ABSTRACT
The Archaeological Park is an open antiquities area at the southwestern end of the Western Wall Plaza, formed since 1967 by several excavations. Inside the Park the IAA established in the 1990s the Davidson Centre, a museum for the history and archaeology of this area. Although ‘our’ remains (Second Temple period) are stressed, the Davidson Centre shows also other remains from many periods. In recent years, the El-Ad religious settler organization (active in Silwan) tries to get a hold in this area, and desires to ‘operate’ (read manage) the Davidson Centre. Among other things, El-Ad paid the IAA to excavate and open for passage an old drainage tunnel running through the Park, connecting it with the ‘City of David’ site (which El-Ad controls). Visitors that move underground, accompanied by El-Ad guides, are not exposed to Islamic heritage or the political reality of East Jerusalem. The IAA acted as a contractor of El-Ad, and even initiated more, new tunnelling at the face of the Western Wall. These are ‘salvage’ excavations without justification and the digging of tunnels from the side is unscientific and destructive.
