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3 Cheshvan 5760 - October 13, 1999 | Mordecai Plaut, director Published Weekly
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News
Shameful Grave Desecration in Shoham

by A. Cohen

Right after Succos, on Tuesday, 25 Tishrei, Antiquities Authority archaeologists conducted a "savage, swift pillage" of an ancient Jewish burial cave from the Second Temple period. The grave was discovered while an area in the city of Shoham, near Lod, was being prepared for construction.

The archaeologists, reaching the site as soon as the cave was discovered, were summoned by personnel of the Israel Lands Administration, initiators of the building project. They began to unearth the pits in a speedy, vulgar manner. Quite unprofessionally, they used rakes and pickaxes, without stopping to sort or sift the matter they dug up and without making the slightest attempt to keep the bones intact. As they worked, they flung the broken and smashed bones aside like trash. Many bones landed quite a distance from the caves.

At a certain point, an ancient clay vase was found. At that point, the archaeologists began to work carefully, gently, and with delicate tools in order not to break the vase. It was a striking contrast to their treatment of the bones of the ancients, which were broken and smashed in a horrifying manner.

Activists of the Association for the Prevention of the Desecration of Graves came to the site as soon as they were informed of the terrible desecration. They succeeded in halting the archaeologists, who had, unfortunately, already managed to desecrate many of the burial pits in the cave.

Activists remained on the site in order to guard the area, since findings indicate that there is yet another burial room inside the cave, which the archaeologists are also anxious to unearth.

Tuesday night, UTJ's representatives along with other public figures, made extensive efforts to try to save those graves that are still intact and to bring about a total cessation of all work on graves at that site. Efforts were also made to return the scattered bones and bone fragments to their graves.


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