Some 5,000 demonstrators gathered today at the Western Wall for a
rally in support of the archaeological dig in the City of David outside the Wall. Mayor Teddy Kollek, former Deputy Premier Yigael Yadin, and veteran archaeologist Prof. Binyamin Mazar, called for the protection of the freedom of research, and reprimanded the two Chief Rabbis for their intervention.
Yadin, himself a noted archaeologist, was especially critical of the rabbis: “What is it their business to determine where the graves were? This is not only of the problem of archaeology, this is the problem of the very existence of the Zionist and democratic State of Israel.” The two Chief Rabbis, Shlomo Goren and Ovadia Yosef, visited the site today. They were expected to rule by tomorrow whether the excavations were taking place within an old Jewish cemetery.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
