Students for Justice in Palestine Seeks to Erase Jewish History

On November 16, 2022, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at Boston University (BU) posted a carousel on Instagram condemning the “Jerusalem: City of Change” forum hosted by the Elie Wiesel Center for Jewish Studies, the Department of Religion, and the program in Archaeology, in collaboration with the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA).

In its defamatory post, BU SJP accused the IAA of “indigenous antique theft,” “revising history,” “ethnic displacement,” and “settler colonialism.”

When it comes to BU SJP’s claim of “indigenous antiquity theft” — whose antiquity do they believe were stolen? The discoveries made at excavation sites such as the City of David by the IAA have confirmed the presence of Jewish people in the land of Israel for 4,000 years.

It is ironic that BU SJP accuses the IAA of being an organization “active in the colonization of Palestine and destruction of Jerusalem,” when in reality, its discoveries threaten the false narrative presented by Palestinian leaders that Jews are not indigenous to the land of Israel.

For instance, in 2011, regarding the plan to include Holocaust education in the curriculum taught to Palestinian refugees, Hamas stated, “We cannot agree to a programme that is intended to poison the minds of our children … Holocaust studies in refugee camps is a contemptible plot and serves the Zionist entity with a goal of creating a reality and telling stories in order to justify acts of slaughter against the Palestinian people.”

According to the official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV station, Jewish history in Jerusalem “has no basis other than in their heads that are full of legends and fantasies.” The program also claimed that “No archaeological existence of their alleged Temple has been proven.”

Another example of the PA’s attempt to rewrite history comes in the form of the virtual Palestinian Museum, a website established by the Palestinian tourism and archeology ministry in 2021, that completely ignores the fact that there were two Jewish temples in Jerusalem, and a rebellion that led to the exile of the Jewish people more than 2,000 years ago.

The PA authority has also failed to protect historical sites under its jurisdiction.

Aerial footage showed Palestinian looters setting the ancient archaeological site of Sebastia on fire in late July of 2022. They claimed to have burnt twigs to “clean” the area; nonetheless, the site was damaged. Sebastia used to be the ancient city of Samaria, which was the capital of the Kingdom of Israel in the 8th and 9th centuries BCE.

SJP at BU also claims that the IAA’s excavation in the Wadi Hilweh neighborhood of Silwan, an Arab village near the City of David, is an effort to “destroy property in the area and displace Palestinians.” Naturally, SJP distorts the facts. A 2019 article in The Jerusalem Post paints a more complicated picture of the situation in Silwan.

First and foremost, the excavations are not new; they have been going on for years. Second, the extent of the damage caused by some of the excavations has been described by residents as “cracks in some walls,” and residents have petitioned and successfully received compensation to make repairs. Third, while it is true that some Arab residents of Silwan are discontent with the influx of Jewish residents, they are not being evicted from their homes; many are willfully selling their homes to Jewish buyers.

Clearly, this situation does not amount to “ethnic cleansing,” as BU SJP claims.

BU SJP’s Instagram post also asserts that the current Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Ahmad Hussein, had warned that “excavations from the IAA and Elad in the Old City threaten the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque … which could lead to its collapse.” Neither Hussein nor SJP provide geological evidence to justify this absurd assertion.

Additionally, BU SJP accuses the IAA of, “emboldening Settler behavior by destroying not only just holy sites for Palestinians but parks, homes, and schools,” citing an article from Arab News that reported the IAA is demolishing buildings 50 meters away from the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

This report, however, is misleading. The IAA started the project only after it was approved by all the relevant professional forums, and the IAA director, Shuka Dorfman, stated that the Western Wall plaza would not be damaged as a result of the construction work.

With disinformation everywhere on the Internet, and professors spewing antisemitic rhetoric that distorts history, it’s more important than ever for universities like BU to host organizations such as the IAA, which have made vital discoveries in understanding the land of Israel.

By delegitimizing historical institutions such as the IAA, BU would be setting a dangerous precedent that would help exclude Jews from history.

Yonatan Manor is a sophomore studying Film & Television at Boston University and a CAMERA on Campus Fellow.

The post Students for Justice in Palestine Seeks to Erase Jewish History first appeared on Algemeiner.com.