years. It has acquired and received many properties belonging to Palestinians in Kfar Silwan,...


March 9, 2010 Israel using strong arm tactics against young Palestinian stone-throwers Nir Hasson, HaaretzLast update - 09:42 09/03/2010 Israel using strong arm tactics against young Palestinian stone-throwers By Nir Hasson, Haaretz Correspondent Tags: Israel Border Police Several children in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan were arrested and taken from their homes in handcuffs...
February 25, 2010 Mayor’s Housing Offer Sets Off Row in Jerusalem Ethan Bronner, The New York TimesJERUSALEM — The mayor of Jerusalem is offering 120 Palestinian families in a jumble of houses scheduled for demolition a deal he believes they can’t refuse: new apartments atop shops and restaurants, a day care center, boutique hotels and a huge park. Tourists and income will flow. It is — as...
February 24, 2010 Jerusalem inspectors hand out demolition notices in Silwan Ronen Medzini, YnetResidents of east Jerusalem neighborhood say municipal inspectors entering various buildings, distributing demolition orders. Peace Now: This is a provocation by the mayor Municipal inspectors accompanied by security forces distributed demolition notices on Wednesday in the east Jerusalem Arab neighborhood...
February 4, 2010 Israel to seal settler house in east Jerusalem France24AFP - Municipal authorities will comply under protest with a court order to seal a Jewish settler's building in mainly Arab east Jerusalem, the mayor's office announced on Thursday. Rightwing Mayor Nir Barkat pointedly insisted this meant the municipality must tear down 200 homes -- virtually all...
January 20, 2010 Jerusalem mayor could face charges for refusing to evacuate Jewish home Akiva Eldar, HaaretzA Jerusalem city councilman submitted a police complaint against Mayor Nir Barkat on Wednesday for the latter's defiance of a court order mandating the evacuation of a home inhabited by Jews in the predominantly Arab part of the city. The councilman, Meir Turgeman, is accusing the mayor of obstruction...
January 1, 2010 Mazuz to police chief: Evacuate Beit Yonatan now Akiva Eldar , HaaretzThe attorney general has instructed Police Commissioner David Cohen to take immediate action to evacuate the illegal structure known as Beit Yonatan in East Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood. "This is a grave ongoing case of flouting court orders and cannot be allowed to continue," Attorney General...
December 22, 2009 Barkat gears up for Silwan plan protest Dan Izenberg, The Jerusalem PostMayor Nir Barkat has told Jerusalem Municipality legal adviser Yossi Habilio that he does not want him to represent the city in a High Court petition demanding the cancellation of controversial plans by architect Moshe Safdie for the Silwan neighborhood, south of the Old City, The Jerusalem Post has...
December 20, 2009 Jerusalem mayor cuts health funds for Arab children Nir Hasson, HaaretzJerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat on Thursday rejected municipal recommendations and cut funding for a toddler health-care center in East Jerusalem, while approving aid to a similar center in a Jewish neighborhood. The funds would have gone to opening a branch of the "Drop of Milk" (Tipat Halav) program,...
December 2, 2009 EU envoys: Israel trying to sever East Jerusalem from West Bank Barak Ravid, HaaretzA classified report drafted by European consuls in East Jerusalem and Ramallah slams Israeli policy in East Jerusalem and recommends that the European Union take steps to strengthen the Palestinian Authority's status in the city. It also advises taking various measures to protest Israeli policy in the...
October 6, 2009 Netanyahu, the Tunnels Opener Hagit Ofran, The Huffington PostLast week, an incident that could have set the entire Middle East on fire was prevented. Netanyahu's secret plan to visit a disputed tunnel in the East Jerusalem Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan, at the site known as Ir David (the City of David), was canceled, probably with some international intervention....
October 4, 2009 Religious use contested east J'lem site as mikveh Ronen Medzini, YnetIt happens every Friday: Religious men turn public Pool of Siloam in Silwan into a ritual bath – enter water naked and ward off anyone who approaches. This is what the source of a 3,000-year-long conflict looks like today How did a pastoral pool become another source of conflict in embroiled east...
September 10, 2009 Jerusalem court halts Silwan construction Abe Selig, The Jerusalem PostThe Jerusalem Magistrate's Court this week ordered a halt to a number of construction projects in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan, after residents and two local NGOs filed a petition claiming the projects were illegal. Judge Noam Sohlberg ordered a halt to the projects on Tuesday in response...
August 31, 2009 Fifteen minutes of hate in Silwan Meron Rapoport , The GuardianIt's searing hot, but there's some pleasantness about the stone-flagged path rising from the centre of Silwan, Jerusalem. Maybe it's the breeze, or the stone houses oozing coolness into the air, or maybe it's the wide-open mountain landscape. There are three of us – Ilan, the director, Michael, the...
