Archaeological site Tel Shiloh draws controversy
(27 Mar 2019) LEADIN:
Tourists, many of them evangelical Christians, fare flocking to an archaeological site in the West Bank which holds biblical significance.
But the site's management has drawn criticism from archaeologists and NGOs.
STORYLINE:
This scenery may seem peaceful, but this archaeological site in the West Bank is at the centre of disputes.
Deep in the West Bank, Israeli settlers have transformed the site into a biblical tourist attraction that attracts tens of thousands of evangelical Christians each year.
Tel Shiloh is believed to have been the site of the biblical tabernacle, but not everyone is pleased at how the ruins are presented to visitors.
Like many Holy Land sites, Tel Shiloh sits at the confluence of competing narratives of archaeology, religion, and nationalism.
Critics say the site promotes a narrow interpretation of history popular with Israeli settlers and their Christian supporters.
The hilltop mound, 20 miles (30 kilometres) north of Jerusalem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, has been excavated by several archaeological missions, starting in 1922, and has yielded remains spanning over 3,700 years.
For centuries, Jews, Muslims, and Christians have associated the site with the home of the biblical tabernacle, the portable shrine where the Israelites housed the Ark of the Covenant.
Because of its religious significance, the archaeological ruins have become a pilgrimage site for evangelical Christians.
Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Tel Shiloh with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and settler leaders, calling it Israel's first capital.
Tour guide Barad agrees.
The site of Shiloh is the first the capital of Israel, he says.
The Bible tells us before the temple was built, before the times of Jerusalem there was a Tabernacle, he explains.
According to Barad, during the era of the Byzantine Empire, churches were built on the site.
That's because of course of the biblical story of the whole concept of the tabernacle being here, the place of the divine presence, he says.
He adds that the site is also holy for Muslims.
In 2009, Tel Shiloh hosted 30,000 visitors, 60 percent of whom identified as evangelical Christians, according to the Israeli government.
One visitor from the US, Janic Macintosh, says the appeal for her was to walk where Jesus walked.
To actually be where Jesus was, you kind of get a feel of it and that because we read scripture from each place that we're going to go so we can relate it to where it is in the Bible by the scripture, she says.
In 2012, the government allocated about 4.2 million US dollars for a plan to preserve and upgrade the site, inaugurating a new visitors' centre the following year.
Since its completion, Tel Shiloh — rebranded as Ancient Shiloh: City of the Tabernacle — has seen tourism skyrocket to around 120,000 visitors in 2018, according to site director Lilyan Zaitman, with over half of the visitors evangelical Christians.
Unlike other major sites in the West Bank, Tel Shiloh is managed by the local settler council and Mishkan Shiloh, a private non profit organisation, rather than Israel's Nature and Parks Authority.
The site is inside the Jewish settlement of Shiloh, founded after Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 war.
The tourist attraction is built on private Palestinian land but Palestinians are barred from entering, according to a recent Amnesty International report.
Israel is not one of the protocol's 82 signatories.
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Go Now to Shiloh | Bible Land Passages
Nestled deep within the heartland of the West Bank in Israel lies the biblical city of Shiloh; the place where God’s tent of meeting was located for over 300 years. Today this storied city lies in ruin, but archaeologists from the Associates for Biblical Research are determined to unearth its secrets. In recent years a number of important discoveries have been unearthed, and Bible Land Passages was there to document the evidence in this special edition video called, “Go Now to Shiloh.” This full-length documentary is complete with on-site interviews, analysis of the most exciting discoveries to date, behind the scenes view of the archaeological process, computer generated illustrations, and faith building lessons. In all, this program forms one of the most important documentaries of the year.
