Thursday, February 18, 2010
Top Jewish Historical Sites Excluded From Israel Government "Heritage List"
Top Jewish Historical Sites Excluded From Israel Government "Heritage List"
Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA 18 February 2010
Major Rishon correspondent Sofia Ron Moria reports in today's edition that
the list of "National Heritage Sites" slated to be presented at a special
meeting of the Cabinet next Sunday in Tel Hai do not include the Cave of the
Patriarchs in Hebron, Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem or City of David in
Jerusalem.
According to Ron Moria, while there are almost no Old Testament sites on the
list there are some New Testament sites as well as numerous churches.
PM Netanyahu described the project in his 3 February speech at the Herzliya
Conference
www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/PMSpeaks/speechherzliya030210.htm
"I know that one of my predecessors, Ariel Sharon, spoke from this podium
about disengagement. Today I would like to speak not of disengagement, but
rather of engagement: engagement with our heritage, with Zionism, with our
past and with our future here in the land of our forefathers, which is also
the land of our children and our grandchildren.
...
I believe that this education starts, first and foremost, in the Book of
Books - in the Bible - a subject that is close to my heart these days. It
starts there. It moves through the history of our people: the Second
Temple, the Middle Ages, the Enlightenment, leaving the ghettos, the rise of
Zionism, the modern era, the wars fought for Israel's existence - the
history of Zionism and of Israel. A people must know its past in order to
ensure its future.
...
At the end of next month, on Tel Hai Day, I intend to present the
government with a work plan that will reverse the neglect of heritage sites.
We initiated a national plan to rehabilitate and strengthen infrastructure
at heritage sites. I call it the "Heritage Plan." We are going to preserve
tourist sites, archaeological sites, historic
buildings and museums.
... Think about a father and son visiting a Jewish historic site, about the
profound significance of transmitting the legacy exactly as commanded in the
Bible: "And tell your son." ...
I know people will ask: "This is the topic you chose to speak of here, at a
discussion about our national strength?" My answer is yes. Sometimes small
steps lead to great things. I want to give you an example of two steps
similar to what I have just described that changed our people's history. I
was recently in London. I visited the basement of the Palestine Exploration
Fund. It was established in 1860 by Queen Victoria in order to map and
scientifically explore the Land of Israel. Queen Victoria sent two men
here. One was named Claude R. Conder, who was the head of the expedition.
The second was a 21-year-old second lieutenant named Kitchener, who would in
time become the 1st Earl Kitchener. Together, they began to map the
country, including this place. They made wonderful, accurate topographical
maps, and found all the ancient places and reinstated their names. They
came armed with all the most advanced measuring tools of the 19th century
and with the Bible. The PEF is responsible for some of what we now know.
For example, they brought Warren here, and he found Warren's Shaft and many
other ancient sites in Jerusalem and across the Land of Israel.
This fired up the imaginations of the both the aristocracy and common people
in Britain. You have no idea what an effect it had. It made them think
that perhaps the Land of Israel wasn't an abstract place. This land is
concrete, and maybe it could be revived, be brought back to life, if the
original people who lived there could return to it. That started people
talking. It took several decades to happen.
