Katika Israeli ya leo, kuna dai linalotolewa kwa kung'ang'ania kwamba Biblia ya Kiebrania imetimizwa kimwili kutokana na akiolojia ya Biblia inayofanywa kuwa ya kidunia, ikiipa historia ya Kiyahudi mwili na mifupa, kuufufua zamani za kale, kuiweka katika "mpangilio wa nasaba" na "kurudi kwenye eneo la kumbukumbu za utambulisho wa Kiyahudi" (Said 2004: 46).

In present-day Israel, the claim is obsessively made that the Hebrew Bible is materially realised thanks to secularising biblical archaeology, giving Jewish history flesh and bones, recovering the ancient past, putting it in ‘dynastic order’ and ‘returning to the archival site of Jewish identity’ (Said 2004: 46).

Akiolojia ya Biblia daima imekuwa kiini cha kujenga utambulisho wa Kiyahudi wa Kiisraeli na uhalali unaodhaniwa wa Dola ya Israeli. Mjadala kuhusu "Israeli ya kale", usomi wa Biblia wa kisekula na wa kizalendo, pamoja na akiolojia ya Biblia, pia ni mjadala kuhusu Dola ya Israeli ya kisasa, hasa kwa sababu, machoni pa watu wengi Magharibi, uhalali wa "urejesho" wa Kiyahudi wa Kizayuni unategemea uaminifu wa picha ya Biblia.

Biblical archaeology was always central to the construction of Israeli Jewish identity and the perceived legitimacy of the Israeli state. The debate about ‘ancient Israel’, secularist and nationalist biblical scholarship and biblical archaeology is also a debate about the modern State of Israel, most crucially because in the eyes of many people in the West, the legitimacy of Zionist Jewish ‘restorationism’ depends on the credibility of the biblical portrait.

Sehemu moja ya mjadala huo ni hoja inayoendelea hadharani kuhusu matumizi ya neno ‘Israeli’ kueleza ardhi iliyo magharibi ya Mto Yordani, katika nyakati za kale na za kisasa. Matokeo yasiyoepukika ya kupendezwa kupita kiasi na Biblia ya Kiebrania katika elimu ya Biblia ya Magharibi, kuiita ardhi hiyo ‘ya Kibiblia’ na kuonyesha maslahi yake ya pekee kwa sehemu ndogo ya historia ya ardhi hiyo, ni kwamba mkazo umewekwa juu ya utambulisho wa Waisraeli wa ardhi ambayo kwa kweli, kwa sehemu kubwa ya historia yake iliyorekodiwa, idadi ya wakazi wake wa asili haikuwa ya Kiyahudi (Whitelam 1996). Hali hii isingekuwepo katika sehemu nyingine yoyote ya dunia; ni kutokana na Biblia ya Kiebrania na athari yake Magharibi, ambapo utamaduni wa Kikristo uliorithiwa uliunga mkono wazo kwamba Palestina daima imekuwa, kwa namna fulani, ‘ardhi ya Israeli’. Elimu ya jadi ya Biblia imekuwa ya ‘Kizayuni’ kimsingi, na imeshiriki katika kuufuta utambulisho wa Kipalestina, kana kwamba miaka 1400 ya utawala wa Waislamu juu ya ardhi hii haikuwa na maana yoyote. Mkazo huu juu ya kipindi kifupi cha historia kilichopita zamani sana unashiriki katika aina fulani ya ukoloni wa nyuma wa zamani. Huelekea kuwachukulia Wapalestina wa leo kuwa wavamizi au ‘wageni wakaaji’ katika ardhi ya mtu mwingine.

One facet of that debate is the argument in the public domain over the use of the term ‘Israel’ to denote the land west of the Jordan, both in ancient and modern times. The inevitable outcome of the obsession with the Hebrew Bible in Western biblical scholarship, calling the land ‘biblical’ and with its exclusive interest in a small section of the history of the land, has resulted in focusing on the Israelite identity of a land that has actually been non-Jewish in terms of its indigenous population for the larger part of its recorded history (Whitelam 1996). This state of affairs would not exist in any other part of the planet; it is due to the Hebrew Bible and its influence in the West where an inherited Christian culture supported the notion that Palestine has always been somehow essentially ‘the land of Israel’. Traditional biblical scholarship has been essentially ‘Zionist’ and has participated in the elimination of the Palestinian identity, as if 1400 years of Muslim occupation of this land meant nothing. This focus on a short period of history a long time ago participates in a kind of retrospective colonising of the past. It tends to regard modern Palestinians as trespassers or ‘resident aliens’ in someone else’s territory.