August 6, 2009 Irving Moskowitz's bingo madness Richard Silverstein, The GuardianHow an American gambling mogul is forcing a showdown between the Obama administration and Israel over settlements. Irving Moskowitz has come a long way since he began his medical career as an young internist in California 60 years ago. Shortly after earning his medical degree in 1952, he bought...
August, 2009 Damage control: is een eerlijke opdeling van Jeruzalem nog mogelijk? (Dutch) Sofie Van Der Straeten, University of GentDe geïntensiveerde geografische en demografische strijd in de ‘Holy Basin’ van Jeruzalem en Silwan als case study van de vergevorderde judaïsering van een Palestijns dorp. Op één dag tijd: negen Palestijnse families worden door de Israëlische politie in het Palestijnse dorp Sheikh Jarrah...
July 26, 2009 Two-day-old Silwan info center in jeopardy Abe Selig, The Jerusalem Post"We built this place last Sunday, and on Tuesday, the police arrived with orders to knock it down," said Ahmad Qara'een, as he sat inside the Wadi Hilwah Information Center, a 35-sq.m. covered wooden deck erected by residents of east Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood. Qara'een does not dispute the...
July 19, 2009 Gambling with peace: how US bingo dollars are funding Israeli settlements Chris McGreal, The GuardianFor the winning punters chancing their luck at Hawaiian Gardens' charity bingo hall in the heart of one of California's poorest towns, the big prize is $500. The losers walk away with little more than an assurance that their dollars are destined for a good cause. But the real winners and losers live...
June 30, 2009 Private security costs in e. J Abe Selig, The Jerusalem PostGovernment funding allocated to a private security firm tasked with protecting Jewish residents in Arab neighborhoods of east Jerusalem has more than doubled over the last 10 years, and now exceeds NIS 54 million, according to a new report released by Peace Now. The report, which was based on information...
May 19, 2009 Barkat may relocate Silwan residents Etgar Lefkovits, The Jerusalem PostJerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat hopes to reach an agreement on the relocation of Arab residents living in illegally constructed homes in east Jerusalem's Silwan neighborhood, to make way for a planned archaeological park adjacent to the City of David. "This is one of the most strategic sites in the city,...
April 5, 2009 Yishai vows to settle Jews in east Jerusalem Roni Sofer, YnetInterior Minister Eli Yishai said Sunday that he was developing a plan to settle Jews in the City of David in Jerusalem. "The City of David and everywhere in Jerusalem that was the origin of our growth is our sovereign right," he said. Yishai was speaking at a meeting with Jewish entrepreneurs who...
April, 2009 The very eye of the storm Akiva Eldar, HaaretzJawad Siam pulled out a brochure issued by the Jerusalem municipality heralding development plans for his place of residence, the village of Silwan in East Jerusalem. He pointed to the map in the brochure, where the neighborhood's streets were marked. "You see this, Hashiloah Road?" he asked. "All these...
December 6, 2008 New Tensions in Jerusalem’s Arab Neighborhoods Isabel Kershner, The New York TimesA series of recent Israeli actions in the mainly Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem have raised tensions there, with Palestinian and Israeli critics contending that they are part of a wider plan to “Judaize” historically charged areas around the Old City. The actions, ostensibly unconnected,...
November 14, 2008 Court orders state to explain construction in Jerusalem's Holy Basin Akiva Eldar, HaaretzThe High Court of Justice last week ordered the state to explain the unauthorized construction and earthworks by government bodies near the Western Wall and the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem. Arab residents of the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan and Peace Now activists had petitioned the court...
January 20, 2005 Land lords Meron Rapoport , HaaretzAs a result of a secret Israeli government decision, thousands of Palestinians living in the West Bank who own land or homes in East Jerusalem lost all rights to their holdings. And there are already plans to build on the expropriated land. On July 8, 2004, the cabinet met and adopted resolutions...


March 4, 2010 Muslim right to the Jewish past Yonathan Mizrachi, Search for Common GroundJERUSALEM - The decision to include the Cave of the Patriarchs and Rachel’s Tomb on the list of National Heritage Sites would, at first glance, appear to be one about which every Jew should be pleased. And, in fact, many Israelis believe that historical sites identified with the Jewish past should...
October 29, 2009 An empty land? Yonathan Mizrachi, Search for Common GroundJewish history and Biblical studies are the two main humanistic subjects taught in Israeli schools. However, the average Israeli pupil doesn’t learn anything about the rest of the history of the land of Israel. In my opinion, the absence of this field of study greatly influences the development of...