The abandonment of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria leads to the destruction of archaeological sites showing Israel’s heritage in the area. At Tel Aroma, the Hasmonean fortress might become a mosque commemorating terrorists.
Throughout Judea and Samaria, examples are multiplying of the destruction of historical Jewish heritage in these areas as a result of looting by official acts of the PA. Tel Aroma, adjacent to the community of Itamar is just one more example of many other cases.
Guy Derech, Director of Activities in the organization Preserving Eternity, in an interview with Arutz 7, speaks about the location that was once a Hasmonean fortress. The PA now intends to turn it into a mosque commemorating terrorists.
Derech speaks of the local history: “This is a historic site with a history going back to the bronze age, more than three thousand years ago. It is identified with the Aroma Fortress, to which Avimelech fled from Nablus. The next era that most of the remains come from is the era of the Hasmoneans, the second era of Jewish independence. Aroma is located on the northern border of the Hasmonean Kingdom of Judea, where a huge fortress was established to guard the northern border. It had the largest water reservoir that there existed in this area. On the top of the mountain there were large and impressive fortifications, which testifies to the glorious history of this place”.
“About one year ago the PA, which controls the territory in Area B, began to develop the place with ruinous activity. They poured concrete in one of the huge cisterns that were on the top of the mountain, a cistern in which tractors also dug, in order to reach and loot archaeological. They poured the concrete in order to place a huge several-dozen meter PLO flag in front of Itamar and you could see it from every hill in Itamar”.
Derech continues, saying: “They say that Aroma was and will remain Palestinian. It erases the Jewish history of the place. They opened a wide road to the site, setting up the flag caused some of the water cisterns to collapse and while we were celebrating Tu b’Shevat, the PA held a tree-planting ceremony on the entire top of the mountain, and a few days ago the mayor of the Nablus district, Ibrahim Ramadan, published a plan to build a mosque in memory of the martyrs of the village of Beita on the site. This would not only erase history, it tramples on our entire nationalism”.
Derech says, about all of those “martyrs” in whose memory the mosque will be built: “the village of Beita has a long history of terrorists who have murdered Jews just because they were Jewish. The most recent martyrs are two Arabs who were shot and killed by the IDF after they tried to murder a Jew”.
And what is the Israeli response to this act? Mainly, apathy and inaction. “The State of Israel does nothing against this because it is Area B, says Derech. “Both we and the Samaria Council have appealed to officials in the military and Civil Administration and the argument is that the place is in Area B, and under Palestinian control”.
Derech emphasizes that according to the Oslo Accords as well, it was stipulated that the PA is responsible for protect and preserving archaeological sites with historical value, but in reality, from the moment that Israel gave up these areas to Arab control, it has never demanded the implementation of these clauses.
The interior of the ancient water reserve (Photographs: Preserving Eternity)
