"While Rubio was on this tour of ancient Jerusalem, Israeli planes bombed the most important storage depot of ancient artefacts in Gaza City, pulverising three decades of archaeological work. The battle over history has long been part of the broader Israeli-Palestinian struggle. Officials from the Israel Antiquities Authority have followed Israeli troops into occupied zones in search of artefacts. But that struggle has seldom been as conspicuous as in the past month."
"Rubio's tour was designed to underline a shared Judeo-Christian history focused on Jerusalem that binds the evangelical base of the Republican party to the state of Israel. Along with their wives, Netanyahu and Rubio were accompanied by a man who embodies that bond, Mike Huckabee, an evangelical Baptist pastor, the current US ambassador to Israel and an unapologetic advocate of Israeli territorial expansion."
When US secretary of state Marco Rubio visited Jerusalem, Israeli officials staged archaeological tours to emphasize Jewish foundations. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu escorted Rubio to excavations near the Western Wall and inaugurated a tunnel beneath a Palestinian district along the Roman-era Pilgrimage Road in a City of David park founded by a settler organisation. The events framed Jerusalem as an eternal, undivided Jewish capital. Concurrent Israeli air strikes destroyed a major Gaza depot of ancient artefacts, erasing decades of archaeological work. The contest over historical narratives is entwined with territorial politics and energized by evangelical US support for Israeli expansion.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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