ISIS and the Waqf

DISTURBING PARALLELS: ISIS to Temple Mount - 'Barbaric' Islamist War on Antiquities. At annual Jerusalem conference, world experts lament ISIS funding war via illegal antiquities trade, Waqf barbaric Temple Mount destruction (Eliran Baruch, Arutz Sheva).

Thursday saw the 16th annual conference of archaeological experts convene in Jerusalem's City of David.

Entitled "From Jerusalem to Babylon and Back," the conference had an extra significance this year with the unprecedented, public destruction of ancient antiquities by the brutal Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in both Iraq and Syria.

[...]

There is a video interview with Matthew Bogdanos and Dr. Donald Sanders. Background on the assault of ISIS on the past and its caretakers is here and here and links.

And there is also this:

Also at the conference was leading Israeli archaeologist and Israel Prize winner Dr. Gabi Barkai, who noted that destruction of non-Muslim antiquities by Islamist extremists was not confined to ISIS.

The Islamic Waqf authorities on the Temple Mount were mounting an equally "barbaric" campaign to destroy any Jewish artifacts which conflict with their narrative of the site as a Muslim one.

"The Muslims are responsible for the destruction that's going on on the Temple Mount - a barbaric destruction," he said. "The Waqf is destroying everything, even Muslim antiquities, just like ISIS."

Background on Dr. Barkai (Barkay), his Temple Mount Sifting Project, and the damaging illicit digging by the Waqf on the Temple Mount is here and links.

UPDATE: Related, a quick overview by Noam Matas of the Temple Mount excavations: Israel’s Top Archaeological Sites- Temple Mount Excavations (Jewish Press). Cross-file under Temple Mount Watch.