FROM THE EDITOR homes in what is also known as the “I later came to believe that it was an One discovery
er came to believe that it was an One discovery led to another.
Continued from Page 5
site is the future home of Yeshiva Ohr
Somayach.
Additionally, King points out, while
there are frequent leftist demonstrations
against the evictions, the government has
stopped sending riot police and is now
sending the immigration police to these
demonstrations instead. The reason is that
many of the leftists who show up at these
locations are in Israel illegally, and it has
become an easy and convenient way for
the Israeli government to round them up
and send them back to wherever they
came from.
An hour or so after visiting these areas,
we were near his home in what is today
known as Maale Zeitim, in the shadows
of Har HaZeitim (Mount of Olives) and
the Har HaBayit (the Temple Mount).
King and his family live in an apartment
building with 50 other families. Nearby
there is another construction site, where
a building is near completion that will
house another 60 families. He points to a
complex of what looks like two private
6 December 25, 2009 5 TOWNS JEWISH TIMES
Silwan area of the city.
“The residents of those two houses are
the aunt and cousins of Yasser Arafat,”
King says. He adds that they are very
grateful for the Jewish buildings that are
going up literally all around them. He
says they have told him as well as the
world press that frequents the area that
with the new building going up they are
now certain the area will remain under
Israeli sovereignty, and they prefer that to
any new Palestinian administration
assuming control.
So how did Arieh King get started on
this mission of his? It began about 12
years ago, when he was a student at the
Hebrew University studying Arabic. He
lived in Jerusalem and, like so many oth-
ers, used the cemetery at Har HaZeitim as
a shortcut to make it on time to class.
Indeed, sitting nearby last week, we were
able to watch young people, no doubt
both Arabs and Jews, some with book
bags slung over their shoulders, saunter-
ing their way through the jagged lines of
burial headstones on their way to school
or wherever else.
offense and desecration to the dead lying
here—that their place of rest should
become a shortcut for shoppers and stu-
dents,” he says earnestly. But that’s not
what set him on his course to utilize his
energies and abilities to bring honor and
respect to this place, to Jerusalem, and to
all of Israel. He explains that as he
approached the area to go to school one
day over a decade ago, he was invited in
for tea by an Arab couple whose home he
passed by nearly every day and who
resided in the shadows of the burial
grounds.
“I’m sitting there and I see that the
entire floor is covered with an assort-
ment of colorful carpets,” King told me.
“When I had a moment and the couple
would not notice, I peeled back one of
the carpets to see what was underneath.”
The carpets were covering headstones—
with Jewish names carved on them—
taken from the mount and used for floor-
ing in this home and probably in the oth-
ers that dot this hill. “I decided at that
point that this cannot go on and dignity
must be restored to the dead.”
Headstones were taken from homes and
paired up with records of burials and
their locations—work, Mr. King explains,
that still goes on today. He says that the
night before our meeting, there was van-
dalism of some headstones on the Mount
of Olives and that there are continuous
incidents. Today, he says, sections of the
cemetery are monitored by video surveil-
lance, but that does not stop brazen
youngsters who live nearby or hang out
with their friends there at night from
inflicting damage.
For Arieh King, the only way he envi-
Continued on Page 8
sioned the possibility that these desecra-
Ir David
Foundation
Uncovers
Second Temple
Pilgrims’ Road,
Water Channel
BY SAMUEL SOKOL
The Israel Antiquities Authority
has recently uncovered a road used
by pilgrims as they ascended from
Jerusalem’s lower city to the Temple
Mount during the Roman period as
well as an underground channel that
funneled excess rain water away
from the city, according to the City of
David Foundation.
The City of David Foundation’s
director of external communications,
Chen Harkov, took Larry Gordon, the
editor of the Five Towns Jewish
Times, and this correspondent on a
tour of recent archaeological excava-
tions being conducted in the City of
David national park by the Israel
Antiquities Authority.
Harkov said that she believes that
the dig sites, currently closed to the
public, should be opened for tours
within the coming year. The pilgrim’s
road consists of a series of landings
separated by two steps. Pilgrims com-
ing up from the ritual bath at
breihkat shiloah would take this road
to arrive at the Temple.
According to Harkov, the water
channel which runs underneath
the path for part of its length, has
been identified as the channel
mentioned in Josephus Flavius’s
history of the Jews, in which thou-
sands of people took refuge from
the slaughter during the sacking of
Jerusalem and the destruction of
the Second Temple.
Ash on the walls has been attrib-
uted to fires set by the Romans in
attempting to flush the Jewish sur-
Continued on Page 23
Ir David Foundation
Continued from Page 6

vivors from hiding. Up to 5,000

men, women, and children hid in
this narrow stone passageway for
two weeks, until forced to leave.
Pottery and coins have been found
scattered on the floor of the tunnel,
some of which had been inscribed
with phrases indicating a hope for
the immediate appearance of the
messiah.
The City of David is the original
site of King David’s capital and
archaeologists have identified a large
structure at the top of the site as the
King’s palace. Arab residents of the
neighborhood of Silwan, adjacent to
the City of David, filed a motion in
conjunction with Peace Now to have
the excavations halted, claiming
damage to the Arab homes that lay
above the underground tunnel.
In September, Israel’s Supreme
Court rejected the petition, citing a
lack of evidence of significant dam-
age to the Arab structures and the
overriding historical importance of
the archaeological finds. According
to the court, “it’s not merely a lack of
something in the petition... there is
no basis for the claims made
throughout the petition.”
In the summary of its decision, the
court noted that “though Israel is a
young country, it has deep roots in
the history of mankind and through-
out the length and breadth of the
country, the earth is saturated with
the remnants of ancient civilizations
that lived in and created on this land
for thousands of years, both before
and after the common era.” (Pet.
8497/04) All the more so, these things
are true with regards to the area
called the ‘City of David.’”
The City of David Foundation (city-
ofdavid.org.il) responded to the court
ruling saying, “We are pleased with
the Supreme Court’s decision which
will enable the continuation of the
exposure of the rich national and
international heritage hidden in the
City of David. ‘Peace Now’ failed in
yet another attempt to deny our deep
roots in Jerusalem.”
The City of David is a national
park and is administered in part by
the City of David Foundation. The
park is unique in that it is not mere-
ly an archeological and tourist site,
but that people, Jews and Arabs alike,
live within. The foundation describes
its activities as “continuing King
David’s legacy and strengthening
Israel’s current and historic connec-
tion to Jerusalem through four key
initiatives: archaeological excava-
tion, tourism development, residen-
tial revitalization, and educational
programming.”
The foundation was founded in
1986 by David Be’eri, who had visited
the site of David’s capital during the
mid-1980s and was shocked to see
that “the former excavations that had
once been conducted were once
again concealed beneath garbage and
waste.” Today, the City of David is
one of Jerusalem’s most successful
tourist attractions. ❖

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