No light at the end of this tunnel

Shadows of the past hang over the archeological dig that ignited the latest round of Mideast violence

WASHINGTON --
the spark that occasioned the latest Middle East violence was Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to open an archaeological tunnel beside the Al Aqsa Mosque complex in Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam. In a holy city claimed by both Israelis and Palestinians, the move underscored the enormous political power of the past to shape today's events.

The 400-yard-long tunnel runs beside and under the western retaining wall of the First and Second Temples of the biblical Jews, whose ruins have been buried under the sprawling mosque complex, called Haram al-Sharif, or "the noble sanctuary." The site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, is the holiest site in their religion; among Muslims, it ranks in importance alongside Mecca and Medina.

Normally, in peaceful countries with a homogeneous population and a common past, the ancient stones, shards of pottery and other artifacts unearthed in archaeological excavations are relegated to museums to become the dusty patrimony of their peoples. But in Jerusalem, where Israelis and Palestinians both claim sovereignty over the city, what lies under the earth is as important as the disputed territory above the ground.

"In Jerusalem, the past is simply a metaphor for the present," says Neil Asher Silberman, author of "Digging For God and Country" and "Between Past and Present," two books on the politics of biblical archaeology.

While the current fighting reflects wider Palestinian frustrations about the lack of progress in the current Middle East peace process, Silberman notes it was no accident that the violence was set off by a reminder of events that occurred 2000 years ago.

Although Netanyahu strained the Israeli-Palestinian peace accords by resuming the building of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and Gaza, confiscating more Palestinian lands and postponing an agreed withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank town of Hebron, the Palestinian response never escalated beyond verbal protests by PLO leader Yasir Arafat and other officials, observes Silberman.

"But the moment he threatened the Palestinians' past, their historic roots in Jerusalem, the situation exploded," he said. "One can argue that after all of Netanyahu's provocations, any spark would have ignited the tinder box. But by playing the archaeological card, Netanyahu guaranteed an explosion."

After the tunnel was opened last Tuesday, the Israeli leader described how the underground passage exposed "the foundation-stones of our existence." Silberman adds: "In Jerusalem, these are fighting words. The Palestinians interpreted the unspoken subtext of Netanyahu's remarks as, 'You may hold the Temple Mount right now, but don't forget who was here first. We predate you. And therefore, our claim to Jerusalem is more valid than yours. Not only that, we're going to open a tunnel to tourists so the rest of world will see it our way too.'"

"With everything else that was happening, that was the final thumb in the eye," says Hershel Shanks, editor of the Biblical Archaeology Review.

The potency of archaeology as a political force in Jerusalem has been grimly illustrated by the events that followed. Scores of people have been killed so far in running gun battles between Palestinian and Israeli forces. Seven Palestinians died in clashes on Friday -- three of them shot dead by Israeli forces on Jerusalem's Temple Mount, where the trouble began -- and the violence shows no sign of abating.

Jerusalem's Arabs have a long history of resisting moves by archaeologists to dig near the Haram al-Sharif, which, according to the Koran, marks the spot where Abraham brought his son Isaac for sacrifice and where the Prophet Mohammed leapt to heaven. A whiff of today's Muslim-Jewish rivalry over Jerusalem can be found in the popular Palestinian assertion that before Mohammed went on his journey, he tethered his horse, Buraq, to the Jewish Western Wall.

Until the mid-1800s, the Al-Aqsa complex, like the holy Muslim city of Mecca, was off-limits to non-Muslims. Palestine's Ottoman Turkish ruler relaxed those regulations, but religious leaders took a dim view of any attempts by archaeologists to dig near the sanctuary. Serious riots erupted in the 1860s and in 1909, when British archeologists were discovered excavating near the site.

After Israel became a state in 1948, the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, then in Jordanian hands, were again forbidden to non-Muslims. But soon after Israel captured east Jerusalem in 1967, excavation of the tunnel began. Interestingly, the excavations were not carried out by Israel's Antiquity Authority but by the Ministry of Religion. No scholarly report was ever issued after the tunnel was completed in 1988. "It was excavated purely to make a religious and political point, and that point is, 'we were here first,'" says Silberman.

President Clinton has called on both the Israelis and the Palestinians not to create "new issues" in the endangered Middle East peace process, a comment that analysts view as a subtle swipe at Netanyahu's decision to open the tunnel. Quietly, American diplomats in Jerusalem have been urging Netanyahu to reverse his decision and close the tunnel until the issue can be negotiated in talks with the Palestinians. Netanyahu is reported to have refused, saying such a move would reward Palestinian violence.

When the previous Likud-led government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir tried to open the tunnel eight years ago, violent Palestinian protests forced him to shelve the idea. Netanyahu's decision to open the tunnel was accompanied by stealth and plenty of muscle: it was carried out in the dead of night under heavy military guard.

"Netanyahu knew very well he was playing a very provocative card," Shanks says. "Now he's finding out just how provocative it really was."

Jonathan Broder, a frequent contributor to Salon, is the Washington correspondent for The Jerusalem Report and senior editor of the weekend edition of "All Things Considered."

Quote of the day

Out of control

"The Palestinian people are not machines. You do not press buttons. This thing has been brewing for a long time. . . The situation is out of hand. The situation is not controllable."

-- Palestine's Higher Education Minister Hanan Ashrawi, commenting on questions about whether Palestinian leaders can halt the latest round of Mideast violence (in today's Washington Post.)