THE FORGERY SCANDAL in Israel is now being used in the service of Jewish-Temple denial:

Al Aqsa at Risk? Shelled by LAW Rockets and Threatened With Harming and Destruction (International Press Center, Palestine)

GAZA, April11 , 2004 (IPC) - - Unfaltering calls by the relative Islamic bodies of restoration and reservation of Al Aqsa Mosque still echo soundly to stop the Israeli attacks and aggressions against the holy Mosque and its monumental Islamic vicinity that are at risk of Judiazing.

Even though the calls and appeals were serious but the Islamic world remained idle. The Zionist pursuit in judiazing the holy Mosque has been unprecedented and left a serious stamp. Each day, news reports revealed the intents of fanatic extremist Zionists as well as terrorist organizations were fervently working on to build the alleged "Jewish Temple" in the Holy Land instead of Al Aqsa Mosque, but only God willing prevents their vicious plots.

"Alleged." And with Jewish Temple in scare quotes.

The Zionists have approached various pursuits to build the alleged "Temple Mount" on the ruins of the Holy Al Aqsa Mosque, even if it was through blowing the Mosque up. Ongoing excavations, which led to the tearing down of the southern wall, in an attempt to prove the Jewish right to enter the Holy Mosque, supported by the decisions taken by the Israeli governments.

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This conveniently conflates the loonies who want to blow up the Mosque with legitimate archaeologists doing scientific work on the Temple Mount.

Forged Relics

It is important to mention that the attempts to destroy the Holy Mosque were as old as the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories or even before that. The Jewish fanatics alleged that the Mosque was built on the ruins of the Temple Roman [sic] destroyed in 70 A.D.

Al Aqsa Mosque is the Muslims' first Qiblah [direction Muslims take during prayers] and it's the third holiest shrine after Al Ka'bah in Mecca and Prophet Muhammad's Mosque in Medina.

Its significance has been reinforced by the incident of Al Isra'a and Al Mi'raj -- the night journey from Mecca to Al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the ascent to the Heavens by Prophet Muhammad.

No archeological studies that traced the monuments proved the Jewish fanatic claims over the "Temple Mount". Even the precious "Ivory Pomegranate", on display at the Israel Museum since 1988 , was a forgery that allegedly traced back to the so called the "Frist Temple" [sic].

The Haaretz daily published on March that "it is not believed that the forgers of these items were related to the Ivory Pomegranate. Members of the Antiquities Authority assigned to protecting antiquities from thieves and officers from the Jerusalem District Fraud Squad, are handling the investigation. According to the investigators, for the past 15 years a group of forgers has been identified as running a "factory" for forgeries."

The thieves' network chaired by Oded Golan, who was labeled as a collector of forgeries, sold them through mediators.

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The literary evidence for the existence of the Second Temple is overwhelming. Josephus and Philo discuss the Temple, as do the New Testament and numerous other sources (e.g., 1-2 Maccabees) whose antiquity is not in doubt. Tacitus (no admirer of Judaism) mentions it. An inscription from the outer Temple court, warning gentiles to stay out of the inner court, was discovered in 1871. The Dead Sea Scrolls refer to the Temple (e.g., Pesher Habakkuk 12.7-9 says that the Wicked Priest defiled the "sanctuary of God" in Jerusalem. As for the First Temple, there is the testimony of many of the books in the Hebrew Bible, some of which certainly goes back to the Iron Age II period. It's worth noting also that we have uncontested evidence in the Hezekiah's Tunnel inscription of Hebrew-speaking Judeans carrying out a major building project in Jerusalem around 700 B.C.E.

The gall it takes to ignore all this is breathtaking. Given the thorough destruction of the site by the Babylonians and the Romans, it's not surprising that direct archaeological evidence (so far) is absent.

If the allegations of a massive forgery ring are proved in court, the ring will have done immeasurable damage to serious historical and archaeological study of ancient Israel. The verified forgeries so far are bad enough. I fear, at least until we have a better idea of what went on, we should assume that any unprovenanced Hebrew inscription that has surfaced in the last twenty years or so is a forgery, unless we have very strong evidence to the contrary.