The world will celebrate the new year on Tuesday with renewed hope for a brighter future where peace and prosperity prevail. I am sure that this is the hope and desire of all the countries in the world, except one that cannot exist without killings, violence and lies. That country is Israel. During the brief history of Israel, its leadership has done nothing but tell lies. It was an amusing lie when Jews claimed that they were the ones who built the pyramids of Giza while they were in Egypt as slaves, even though historical evidence makes it clear that Jews arrived in Egypt about three and a half centuries after the construction of the pyramids. Nonetheless the Israelis continue to search for evidence of their history in the Arab region, while they try to obliterate Palestinian history, in their attempt to prove that they have returned to their promised land. The Israelis founded several scientific missions and archeological societies to carry out research and exploration about the history of Jews in Palestine. After years of hard work, a number of these scientists stated that they had found nothing that confirms the Jewish myths, especially relating to the Wailing Wall and other structures, while some other scientists said that they rejected the methodology employed in the research and exploration, stressing that it was contrary to the scientific methods used in archeological research. In an article published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz on October 29, 1999, Dr. Ze'ev Herzog, professor of archeology at Tel Aviv University, dealt in detail with the falseness of these Jewish myths. He said in the article: “After 70 years of intensive excavations in Israel, archaeologists have found out: The patriarchs' acts are legendary, the Israelites did not sojourn in Egypt or make an exodus, and they did not conquer the land. Neither is there any mention of the empire of David and Solomon. These facts have been known for years, but the Israelis are a stubborn people and nobody wants to hear about this evidence. This is what archaeologists have learned from their excavations in Israel: the Israelites were never in Egypt, did not wander in the desert, did not conquer the land in a military campaign and did not pass it on to the 12 tribes of Israel.” Because of their continuous failure to fabricate history over a period of half a century, the Israelis have turned to plundering a major portion of Arab history at the expense of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Israel asked UNESCO to include sites in the Great Rift Valley, which runs from northern Syria and southern Turkey to South Africa, on the World Heritage List. The Great Rift Valley passes through 21 states, in addition to Israel. Only a few of these countries attended a meeting, convened by Israel in the city of Ein Gedi, to discuss identifying sites in the Rift which should be put on the World Heritage List. Israel's objective in doing this was to establish close cooperation with the countries located on the Rift so that some areas in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories could be documented as Israeli sites. Apart from this, it also aimed at establishing joint companies in all fields to ensure the development of people in the Rift countries in an attempt to force Arab states to normalize relations with Israel. Israel also underlined the need to recognize that the Rift is a natural, cultural unit which should be acknowledged by UNESCO and other international organizations.
With this move, Israel's ulterior motive is to inflict a blow to the concept of Arab unity by formulating an “Asian African” entity in which Israel is also an integral part. Israel believes that this entity can compete with the Arab states and even lead to the elimination of the Arab League. The new government in Egypt is aware of this Zionist plan. Egypt utilized the 17th Arab Conference for Cultural Heritage and Antiquities, held in Mauritania, to present a proposal aimed at scuttling the Israeli plan. In approving the proposal, the conference urged the World Heritage Center at UNESCO not to endorse the Israeli plan in view of that country's continued aggression against the Palestinian people. Hence, I believe that it is essential to launch a campaign aimed at exposing Israel's ulterior motives on both the artistic and scientific levels. This campaign should be led by Arab and European scientists and intellectuals specialized in this field. The campaign must highlight Israel's evil intentions as well as its violation of the sanctity of the heritage and holy sites in the occupied Palestinian territories. It must also make the world aware that Israel has prevented UNESCO delegations from visiting Jerusalem to take stock of the real situation there and that it has misused World Heritage sites that are currently in its control as a result of its occupation of Palestine. — Hassan Tahsin is an Egyptian writer and political analyst. He can be reached at [email protected]