Chuki ya kizalendo kwa vitu vya kale vitakatifu vya akiolojia ya Biblia inayoondoa dini katika maisha ya umma kimekuwa kiini cha kuundwa kwa utambulisho wa pamoja wa kizalendo-wa-kidunia wa Israeli na ujenzi wa taifa la Kizayuni tangu 1948. Ili kuwasilisha utambulisho wa Kiyahudi wa Ulaya kama uliojikita katika ardhi, baada ya kuanzishwa kwa Israeli, sayansi ya akiolojia iliitwa kutekeleza kazi ya kujenga na kuimarisha utambulisho huo katika zama za kidunia; mafundi wa dini (marabi) pamoja na wasomi wa vyuo vikuu waliobobea katika akiolojia ya Biblia walipewa historia takatifu kama uwanja wao (Said 2004: 45). Kazi muhimu ya Abu El-Haj, Facts on the Ground, inachunguza umuhimu wa akiolojia ya Biblia iliyochaguliwa kwa makusudi katika kujenga utambulisho wa pamoja wa Kiyahudi wa Kizayuni kabla na baada ya 1948. Kazi hiyo ilichunguza uchimbaji wa kiakiolojia wa kikoloni huko Palestina, uliorejea hadi kazi ya Waingereza katikati ya karne ya 19. Abu El-Haj anazingatia kipindi baada ya kuanzishwa kwa Israeli mwaka 1948, akiunganisha mazoezi ya kitaaluma ya akiolojia na ukoloni wa Kizayuni pamoja na mipango ya kuifanya ardhi kuwa ya Kiyahudi na kuirejesha kwa kubadilisha majina ya kihistoria na ya kijiografia ya Kipalestina. Sehemu kubwa ya uondoaji huu wa Uarabu kutoka Palestina inapewa uhalali wa kiakiolojia; uwepo wa majina ya Kiarabu unafunikwa na majina mapya ya Kiebrania yaliyobuniwa. Mkakati huu wa kiepistemolojia unaandaa ujenzi wa utambulisho wa Kiisraeli wa Kiyahudi unaotegemea kukusanya vipande vya kiakiolojia, mabaki yaliyotawanyika ya mawe, meza, mifupa na makaburi, kuwa aina ya wasifu maalum ambao kutoka kwake koloni la Kiulaya la Yishuv linajitokeza "waziwazi kiisimu, kama makao ya kitaifa ya Kiyahudi" (Abu El-Haj 2001: 74; Said 2004: 47–48; Bowersock 1988: 181–191).

The nationalist obsession with the sacred artefacts of secularising biblical archaeology has been central to the formation of Israeli secularnationalist collective identity and Zionist nation-building since 1948. To present European Jewish identity as rooted in the land, after the establishment of Israel the science of archaeology was summoned to the task of constructing and consolidating that identity in secular times; the rabbis as well as the university scholars specialising in biblical archaeology were given sacred history as their domain (Said 2004: 45). Abu El-Haj’s seminal work, Facts on the Ground, explores the centrality of selective biblical archaeology in the construction of Zionist Jewish collective identity before and after 1948. The work examined colonial archaeological exploration in Palestine, dating back to British work in the mid-19th century. Abu El-Haj focuses on the period after the establishment of Israel in 1948, linking the academic practice of archaeology with Zionist colonisation and with plans for the Judaisation and repossession of the land through the renaming of Palestinian historic and geographic names. Much of this de-Arabisation of Palestine is given archaeological justification; the existence of Arab names is written over by newly coined Hebrew names. This ‘epistemological strategy’ prepares for the construction of an Israeli Jewish identity based on assembling archaeological fragments, scattered remnants of masonry, tables, bones and tombs, into a sort of special biography out of which the European colony of the Yishuv emerges ‘visible and linguistically, as Jewish national home’ (Abu El-Haj 2001: 74; Said 2004: 47–48; Bowersock 1988: 181–191).

