On Monday, the New York Times reported about the effort by Palestinians to have the village of Battir designated as a World Heritage site because of the unique ecological nature of the ancient terraced irrigation system at work there. The terraces might be endangered by the construction of Israel’s security fence that in the area runs right along the 1949 armistice lines. While it is not clear that the barrier would actually damage the area, ironically the greatest obstacle to the designation of the site by UNESCO is that the Palestinians are also seeking to get the same honor for the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
But as bloggers Elli Fischer and Yisrael Medad have pointed out, the problem with the article isn’t so much its acceptance of the Palestinian argument against putting the fence there (which is also ironic because Israel’s critics have objected when the barrier was placed anywhere but at the old green line), but that it completely ignored the Jewish heritage of the area. Battir is not just a Palestinian village with an old irrigation system but was the site of the ancient Jewish fortress of Betar, the site of the last organized resistance to Roman rule in 135 C.E. during the Bar Kochba revolt. Moreover, far from the irrigation system being, as the Times claimed, a remnant of the Roman presence, it predates their presence in the country and is clearly the product of biblical-era Jewish settlement. As Medad put it, “Romans, Shmomans.”
Medad also points out that a closer look at the accounts of the dispute there shows the villagers’ problem has more to do with their faulty sewage system than any threats from Israeli construction crews in a nearby valley.
But the main point here is not so much the argument about the location of the fence as it is the willful erasure of the Jewish connections of a place that Palestinians are seeking to have honored for its historical significance. Betar was the last gasp of Jewish sovereignty in the land of Israel for 1,800 years and a place where tens of thousands of Jews were slaughtered by the Romans.
As Fischer notes:
In fact, the Talmud offers an alternative explanation for the fertility of Battir: “For seven years [after the fall of Betar] the gentiles fertilized their vineyards with the blood of Israel without using manure.”
In this respect the promotion of Battir as a memorial to the supposed history of the Palestinians is stereotypical of the way their supporters have done their best to ignore or actually deny the Jewish connections to this land.
UNESCO stands alone as the only UN agency that recognizes the Palestinian Authority as an independent state. It has in the recent past recognized Jewish religious shrines such as the Tomb of Rachel outside Bethlehem as mosques, so there is little hope it will treat Israel or the Jews fairly. But if it is to grant this site the World Heritage designation, it should, at the very least, declare it to be important to the history of both Jews and Palestinians. In doing so, it would give the lie to the claim that Jews are usurpers or foreigners in the West Bank. And that is probably reason enough for it to continue denying Jewish history and heritage.
Well, it's clear that the Palestinians are not averse to using manure, and that the New York Times is more than willing to shovel it for them. Remind me again about how the Zionists control the press.
It should be no surprise that the NYTimes would ignore a Jewish connection to the village of Battir. The Times reporters have been dutifully promoting the Palestinian and Arab positions for many years. One is reminded that when the Camp David negotiations between Barak, Arafat and Clinton failed in 2000, President Clinton, Secretary of State Albright and most observers correctly blamed Arafat for refusing to take what was a generous offer. That is, almost everyone but the NYTimes. The Times sprang left of center reporter Deborah Sontag into action. Relying primarily on a minor State Department figure named Robert Malley (who is a harsh critic of Israel), Sontag blamed Israel and Barak for the failure of the talks. Anthony Lewis chimed in with a column about how brilliant Sontag's reportage was. The closest parallel I could find to Sontag's creative history was her predecessor at the Times who reported from the Soviet Union. I refer to Walter Duranty.
I also added some of the more recent Battir history, the anti-Jewish terror, just to make sure that we know all of the site's heritage.
The historian Menashe Harel has explained the terraces around Jerusalem and on the Judea-Samaria mountain ridge were built by Jewish farmers in ancient times. The purpose of the stone-edged terraces was to provide a flat area on the mountain sides that would retain the winter rains as long as possible. This made possible vineyards and olive groves on the mountain slopes. n nAs to falsification of history as practiced by numerous Arab propagandists, Western and Arab politicians, academic clowns throughout the West [including US], that's what Nazis and commies did. UNESCO is outrageous. Its defense of culture and science is like how Bashir Assad preserves Syrian cities with his artillery.
Arab efforts have nothing to do with history or credence. They have to do with appropriating anything they can anywhere they can. Look – my downstairs bathroom is the 314th most holy site in all of Islam. Call the UN!
that wasn't a bad essay, Tobin. thank you.
Most international organizations are pandering to the petro$. Jewish related whatever is anathema. The ignorants will have no hesitation to eliminate from the face of Earth anything, that is not at the end, Muslim related. The secular West will sell its "soul" to the enemy of Western civilization. But they will lose against the Chinese and Indians. The corruption of the West is so deep that it is willing to commit suicide.
The historian Menashe Harel has explained the terraces around Jerusalem and on the Judea-Samaria mountain ridge were built by Jewish farmers in ancient times. The purpose of the stone-edged terraces was to provide a flat area on the mountain sides that would retain the winter rains as long as possible. This made possible vineyards and olive groves on the mountain slopes. In turn this contributed to the prosperity of ancient Israel, including to that of the Roman province of Judea up to the Bar Kokhba Revolt which the Romans were able to finally crush in 135 CE [see the Roman historian Dio Cassius]. By the way, it was after this Jewish defeat that Emperor Hadrian renamed the province of Judea [IVDAEA] "Provincia Syria Palaestina." Hence the very name "palestine" was an imperialist imposition on the Jews.
As all of you speak as historians??? where are you all from??? and as you speak for 2000 years who was in Falasteen and in Battir before the Romans and Before Ibrahim (Peace be upon him) came from Iraq?? If you speak history you zionists who built Orsalem?? if you speak history why didn't you obey Mosa (Peace be upon him) when he orderd you to go to Falasteen??? nYou can tell your lies to the europium but not to People of Battir. nMohammed Ali – Battir