Message from Ancient Shiloh Tabernacle
1 Samuel 1:17
West Bank - Netanyahu visits Ariel
T/I: 10:05:28
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyhau toured the Jewish settlement of Ariel in the West Bank on Tuesday (26/11), insisting that settler families would never be uprooted. The timing of his first offical visit to a Jewish settlement - and his uncompromising comments - will be seen as a show of defiance in the face of Palestinian opposition to his policy of expanding the outposts. It comes the day after the Palestinian Authority sent Israel a letter urging an immediate halt to all settlement activity, and warning that the Jewish State risks a confrontation and disaster if it continues its current West Bank
expansion policy.
SHOWS:
ARIEL, WEST BANK, 26/11
WS Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, strolling through rough
ground close to Ariel,
Netanyahu SOT in hebrew;
Netanyahu SOT in english: Some would call it a suburban town of Tel aviv, and that's exactly what it is, it is look at it, swimming pools,
couples...people live here, they haven't lived here for thousands of
years..look at these hills, are we depriving anyone of anything - barren land, you know what if we hadn't come here it would have stayed barren for another two thousand years, so I am very happy to have the Arab villages here and the Arab towns and I hope they are prospering some of them, prospering through working with Ariel. I am very happy to see Ariel, it's co-existence and co-operation that we seek for peace.
Cutaway soldiers
Mayor of Ariel, Ron Nachman, SOT in English: This is the capital of
Samaria...and you need two to tango if you want co-existence with the Arabs and please use that term, a town in Judiah ? Samaria, not in the occupied West Bank.
Cutaway soldier,
Netanyahu SOT in English: I'm here because I believe that that peace
requires a complete rejection of the idea of uprooting populations, these are misconceptions that are in the fringes of both camps, that is that we would uproot people, we are not going to uproot Israelis, we are not going to uproot Palestinians, we are going to have to learn to live with one another. The sooner the world gets used to that understanding, the sooner the Palestinians will and the sooner we will have peace.
WS Netanyahu with soldiers walking back their cars.
2.23
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Occupied Palestinian territories, road to Nablus
A ride on a highway from Ramallah to Ofra
Mar 2017 Emek Shilo Settlement in Occupied West Bank
March 2017. #Israel's Government has Approved the Building of the First New Settlement in 20 years in the occupied #WestBank - a move Swiftly Condemned as an Obstacle to #Peace based on a Two-State Solution. The move - considered illegal under International Law - was adopted less than a week after the #UnitedNations criticised Israel for not Taking Any Steps to Halt Settlement Building on occupied #Palestinian Territory, as demanded by the Security Council in a Resolution it passed in December. It’ll be Constructed in the #EmekShilo area north of #Ramallah.
docterr.com/help
Israel map throughout history
Israel map throughout history
Israelis are thrilled by Jerusalem embassy decision: Fmr. Shiloh mayor
Former Shiloh, Israel, Mayor David Rubin on Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to the country and the U.S. moving its embassy to Jerusalem.
Shiloh
This is where the Holy of Holies was for 369 years before the first Temple.
Joshua 19 (with text - press on more info. of video on the side)
Joshua 19 (New International Version)
Joshua 19
Allotment for Simeon
1 The second lot came out for the tribe of Simeon, clan by clan. Their inheritance lay within the territory of Judah. 2 It included:
Beersheba (or Sheba), [a] Moladah, 3 Hazar Shual, Balah, Ezem, 4 Eltolad, Bethul, Hormah, 5 Ziklag, Beth Marcaboth, Hazar Susah, 6 Beth Lebaoth and Sharuhen—thirteen towns and their villages;
7 Ain, Rimmon, Ether and Ashan—four towns and their villages- 8 and all the villages around these towns as far as Baalath Beer (Ramah in the Negev).
This was the inheritance of the tribe of the Simeonites, clan by clan. 9 The inheritance of the Simeonites was taken from the share of Judah, because Judah's portion was more than they needed. So the Simeonites received their inheritance within the territory of Judah.