Idadi kubwa ya wataalamu wa Israeli wa uchimbaji wa mambo ya kale ya Biblia na watendaji wake – kuanzia Jenerali Yigael Yadin na Jenerali Moshe Dayan hadi hata Jenerali Ariel Sharon – wamebainisha kuwa akiolojia ya Biblia ndiyo "haki" ya sayansi ya Israeli kwa ubora wake (Said 2004: 45–46; Kletter 2003). Magen Broshi, mwanaakiolojia mashuhuri wa Israeli na mjumbe wa sasa wa Kamati ya Majina ya Serikali ya Israeli, alisema:

A large number of Israeli experts on and practitioners of biblical excavations – from General Yigael Yadin and General Moshe Dayan to even General Ariel Sharon – have remarked that biblical archaeology is the ‘privilege’ Israeli science par excellence (Said 2004: 45–46; Kletter 2003). Magen Broshi, a leading Israeli archaeologist, and a current member of the Israeli Government Names Committee, noted:

Jambo la Israeli, taifa linalorejea katika nchi yake ya zamani-mpya, halina mfano wowote. Ni taifa linalojifunza upya kuifahamu nchi zake yenyewe, na katika mchakato huu, elimu ya mambo ya kale (archaeology) ina nafasi muhimu. Katika mchakato huu, elimu ya mambo ya kale ni sehemu ya mfumo mkubwa unaojulikana kama Yedi’at haAretz, yaani elimu ya nchi (neno la Kiebrania linatokana, pengine kwa uwezekano mkubwa, na neno la Kijerumani Landeskunde) … Wahamiaji wa Ulaya walikuta nchi ambayo waliihisi, kwa mshangao, kuwa na uhusiano nayo na pia kuwa ngeni kwao. Elimu ya mambo ya kale nchini Israeli, taifa la kipekee (sui generis), ilitumika kama njia ya kuondoa hisia za upweke wa raia wake wapya. (Imenukuliwa kutoka kwa Said 2004: 46)

The Israeli phenomenon, a nation returning to its old‒new land, is without parallel. It is a nation in the process of renewing its acquaintance with its own lands and here archaeology plays an important role. In this process archaeology is part of a larger system known as Yedi’at haAretz, knowledge of the land (the Hebrew term is derived most probably from the German Landeskunde) … The European immigrants found the country to which they felt, paradoxically, both kinship and strangeness. Archaeology in Israel, a sui generis state, served as a means to dispel the alienation of its new citizens. (Quoted in Said 2004: 46)

Wanahistoria wa Israeli, wasomi wa Biblia, wanaakiolojia na wanajiografia, Meron Benvenisti anasema katika kitabu chake *Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land since 1948*, kwamba wamebuni upya na kujenga upya historia na mpangilio wa matukio wa Palestina ya kale kwa kutegemea siasa za utambulisho wa Kiisraeli, ili kusisitiza uhusiano wa Wayahudi na ardhi hiyo. Wameongeza majina kama vipindi vya Kibiblia, Hasmonean, Mishnaic na Talmudic. Lakini kuanzia kipindi cha "Waislamu wa mapema" na kuendelea, wamepitisha majina ya "mpangilio wa washindi", kwa kuwa kwa njia hii iliwezekana kugawanya takriban miaka 1,400 ya utawala wa Waarabu Waislamu katika vipindi vifupi kuliko kipindi cha utawala wa Wayahudi juu ya Eretz Israel/Palestina (ambao ulidumu kwa miaka 600 kwa kiwango cha juu zaidi). Hasa, ilikuwa rahisi kuficha ukweli kwamba wakazi wa asili Waarabu Waislamu walikuwa sehemu muhimu ya watu wa Kiislamu waliotawala, na badala yake kuonyesha historia ya wakazi wa eneo hilo – vita vyake vya ndani, watawala wake wa majimbo, mchango wake katika mandhari – kama mambo yasiyo na umuhimu, matukio yanayohusishwa na nasaba fulani ya "wavamizi wa kigeni". Kwa njia hiyo, historia ilionekana kama kipindi kirefu cha utawala wa mfululizo wa mamlaka za kigeni zilizoinyang'anya Wayahudi nchi hiyo, kipindi kilichoisha mwaka 1948 kwa kurejeshwa kwa mamlaka ya Wayahudi huko Palestina.

