I already talked about this some months ago when the crisis of the Mughrabi Wall excavations was at its height (see here).... My critique "Politicizing Archeology" of the involvement of the "Israeli Antiquities Authorities"(IAA) in the excavations emphasized the illegality of the procedures, i.e., the status of east Jerusalem as part of the occupied territories according to the United Nations resolutions (Yuval Barukh, the supervisor of the excavations, read my post and left a generic comment; see comment no. 6). Back then I did not know much about the specificities of the excavations themselves for the lack of confidence in an already politicized IAA. That's why I thought the Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan's announcement dispatching a scientific delegation to oversee excavations an opportunity to check the accusations of harming the foundations of the Haram al-Sharif. The report of the delegation remained secret even when completed in August 07. So it was great to read its main findings few days ago in the Turkish daily Today's Zaman (here). The findings emphasized the illegality of the excavations but also the possible harming of Islamic sites in situ. Another reason to stop the excavations. It'd be the most appropriate decision to be taken at least by the Israeli excavators of the IAA who clearly need to show more attachment to the archeological ethics notably with regards the necessary apoliticized approach and respect for the various levels of the stratigraphy of Jerusalem including the Islamic levels.
