Occupied Jerusalem -

about 4 months ago, heavy digging machines began working on "Sultan Suleiman" Street, located between Bab Al-Amoud and Al-Sahira (from the gates of the Old City). During the excavations, an old quarry, a trench, a burial cave, and a handprint engraved on a rock wall were discovered.

The excavations are being carried out by the "Moria" company affiliated with the occupation municipality, which is responsible for building, construction and works in this area, under the supervision of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, with the aim of transforming the area into gardens and a pedestrian street, according to the declared goal by the occupation municipality.

In this context, Ihab Al-Jallad, a researcher in the history of Jerusalem, spoke to Al-Jazeera Net about the details of what has been discovered so far in this excavation, and what discoveries, if any, can be built upon and dated accurately.

Al-Jallad revealed the indications of the new excavations near the walls of Al-Aqsa (Al-Jazeera Net)

Ayyubid and Ottoman monuments

In the beginning, the excavations revealed an old quarry from which the buildings of the old town and its historical wall were constructed, which was built during the Roman era and rebuilt in the Ayyubid and Ottoman periods. With its reconstruction every time, stones were cut from the same place due to its proximity to the wall.

Thus, the work of expanding the wall and the ditch that was dug in the same place during the Ayyubid period continued by order of the leader Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, according to what was documented by a stone inscription located inside the Dome of Joseph in the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.

According to the Al-Maqdisi researcher, the Ottomans moved the stone inscription from the area of ​​the historic wall to Al-Aqsa Mosque in honor of the Ayyubid leader, and during their reign they rebuilt the wall after demolishing it during the time of Muazzam Isa, the nephew of the leader Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi, who destroyed it for fear of the Crusaders attack so that they would not take the fortified city. It is difficult for Muslims to recover it later.

The researcher, Ihab Al-Jallad, explained that this is the method that was used in the Middle Ages. If the city could not be defended, its walls would be demolished so that the enemy could take it without walls, so it would be unfortified and could be retrieved later.

Also in the Ottoman period, the trench that was built in the Ayyubid era was buried with the aim of raising the street level to facilitate people’s access to the old town, and because the trenches no longer fulfilled their defensive purpose.

The construction, demolition and rebuilding of the wall showed the hill of Jerusalem and its slope beautifully, and with the appearance of the quarry and the trench in the excavations, the topography of the place became clearer.

The stone inscription indicating that Saladin was the one who ordered the digging of the trench, which appeared recently in the excavations (Al-Jazeera)

Handprint

About a week ago, during the excavations, an inscription of a palm in the shape and size of the right hand of a man appeared, and the inscription was discovered near Bab Al-Sahira. The deep water that surrounded the city in order to protect it, starting from the tenth century AD and perhaps before that, and in one of the sections a palm print carved in the wall of the trench was discovered.

With regard to the handprint, Al-Jallad suggested that it dates back to the Ottoman period, because the palm was famous at that time and symbolized "warding away the bad eye and envy," indicating that this palm has been found so far on Ottoman buildings in both the Bab Hatta neighborhood and the Al-Sharaf neighborhood in the Old City.

A burial cave was also found at the Damascus Gate, but it was not focused on, according to the Jerusalem researcher, who said that the presence of coins and pottery helps determine the age of archaeological objects and layers, because the stone is estimated to be millions of years old and the excavations inside it are not archaeological evidence, and it is not possible to evaluate based on the excavations. Just.

He explained that "the age of pottery can be measured by" carbon 14 "because it is an organic material, while coins refer to different eras, and if found inside any excavation, the layer can be dated and more details can be known."

But the goal of the excavation is constructional, not archaeological, and in his comment on that, Al-Jallad said, "This is a very fast excavation, and this will lead to the destruction of many antiquities, because they entered heavy digging machines, and the soil was not sifted and transported for accurate examination, and therefore the assets that were discovered are few, weak, and cannot be dated."

The excavations, in the background, the historic wall of Jerusalem and Bab Al-Sahira (Al-Jazeera)

Huge project

In a previous interview with Al-Jazeera Net, lawyer Muhannad Jabara said that the occupation municipality presented years ago the "City Center east of Jerusalem" project, which includes several streets, starting from Al-Musrara to Street "No. In the Wadi Al-Jouz neighborhood, all the way to the Sheikh Jarrah area and the street separating the eastern and western parts of the city.

He explained that the municipality presents its vision for each land in this square until the year 2050, thus defining the organizational form of the city center for about the next 30 years, and this means that every person who submits a proposal for a specific project within this square that does not comply with the vision of the municipality will be rejected.

In his legal comment on these projects, Jubara said that what is happening in Jerusalem is contrary to international conventions, foremost of which is the Fourth Geneva Convention, which clearly stipulates that the occupier is prohibited from making radical changes in the occupied territories, which Israel has not stopped doing since the occupation of East Jerusalem in 1967.

Joseph's Dome, in which there is a stone inscription indicating that Salah al-Din was the one who ordered the digging of the trench that appeared in the excavations (Al-Jazeera Net)

Part of preparing the infrastructure in the excavations area on Sultan Suleiman Street (Al-Jazeera Net)

Excavation work on Sultan Suleiman Street, to the right of which is the historic wall of Jerusalem (Al-Jazeera Net)

The occupation municipality is quick to bury the excavation site and complete the infrastructure work (Al-Jazeera Net)