The Israeli historians, biblical scholars, archaeologists and geographers, Meron Benvenisti argues in Sacred Landscape: The Buried History of the Holy Land since 1948, have reinvented and reconstructed a history and chronology of ancient Palestine based on Israeli identity politics, so as to emphasise the Jewish connection to the land, adding designations such as the Biblical, Hasmonean, Mishnaic, and Talmudic periods. From the ‘early Muslim’ period onward, however, they adopted the nomenclature of the ‘conquerers’ chronology’, since in this way it was possible to divide the approximately 1,400 years of Muslim-Arab rule into units that were shorter than the period of Jewish rule over the Eretz Israel/Palestine (which lasted at most for 600 years), and especially to portray the history of the country as a long period of rule by a series of foreign powers who had robbed it from the Jews – a period that ended in 1948 with the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in Palestine. It was thus possible to obscure the fact that the indigenous Muslim Arab population was part and parcel of the ruling Muslim peoples and instead to depict the history of the local population – its internal wars, its provincial rulers, its contribution to the landscape – as matters lacking in importance, events associated with one or another dynasty of ‘foreign occupiers’.

(Benvenisti 2002: 300)

(Benvenisti 2002: 300)

Ingawa mitazamo ya kikoloni ya wanahistoria na wanasayansi wa jamii wa Ulaya na Amerika Kaskazini kuelekea makoloni ya zamani ya Magharibi umeanza kutathminiwa kwa kina tangu miaka ya 1960, Waisraeli wamechagua kuendeleza mapokeo ya kikoloni na historiografia ya walowezi wa kikoloni huko Palestina–Israeli. Nchini Israeli, daima kumekuwa na mvuto wa ‘kumbukumbu ya Biblia’, na muunganiko kati ya uchimbaji wa kibiblia na ukoloni wa walowezi Wayahudi daima umekuwa mkubwa, lakini ulidhihirika zaidi baada ya ushindi wa mwaka 1967. Zaidi ya hayo, akiolojia ya kibiblia ya Israeli imeendelea kuwa kitovu cha siasa za utambulisho wa Kizayuni wa kidunia na shughuli za walowezi wa Israeli – Wayahudi wengi wa Kiorthodoksi nchini Israeli walikuwa na bado ni wasiojali matokeo yake (Elon 1997: 38). Meron Benvenisti anasema kwamba wasomi wa Uingereza, Marekani na nchi nyingine walioshughulika na utafiti wa akiolojia na historia ya makoloni yao ya zamani ng’ambo wameanza kutathmini upya mitazamo iliyotawala wakati wa ukoloni. Wamekiri upotoshaji mkubwa uliongizwa katika historia ya makoloni kutokana na mitazamo ya Ulaya-kitovu, kwa kupuuza au kufuta athari zilizobaki za zamani za wenyeji na utamaduni wao wa kimaada. Kufuatia tathmini hii, maeneo ya Waamerindi, Waaborigini na Waafrika wenyeji yalisomwa na kurejeshwa, na historia mpya iliandikwa, ikilenga kumbukumbu hai za maeneo hayo, ambayo yalikuwa kama maelezo ya chini tu katika historia ya watu wa Ulaya. Waisraeli, kinyume chake, walichagua kuendeleza mapokeo ya kikoloni kwa mabadiliko madogo tu ... Mamlaka ya Mambo ya Kale ya Israeli [Antiquities Administration] inafahamu maeneo mawili tu katika Yafa ya Kale: ‘Nyumba ya Biuim’ (makao ya kwanza ya kundi hili la mapainia wa mwanzo wa Kizayuni nchini, mwaka 1882) na jengo la kwanza la Shule ya Upili ya Kiebrania ya kwanza (‘Gimnasiya Herzeliyya’) [ya Kizayuni], ambayo yametangazwa kuwa ‘mambo ya kale’ kulingana na Ibara ya 2 [ya Sheria ya Mambo ya Kale ya Israeli ya 1978]. Bila shaka, hakuna jengo lenye thamani ya kihistoria kwa Wapalestina ambalo limetangazwa kuwa mambo ya kale yaliyolindwa chini ya sheria ya Israeli.