Allotment for Zebulun
10 The third lot came up for Zebulun, clan by clan:
The boundary of their inheritance went as far as Sarid. 11 Going west it ran to Maralah, touched Dabbesheth, and extended to the ravine near Jokneam. 12 It turned east from Sarid toward the sunrise to the territory of Kisloth Tabor and went on to Daberath and up to Japhia. 13 Then it continued eastward to Gath Hepher and Eth Kazin; it came out at Rimmon and turned toward Neah. 14 There the boundary went around on the north to Hannathon and ended at the Valley of Iphtah El. 15 Included were Kattath, Nahalal, Shimron, Idalah and Bethlehem. There were twelve towns and their villages.
16 These towns and their villages were the inheritance of Zebulun, clan by clan.
Allotment for Issachar
17 The fourth lot came out for Issachar, clan by clan. 18 Their territory included:
Jezreel, Kesulloth, Shunem, 19 Hapharaim, Shion, Anaharath, 20 Rabbith, Kishion, Ebez, 21 Remeth, En Gannim, En Haddah and Beth Pazzez. 22 The boundary touched Tabor, Shahazumah and Beth Shemesh, and ended at the Jordan. There were sixteen towns and their villages.
23 These towns and their villages were the inheritance of the tribe of Issachar, clan by clan.
Allotment for Asher
24 The fifth lot came out for the tribe of Asher, clan by clan. 25 Their territory included:
Helkath, Hali, Beten, Acshaph, 26 Allammelech, Amad and Mishal. On the west the boundary touched Carmel and Shihor Libnath. 27 It then turned east toward Beth Dagon, touched Zebulun and the Valley of Iphtah El, and went north to Beth Emek and Neiel, passing Cabul on the left. 28 It went to Abdon, [b] Rehob, Hammon and Kanah, as far as Greater Sidon. 29 The boundary then turned back toward Ramah and went to the fortified city of Tyre, turned toward Hosah and came out at the sea in the region of Aczib, 30 Ummah, Aphek and Rehob. There were twenty-two towns and their villages.
31 These towns and their villages were the inheritance of the tribe of Asher, clan by clan.
Allotment for Naphtali
32 The sixth lot came out for Naphtali, clan by clan:
33 Their boundary went from Heleph and the large tree in Zaanannim, passing Adami Nekeb and Jabneel to Lakkum and ending at the Jordan. 34 The boundary ran west through Aznoth Tabor and came out at Hukkok. It touched Zebulun on the south, Asher on the west and the Jordan [c] on the east. 35 The fortified cities were Ziddim, Zer, Hammath, Rakkath, Kinnereth, 36 Adamah, Ramah, Hazor, 37 Kedesh, Edrei, En Hazor, 38 Iron, Migdal El, Horem, Beth Anath and Beth Shemesh. There were nineteen towns and their villages.
39 These towns and their villages were the inheritance of the tribe of Naphtali, clan by clan.
Allotment for Dan
40 The seventh lot came out for the tribe of Dan, clan by clan. 41 The territory of their inheritance included:
Zorah, Eshtaol, Ir Shemesh, 42 Shaalabbin, Aijalon, Ithlah, 43 Elon, Timnah, Ekron, 44 Eltekeh, Gibbethon, Baalath, 45 Jehud, Bene Berak, Gath Rimmon, 46 Me Jarkon and Rakkon, with the area facing Joppa.
47 (But the Danites had difficulty taking possession of their territory, so they went up and attacked Leshem, took it, put it to the sword and occupied it. They settled in Leshem and named it Dan after their forefather.)
48 These towns and their villages were the inheritance of the tribe of Dan, clan by clan.
Allotment for Joshua
49 When they had finished dividing the land into its allotted portions, the Israelites gave Joshua son of Nun an inheritance among them, 50 as the LORD had commanded. They gave him the town he asked for—Timnath Serah [d] in the hill country of Ephraim. And he built up the town and settled there.
51 These are the territories that Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun and the heads of the tribal clans of Israel assigned by lot at Shiloh in the presence of the LORD at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. And so they finished dividing the land.
