“Jerusalem belongs to everyone, Jews, Christians and Muslims. And above all it is a world heritage site, under the protection of UNESCO. Why not try always to have decisions that are taken jointly?” This is what the late Father Michele Piccirillo, archaeologist of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum, said, with reference to an issue that continues to be one of the most controversial in the capital city contended by Palestinians and Israelis - in the Holy Place par excellence of the three great monotheistic religions - : archaeology and politics. “You just have to look at what has happened in the past few decades, but even earlier, in the history of excavations in the Old City, to realize that it is impossible to throw politics out of the window, and leave us only archaeology,” said the unquestioned expert. The opening of the tunnel of the Western Wall first and then the Moghrabi gate. Today it is Silwan, a neighbourhood of East Jerusalem mainly inhabited by Palestinians, that puts the international spotlight on the unsolved conflict in the Holy City for Christians, Jews and Muslims, bringing excavations, actions and archaeological projects back to the centre of the discussion which, for the Arab population, represents for many aspects a housing emergency, as Father Eugenio Alliata, archaeologist of the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum. comments: “News that is continually in the papers is that in Jerusalem, despite international pressure, hundreds of people will soon have to move out of the Arab neighbourhood of Silwan to make room for an archaeological-tourist part called the Royal Gardens,” says the professor. The inhabitants left, many of whom risk eviction, would have to reckon with the archaeologists and their projects who, for decades, have interwoven excavations and archaeological work with political and religious interests, using Biblical terms, in what is defined by Israel as “the archaeological area of the City of David”. For Father Alliata, the particular interests underlying specific initiatives to rediscover ancient Jerusalem are evident. “It is clear that archaeology, politics and Bible, advertising and funding, meet/clash in Jerusalem against the backdrop of a situation which is already in itself rife with tension,” he declares. In the opinion of the archaeologist and curator of the Franciscan Museum of the Studium Biblicum, in this way there would again be a collusion between the scientific and the political aspects. “which is of course undesired and not inevitable.”. This collusion is proven by the “frequent accusation of privileging “certain” discoveries and neglecting “others”.”
Whilst clashes and conflicts find space in the world press, there is little interest for what represents a genuine problem in the Arab community in East Jerusalem as well as in the Old City: the increase in the population and the difficulty to obtain permits to enlarge existing buildings or build new ones. These difficulties affect not only the Muslim inhabitants but also the some 6500 Christians who live in the overcrowded homes in the old centre, the population density of which varies from 20 to 79 people per thousand square metres; these figures are far above Western averages and create great difficulties for those directly concerned. The Franciscans of the Custody of the Holy Land, who own many buildings assigned to the neediest Christian families in exchange for symbolic rents, began, a few months ago, receiving the support of the ATS Pro Terra Sancta association, with an activity of restoring and renovating the mort run-down of these houses to guarantee better standards of living for the Christians in the Old City, preventing the exodus of Arab Christian families from the Holy Land.
http://www.proterrasancta.org/gerus...