Common errors about Antiquity

[sonic]

-The israelites have always lived in Israël

Be careful; this is usually claimed by anti-Zionists, who want to stress the intrusiveness of Jewish settlement in the twentieth century. Not agreeing with Zionism is of course a respectable point of view, but especially the northern part of Palestine has always had a Jewish majority. Think only of the synagogues of Tiberias.

It is sad to see that historical truth is always one of the first victims in any conflict, and especially in the Middle East. Even serious scholars fall victim; I know someone who, believing he had read a good scholarly publication, has stated that there is no evidence that the Jewish Temple was on the Temple Mount, in spite of the fact that the Western Wall is still standing and we have two or three inscriptions from he Court of Gentiles. That the Temple was not on the Temple Mount is, of course, Intifada propaganda - and even a professor does not always recognize it for what it is.

I think part of the explanation is that scholarship is often "debunking" of myth, and Zionism is, indeed, founded on a use of the Bible that is not exactly according to the highest levels of critical scholarship. However, it does not follow from this that anything is untrue. The Temple was on the Temple Mount and there have always been Jews in Palestine.

It would indeed be interesting to devote a chapter to how uncritically Zionists have used the Bible and Flavius Josephus. Masada was already on my longlist. It is strange that it has become a symbol of Judaism, because it was not occupied by Jews, but by the sect of the Sicarians, which included non-Jews.

For a moment, I have considered to make the Jericho walls an item, but I do not want to hurt people's feelings unnecessarily, so I've decided to make a chapter on maximalism, an often misunderstood theoretical approach of the conflict between archaeology and written sources (=Bible); more here.

[NB: If one of the moderators thinks this post goes too far, please remove it.]

Maybe you could achieve a balance if you also included the claim by some that the Israelites kicked the Palestinians out of their own country when David beat Goliath? I believe that the Peleset arrived in Palestine a few years after the Jews. Or is my memory playing tricks on me? :?

However, I have only added this as a possibility and I don't really want to be involved in a political/religious controversy, so I agree that if the moderators thinks these posts are too controversial, please remove them.