Hebron -Aerial View חברון
חברון, צילום אוירי
flying over Hebron: The City of Patriarchs and Matriarchs
Hebron is a Palestinian city located in the southern West Bank, 30 km (19 mi) south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies 930 meters (3,050 ft) above sea level. The largest city in the West Bank, and the second largest in the Palestinian territories after Gaza
an ancient city in the southern West Bank. It is the traditional burial place of the Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives. This makes it a significant religious site for the Abrahamic religions
The Cave of the Patriarchs, also called the Cave of Machpelah and known by Muslims as the Sanctuary of Abraham or the Ibrahimi Mosque, is a series of subterranean chambers located in the heart of the old city of Hebron in the Hebron Hills.
Tel Rumeida
Unearthing a biblical city in the Middle East
(8 Jul 2011)
AP Television
Gath, Israel, 6th July 2011
1. Close up on archaeology findings in ground at dig
2. Wide pan landscape to site
3. Medium shot of volunteers working at site
4. Tilt down number tags on findings at site
5. Wide shot of volunteers working at site
6. Pan to left of volunteer walking at site
7. Set up Professor Aren Maeir
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Aren Maeir, Department of Land of Israel studies and Archaeology, Bar Ilan University:
We are now at Tel el-Safi, which is one of the largest ancient sites in the land of Israel. It's a site that is settled from prehistoric through modern times, and we're, in our excavation, focusing mainly on the bronze and iron ages which as far of cultures would be the Canaanite, Philistine and Israelite cultures.
9. Wide shot of volunteers marking findings
10. Close up on finding
11. Volunteers digging
12. Close up on man digging
13. Woman digging at site
14. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Aren Maeir, Department of Land of Israel studies and Archaeology, Bar Ilan University:
They are the ultimate other almost in the biblical story and they were for many, many centuries, during the Biblical Period - the First Temple Period as it is sometimes called, one of the main adversaries of the Israelites and they lived in what's now the southern coastal plain more or less the area between Tel Aviv and the Gaza Strip, while the Israelites for the most part lived in the central hills - the area between Hebron, Jerusalem, Nablus, that area and the interaction between these two groups was, in the biblical text, most often presented as being an interaction of violence, of battles.
15. Pan to right of working at site
16. Zoom out from people working at the site to a wide of digging site
17. Medium shot of volunteer at the digging
18. Medium shot of volunteers putting dirt in buckets
19. Wide shot of site
19. SOUNDBITE (English) Professor Aren Maeir, Department of Land of Israel studies and Archaeology, Bar Ilan University:
For example the name, Goliath is a non-semitic Indo-European name and we now have evidence also from Gat that the Philistines did in fact use non semitic Indo-European names, so even if it doesn't mean that one day we will find a skull with a hole in its head from the stone that David slung at him, it nevertheless tells us that this reflects a cultural milieu that was actually there at that time.
20. Medium shot of woman carrying dirt
21. Mid volunteers
22. Zoom out from man digging to wide of site
LEADIN
At the remains of an ancient metropolis in southern Israel, archaeologists are piecing together the history of a people remembered chiefly as the bad guys of the Hebrew Bible.
The city of Gath, where this year's digging season began this week, is helping scholars paint a more detailed portrait of the Philistines, who appear in the biblical story as the perennial enemies of the Israelites.
STORYLINE
Close to three millennia ago, Gath was on the frontier between the Philistines, who occupied the Mediterranean coastal plain, and the Israelites, who controlled the inland hills.
The city's most famous resident, according to the book of Samuel, was Goliath _ the giant warrior improbably felled by the young shepherd, David and his slingshot.
Aren Maier of Bar Ilan University is the archaeologist in charge of the excavation: We are now at Tel el-Safi, which is one of the largest ancient sites in the land of Israel. It's a site that is settled from prehistoric through modern times, and we're, in our excavation, focusing mainly on the bronze and iron ages which as far as cultures would be the Canaanite, Philistine and Israelite cultures.
The Philistines arrived by sea from the area of modern-day Greece around 1200 B.C.
