VZCZCXYZ0785
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHTV #0479/01 0601429
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 291429Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5626
INFO RUEHXK/ARAB ISRAELI COLLECTIVE
RUEHFR/USMISSION UNESCO PARIS 0017
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 000479 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV KPAL KIRF IS
SUBJECT: Antiquities Authority Archeologist Criticizes 
"Politicization" of IAA Digs in East Jerusalem 
 
REF: Jerusalem 292 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: In a meeting with emboffs February 20, Israeli 
archeologist Gideon Suleimani, a staff archeologist with the Israel 
Antiquities Authority (IAA) and former head of the Authority's 
Jerusalem district, explained what he described as the ongoing 
"co-optation" of archeological digs by right-wing Jewish settler 
groups as a tool for establishing Jewish presence in locations 
throughout East Jerusalem.  According to Suleimani, these groups are 
using archeology to promote the "judaization" of Jerusalem and to 
prevent the political division of the city in future negotiations. 
Echoing comments heard by others (reftel), Suleimani argued that the 
ongoing El'ad-financed excavations in the East Jerusalem 
neighborhood of Silwan were undermining the community and adding 
tinder to the explosive issue of sovereignty in Jerusalem's historic 
basin.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Suleimani, who for several years was the chief IAA 
archeologist for the Jerusalem district, described the "co-optation" 
of East Jerusalem excavations by settler groups as a function of 
shrinking government budgets for the IAA's work.  Every year the GOI 
gives the IAA less, and settler organizations give it more, he said. 
 He charged that all archeological digs in East Jerusalem are 
political and argued that they are not in the interest of the 
residents.  Suleimani noted that he is not the only IAA archeologist 
concerned with the politicization of the digs in East Jerusalem, but 
said most of his colleagues are afraid to speak up for fear of 
losing their jobs and other negative repercussions.  He said he is 
one of three archeologists to speak openly against settler-funded 
digs in East Jerusalem. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Suleimani focused much of his discussion on the settler 
organization El'ad, which is the Hebrew acronym for "el ir david" or 
"to the City of David" (present-day Silwan, just south of the Old 
City).  As reported reftel, El'ad is currently sponsoring a 
tunneling project that begins in Silwan and will end somewhere near 
the Western Wall plaza outside the Temple Mount/Haram al-Sharif, 
going under the homes of many Palestinian residents along the way. 
Suleimani explained that when the Labor government came to power in 
1992 and made it more difficult for settlers to acquire Palestinian 
property, El'ad shifted its tactics by acquiring a contract from the 
Israel Nature and Parks Authority to manage the national park that 
borders the Old City walls and includes the northern side of the 
City of David.  El'ad realized it could take control of public areas 
of Silwan using archeological digs ostensibly aimed at further 
developing the national park.  According to Suleimani, El'ad does so 
by working with the IAA to sponsor "tourist digs" in the City of 
David.  Once a dig is initiated, El'ad fences off the area and 
limits the surrounding public space available to residents in the 
already crowded village of Silwan.  He claimed that some of the digs 
bypass the legally mandated processes that govern the initiation of 
digging at new sites. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Suleimani said that although the IAA initially resisted 
these activities, it eventually became a kind of sub-contractor for 
El'ad, conducting excavations with lucrative contracts for the 
development of the City of David national park.  He said that as the 
public budget for the IAA shrank over the years, it was supplemented 
by income received from El'ad and other settler groups who were 
willing to pay large sums for IAA excavations, leading to a 
situation where the IAA now relies on funds from these organizations 
even for its routine operating budget.  Suleimani estimated that 
approximately one-third of the IAA's total operating budget now 
comes from "tourist digs" sponsored by the settler organizations 
El'ad, Ateret Cohanim (which focuses its efforts on acquiring Arab 
property in the Old City) and the semi-governmental Western Wall 
Heritage Fund (which manages the Western Wall plaza and tunnels 
system).  (Note: IAA Director General Shuka Dorfman confirmed the 
relationship with groups like El'ad, Ateret Cohanim and the Western 
Wall Heritage Fund in a meeting with poloffs last summer, but 
described their sponsorship of digs as no different from that of any 
other legal Israeli entity wishing to develop a given site. 
Suleimani, on the other hand, described Dorfman as someone willing 
to do whatever these groups ask because of his dependence on their 
funds and personal support.  End Note.) 
 
¶5. (SBU) Suleimani also readily acknowledged that the settler 
movement is not the only player using archeology inappropriately in 
Jerusalem.  When asked about the Waqf's role in archeological 
projects in Jerusalem, Suleimani said that the Waqf has caused "a 
lot of damage on the Temple Mount," primarily when it created a new 
mosque and access tunnels in 1997-98.  He said Waqf coordination 
with the IAA (which is done quietly because of the political 
sensitivities on both sides) has slowly improved over the past two 
years, after a long hiatus caused by the tunnel riots of 1996 (in 
which dozens of people were killed when then-PM Benyamin Netanyahu 
and Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert approved a new opening of the 
Western Wall tunnel in the middle of the Old City's Muslim Quarter). 
 
JONES