Jerusalem — This is no place for an atheist or even a suave
agnostic. From my window on the top floor of the massive King David
Hotel I am looking out on a stone heap that is thousands of years
old, the Old City of Jerusalem. Traffic swarms around its walls.
Antennas sprout from the old roofs of the city. Airplanes fly
overhead. Still, religion dominates here, sometimes in ways that
might persuade even the most obdurate non-believer to give God a
second look, and other times in ways that could get a non-believer
locked away in the hoosegow — some religious people can be very
intolerant.
As Christmas approaches American Christians might take note of
the intolerance here. Their sacred shrines — and some belonging to
Judaism — are under threat from the Islamofascists of the
Palestinian Authority. What is more, the Christian population of
the West Bank is not being treated as hospitably by Yasser Arafat’s
colleagues as, say, the Muslim population of Detroit is being
treated.
First let me explain why an atheist’s faith or faithlessness
might be shaken here in Jerusalem. Most atheists and agnostics put
great stock in science. Unfortunately archaeology is no longer on
their side. For over a generation archaeologists led by such
distinguished scholars as Kathleen Kenyon have been unearthing
ruins that, as the historian Paul Johnson writes, have “given us
renewed confidence in the actual existence of places and events
described in the early Old Testament books.” Just the other day an
Israeli archaeologist took me through a 3,800-year-old passageway
where old Jerusalem’s early inhabitants, the Jebusites, and later
King David collected water for what became the old city of
Jerusalem. Then he showed me a relatively new dig in the passageway
whose characteristics perplexed archaeologists until someone
remembered a passage in the Book of Kings. I was standing precisely
where King David had Solomon anointed 3,000 years ago. I am by
nature a skeptic, but cross-referencing the hard evidence of
archaeology with Biblical passages makes a strong case. The
archaeological site is called Ir David. It constitutes a massive
endorsement of Biblical authenticity, and is eminently deserving of
book-length treatment.
There are other digs in the Old City that are not so
encouraging. Whereas the Israelis respect sacred places, the
Palestinian Authority does not. Their police have taken over the
Temple Mount with the sufferance of the Israeli government that
controls it. Against the will of Jews and Christians, who judge it
sacred, and of archaeologists, who consider it worthy of careful
study, these religious bigots are carting away tons of ancient
earth to build a huge mosque for political purposes. They are
defiling a sacred and archaeologically invaluable location on a
3,000-year-old site to establish a political claim to the site, and
no one is stopping them. The desecration is not unprecedented.
Think back four years ago to when the Taliban conspired in the
destruction of the ancient Buddhist statues in Afghanistan.
I know our government tells us that Islam is a very tolerant and
pious religion, but I see many signs that it is neither. The fact
is that here in a region where Israeli political control has
preserved sacred shrines for all three of the monotheistic
religions, Palestinian Muslims under the Palestinian Authority set
up after the Oslo Accords have desecrated holy places, brutalized
non-Muslims and driven Christians from Bethlehem after indulging in
some gerrymandering that would stir admiration in an American
politician.
Surely you remember last April when Palestinian militants
(gunmen) took over Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity,
booby-trapped its entrance, and terrorized 150 worshipers for 39
days while eating the clerics’ provisions, quaffing their booze —
so much for Allah’s blue laws — stealing church valuables such as
gold crucifixes, and using sacred scriptures for toilet paper —
ah, cleanliness. That sort of barbarism is not new. Earlier, Arafat
summarily seized a Greek Orthodox monastery near the Church of the
Nativity to serve as his occasional residence. In Hebron in 1997
his thugs seized Abraham’s Oak Russian Holy Trinity Monastery,
evicting its monks and nuns. Since his latest intifada began in
2000 Arafat has regularly stationed his artillery and sharpshooters
in Christian towns near churches to either shield his gunmen or
bring Israeli fire down on places of worship. Returning to our
archaeological theme, in Jerusalem Palestinian Authority officers
have endangered the walls of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher by
attempting to construct a facility on its roof, a latrine — again
this Islamic fascination with bodily functions.
The destruction of holy sites runs apace with the destruction of
Christian communities on the West Bank. Sometimes it is through
heavy-handed political schemes as when Arafat’s Palestinian
Authority incorporated 30,000 Palestinians into the municipality of
Bethlehem, changing the Christians’ 60% majority to a minority.
Sometimes it is through terror. News accounts mount of Christians
being beaten, raped, murdered and charged by protections rackets.
In Bethlehem and even in Jerusalem Christian numbers dwindle. There
has been very little complaint about these bigoted acts, but any
curious observer here in this ancient city does not have to
research very sedulously to find out the depressing facts.
The Holy Land has suffered Roman legions, crusaders, the armies
of the Prophet, Turks, two World Wars, and more. But its
archaeological treasures have endured. Its religious minorities
have had good times and bad. Now both face bad times, unless
civilized forces can maintain the peace and tolerance that so many
fanatics make a mockery of.