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HOLY HIGHWAY
Israel's Highway 60 winds like a spinal cord through Judea and Samaria (West Bank). Jewish patriarch Abraham, Isaac and Jacob first settled along this ancient route. The international community expects Israel to secede this entire territory as part of a final peace settlement.
URGENT NEED :: NAHARIYA, ISRAEL FLOODS
Give at: tikkun-nahariya.com
We really need your help in Israel right now. I just got this from my dear brother and coworker, Guy Cohen, who pastors in the north, here in Israel.
Over the last few days, I have been helping out in the city of Nahariya, which flooded from recent rainfall that caused a river to run through the city. I never thought that flooding could cause the amount of damage that it did, and as a result, there is a great need in Nahariya.
Friends, this is why we started #IamwithIsrael! This is your opportunity to let Israelis in Nahariya that YOU are with Israel. The need is urgent.
These are the main areas of need:
- Manpower: We as a community, need as many volunteers as possible to help clean up the city.
Contacting warehouses in Israel, and around the world, to send furniture, including tables, chairs, beds, mattresses, living rooms, etc.. So far we have received three truckloads of furniture.
- There is a need to mobilize disaster relief teams with specific professional skills. This includes Plumbers, Painters, Electricians, Welders, etc. Next week a team of eight volunteers is coming from Tennessee to help.
- Last, for purchasing appliances from local shops.There is a need for heaters, washing machines, and water pump units for repairs as many homes, especially of the elderly, were damaged.
To help meet these needs, we need to raise $150,000.
Give at: tikkun-nahariya.com
We ask, as you are able, to help the people of Israel during this difficult time. This is a great opportunity to share for us to let the people of Israel know that there are believers around the world who love them.
You can be a witness for Yeshua to Israel today!
Let’s stand with Pastor Guy Cohen and the city of Nahariya, Israel.
Give at: tikkun-nahariya.com
Ron Cantor
CEO Tikkun Int'l
Urgent Need for Israel
Ron Cantor
Guy Cohen
Nahariya
Floods
Frank Gaffney in Israel, Part 6: Tel Aviv from Judea & Samaria
When the public hears about Jewish settlements in the West Bank and occupied territories from the mainstream media, a picture is painted of small, transient villages that bear no strategic value and should be uprooted as part of the so-called peace process. However, when one visits an settlement (like the one featured in the video here) a very different pictures materializes. Frank Gaffney visits Ma'ale Shomron, a flourishing Jewish community situated in the Samarian Hills within a birds-eye view of Tel Aviv. Gaffney not only captures the reality that settlements are in fact fully established, thriving towns and cities, but that those like Ma'ale Shromron are, in the most literal sense, providing a shield for metropolitan Tel Aviv. If this land were occupied by Palestinians rather than Jewish communities, one contiguous Islamist-dominated territory would stretch from the greater Tel Aviv area clear through to Afghanistan without break.
Israel - Ancient
The State of Israel, is a parliamentary republic in Western Asia, located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan and the West Bank in the east, Egypt and the Gaza Strip on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its relatively small area.Israel is the world's only Jewish-majority state, and is defined as a Jewish and democratic state in its Basic Laws.
Following the 1947 United Nations decision to partition Palestine, on 14 May 1948 David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, declared Israel a state independent from the British Mandate for Palestine. Neighboring Arab states invaded the next day in support of the Palestinian Arabs. Since then, Israel has fought a series of wars with neighboring Arab states,[12] and has occupied territories, including the West Bank, Sinai Peninsula, Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights, beyond those delineated in the 1949 Armistice Agreements. Portions of these territories, including Jerusalem, have been annexed by Israel but the border with the neighboring West Bank is still not formally defined, as a result of the complex and unresolved political situation. Israel has signed peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, but efforts by elements on both sides of the Israeli--Palestinian conflict to solve the problem diplomatically have so far met with little or no success. Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin pushed for a two-state solution in the 1990s, but was assassinated by a Jewish nationalist.
