Ultra-orthodox fury at removal of ancient remains from hospitalI can't find a press release at the IAA website, but I'm curious to see exactly what they said. Byzantine Palestine is not my area of specialty, but I wouldn't think that a date in the Byzantine era would rule out Jewish graves, nor confirm a "pagan" origin ("pagan" as per this Reuters article and this Jerusalem Post article, which latter also refers to Roman graves).
Construction of bombproof emergency unit in Israeli city sparks exhumation protests
By Donald Macintyre in Jerusalem (The Independent)
Monday, 17 May 2010
At least 30 ultra-orthodox Jewish demonstrators have been arrested in angry protests at the removal of ancient burial remains to make way for construction of a bombproof hospital emergency room in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon.
Protesters tried to climb perimeter fences at the main Barzilai hospital yesterday in the hope of halting the excavation, described by the ultra-orthodox deputy education minister Meir Porush as an "embarrassment and a disgrace". On Saturday night, demonstrators burned rubbish bins and blocked roads in ultra-orthodox neighbourhoods of Jerusalem as the exhumation started.
Ashkelon is within range of rockets from Gaza and the medical authorities had decided that a bomb-proof emergency room within the hospital was essential for the welfare of patients.
[...]
But Mr Netanyahu's revised stance was bolstered yesterday by the Israel Antiquities Authority, which said that the preliminary findings from the excavation showed that the remains were not Jewish but Byzantine. The exhumations could be seen in real time on the website of the IAA, which said it was streaming the work as a "neutral entity" and for "transparency".
[...]
UPDATE: YnetNews has this:
The IAA findings revealed that all the graves dug up by Sunday evening belonged to pagans. The ruling was based on the type of burial and burial stones.