The population of Israel, defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics to include all citizens or nationals, but not foreign workers, within Israel itself and in the Israeli settlements in the occupied territories, was estimated in June 2011 to be 7,751,000 people, of whom 5,818,200 are Jewish. Arabs form by far the country's second-largest ethnic group, which includes Muslims and Christians. Other minorities are Druze, Circassians and Samaritans. At the end of 2005, 93% of the Arab population of East Jerusalem had permanent residency and 5% had Israeli citizenship. In the Golan Heights, Druze are entitled to citizenship but most of them have rejected it in favor of loyalty to Syria. According to a 2008 census, 1,579,700 Arabs and Druze live in East Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.
Israel is a developed country and a representative democracy with a parliamentary system and universal suffrage.The Prime Minister serves as head of government and the Knesset serves as Israel's unicameral legislative body. The economy, based on the nominal gross domestic product, was the 42nd-largest in the world in 2010 and it has one of the highest life expectancies in the world. Jerusalem is the country's capital, although it is not recognized internationally as such. In 2010, Israel joined the OECD.
( source Wikipedia )
Hebron, Aerial חברון, צילום אוירי, מערת המכפלה
חברון, צילום אוירי
flying over Hebron: The City of Patriarchs and Matriarchs
Hebron is a Palestinian city located in the southern West Bank, 30 km (19 mi) south of Jerusalem. Nestled in the Judaean Mountains, it lies 930 meters (3,050 ft) above sea level. The largest city in the West Bank, and the second largest in the Palestinian territories after Gaza
an ancient city in the southern West Bank. It is the traditional burial place of the Biblical patriarchs Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives. This makes it a significant religious site for the Abrahamic religions
The Cave of the Patriarchs, also called the Cave of Machpelah and known by Muslims as the Sanctuary of Abraham or the Ibrahimi Mosque, is a series of subterranean chambers located in the heart of the old city of Hebron in the Hebron Hills.
Tel Rumeida
Tel Jericho (Tell es-Sultan) on a rainy day . Is this the city that conquered by Joshua?
Zahi Shaked A tour guide in Israel and his camera zahigo25@walla.com +972-54-6905522 tel סיור עם מורה הדרך ומדריך הטיולים צחי שקד 0546905522
My name is Zahi Shaked
In 2000 I became a registered liscenced tourist guide.
My dedication in life is to pass on the ancient history of the Holy Land.
Following upon many years of travel around the world, which was highlighted by a very exciting emotional and soul-searching meeting with the Dalai Lama, I realized that I had a mission. To pass on the the history of the Holy Land, its religions, and in particular, the birth and development of Christianity.
In order to fulfill this calling in the best way possible, I studied in depth, visited, and personally experienced each and every important site of the ancient Christians. I studied for and received my first bachelors degree in the ancient history of the Holy Land, and am presently completing my studies for my second degree.(Masters)
Parralel to my studies, and in order to earn a living, I was employed for many years in advertising. What I learned there was how to attract the publics attention, generate and, increase interest, and assimilate information. All this I use as tools to describe, explain and deepen the interest in the sites that we visit. From my experience, I have learned that in this way, the Holy Land becomes more than just history, and that the large stones that we see scattered about in dissaray, join together one by one until they become - a Byzantine Church. This also happens when I lead a group of Pilgrims in the Steps of Jesus. We climb to the peak of Mount Precipice, glide over the land to the Sea of Galilee, land on the water and see the miracle which enfolds before us. This is a many faceted experience. Not only history which you will remember and cherish, but an experience which I hope will be inplanted in your hearts and minds, and will accompany you all the days of your life.
Samaria - Where History meets Destiny
Join us on a journey through one of the most beautiful, and diverse
areas in Israel.
See how history has come full circle in the hills of modern Samaria!
Hallel in the ancient synagogue of Jericho
Hallel in the ancient synagogue of Jericho