While the colonial attitudes of European and North American historians and social scientists towards former colonies of the West has begun to be re-evaluated critically since the 1960s, the Israelis have chosen to consolidate the colonial tradition and settler-colonial historiography in Palestine–Israel. In Israel, there has always been an obsession with ‘biblical memory’ and the convergence between biblical excavations and Jewish settler-colonisation has always loomed large, but became most pronounced after the post-1967 conquests. Furthermore, Israeli biblical archaeology has remained central to secular Zionist identity politics and Israeli settler activities – most Orthodox Jews in Israel were and still are indifferent to its findings (Elon 1997: 38). Meron Benvenisti observes that British, American, and other academics engaged in the study of the archaeology and history of their former overseas colonies have begun to reevaluate the attitudes that prevailed during the colonial period. They have admitted grave distortions that were introduced into the history of the colonies as an outcome of Eurocentric attitudes, ignoring or erasing remaining traces of the natives’ past and their material culture. In the wake of this evaluation, Amerindian, Aborigine, and native African sites were studied and restored, and a new history was written, focusing on the organic chronicles of those regions, which had been a mere footnote in the history of the European peoples. The Israelis, by contrast, chose to maintain the colonial tradition with only minor changes ... The [Israeli] Antiquities Administration is aware of only two sites in Old Jaffa: the ‘Biuim House’ (the first home of this group of early Zionist pioneers in the country, in 1882) and the first building of the first [Zionist] Hebrew High School (‘Gimnasiya Herzeliyya’), which have been declared ‘antiquities’ in accordance with Article 2 [of Israeli Antiquities Law of 1978]. Of course no structure ‘of historical value’ to the Palestinians has been declared as a protected antiquity under Israeli law.

(Benvenisti 2002: 304–305)

(Benvenisti 2002: 304–305)

Karibu Yerusalemu, maelfu ya ekari za misitu ya miberoshi zilipandwa na Mfuko wa Taifa wa Kiyahudi (Jewish National Fund). Misitu hii ililenga kuficha vijiji vya Kipalestina vilivyoharibiwa, na pia kuunda upya mandhari ya kichungaji ya "Biblia", kuunda kumbukumbu mpya ya pamoja, na kutoa taswira ya mandhari ya Biblia "halisi" isiyo na mwanzo wala mwisho, ambamo miti imekuwepo tangu milele. Lakini mandhari hii ya "asili" ni tukio lililopangwa kwa makini ili kuficha ardhi ya vijiji vya Kipalestina iliyochukuliwa kwa utaratibu, uharibifu wa mizeituni iliyolimwa, na usafishaji wa kikabila wa Nakba. Lengo la msingi lilikuwa kuficha maeneo ya vijiji vya Kipalestina na kuzuia ardhi isilimwe na watu wasio Wayahudi. Wasanifu majengo wa Kiisraeli Rafi Segal na Eyal Weizman, wakitoa maoni kuhusu makazi ya walowezi wa Kiisraeli na uundaji wa mandhari ya kichungaji ya Biblia, waliandika:

Around Jerusalem thousands of acres of pine forests were planted by the Jewish National Fund, forests which are both intended to camouflage destroyed Palestinian villages and fashion a new pastoral ‘biblical landscape’, create a new collective memory and give the impression of an ‘authentic’ timeless biblical landscape in which trees have been standing forever. But this ‘natural landscape’ is a carefully constructed scene to camouflage the systematically expropriated land of Palestinian villages, the destruction of cultivated olive groves and the ethnic cleansing of the Nakba. The underlying intention is to obscure the locations of the Palestinian villages and prevent any cultivation of the land by non-Jews. The Israeli architects Rafi Segal and Eyal Weizman, commenting on Israeli settlement and the creation of a pastoral biblical landscape, wrote:

Katika picha bora ya mandhari ya kichungaji, ambayo ni sehemu muhimu ya mtazamo wa mila za kikoloni, kupendeza mandhari ya mashambani daima hutazamwa kupitia madirisha ya usasa. Msukumo wa kurudi kutoka mjini kwenda vijijini unathibitisha tena fadhila ya maisha rahisi karibu na maumbile … kuunda upya picha nzuri za mandhari ya Kibiblia kunakuwa ushahidi wa madai ya kale juu ya ardhi. Kupendeza mandhari hivyo kunafanya kazi kama desturi ya kitamaduni, ambayo kwayo utambulisho wa kijamii na kitamaduni huundwa. Ndani ya panorama hii, hata hivyo, kuna kitendawili kikatili: kile kinachofanya mandhari kuwa 'ya Kibiblia' au 'ya kichungaji', yaani wakazi wake wa jadi na kilimo cha matuta, mashamba ya mizeituni, majengo ya mawe na uwepo wa mifugo, kinazalishwa na Wapalestina, ambao walowezi Wayahudi walikuja kuwabadilisha. Hata hivyo, watu hao hao waliokuja kulima 'mashamba ya mizeituni ya kijani' na kufanya mandhari kuwa ya Kibiblia wenyewe wametengwa nje ya panorama. Wapalestina wako pale kuzalisha mandhari kisha watoweke … Jicho linaloona 'mandhari ya kichungaji ya Kibiblia' halirekodi kile lisichotaka kuona; ni kutengwa kwa kuona kunakotafuta kutengwa kimwili. Kama seti ya jukwaa la maonyesho, panorama inaweza kuonekana kama mandhari iliyohaririwa iliyokusanywa na wafanyakazi wa jukwaani wasioonekana … Kile ambacho kwa serikali ni utaratibu wa usimamizi unaotafuta kuwaangalia Wapalestina, kwa walowezi ni dirisha la mandhari ya kichungaji inayotafuta kuwafuta. Makazi ya Wayahudi yanaweka juu ya mandhari iliyopo kipimo kingine cha jiografia ya latitudo. Hivyo walowezi wanaweza kuona makazi mengine tu, kuepuka yale ya miji na vijiji vya Wapalestina, na kuhisi kwamba wamefika kweli 'kama watu wasio na ardhi kwenda kwenye ardhi yenye watu'. (Segal and Weizman 2003: 92)

In the ideal image of the pastoral landscape, integral to the perspective of colonial traditions, the admiration of the rustic panorama is always viewed through the window frames of modernity. The impulse to retreat from the city to the country reasserts the virtue of a simpler life close to nature … the re-creation of the picturesque scenes of Biblical landscape becomes a testimony to an ancient claim on the land. The admiration of the landscape thus functions as a cultural practice, by which social and cultural identities are formed. Within this panorama, however, lies a cruel paradox: the very thing that renders the landscape ‘Biblical’ or ‘pastoral’, its traditional inhabitants and cultivation in terraces, olive orchards, stone buildings and the presence of livestock, is produced by the Palestinians, who the Jewish settlers came to replace. And yet, the very people who came to cultivate the ‘green olive orchards’ and render the landscape Biblical are themselves excluded from the panorama. The Palestinians are there to produce the scenery and then disappear … The gaze that sees a ‘pastoral Biblical landscape’ does not register what it does not want to see, it is a visual exclusion that seeks a physical exclusion. Like a theatrical set, the panorama can be seen as an edited landscape put together by invisible stage hands … What for the state is a supervision mechanism that seeks to observe the Palestinians is for the settlers a window on a pastoral landscape that seeks to erase them. The Jewish settlements superimpose another datum of latitudinal geography upon an existing landscape. Settlers can thus see only other settlements, avoid those of the Palestinian towns and villages, and feel that they have truly arrived ‘as the people without land to the land with people’. (Segal and Weizman 2003: 92)

Kuna mbuga nyingi za kibiblia na za kiakiolojia nchini Israeli zinazosimamiwa na Mamlaka ya Mazingira Asilia na Mbuga za Israeli (Rashut Hateva’ Vehaganim), shirika la serikali lililoanzishwa mwaka 1998. Mbuga nyingi hizi za kiakiolojia za "urithi wa taifa" (za kibiblia na za Vita vya Msalaba) zimejengwa juu ya magofu ya vijiji na miji ya Kipalestina iliyoharibiwa mwaka 1948. Ukanushaji wa urithi wa zamani wa Kipalestina na wa Kiislamu wa ardhi hiyo na sekta ya urithi ya Israeli ya mbuga za kiakiolojia za mandhari unaonekana wazi leo katika Saffuriyah ya Kipalestina (iliyoharibiwa na Israeli mwaka 1948). Sekta hiyo ya urithi inalenga kwa pamoja ukoloni wa nyuma wa zamani na uundaji wa utambulisho wa pamoja wa kisasa wa Waisraeli.

There are dozens of biblical and archaeological parks in Israel run by the Israel Nature and Parks Authority (Rashut Hateva’ Vehaganim), a governmental organisation set up in 1998. Many of these archaeological (biblical and Crusader) ‘national heritage’ parks have been constructed on the ruins of Palestinian villages and towns destroyed in 1948. The negation of both the ancient Palestinian and Islamic heritage of the land by Israel’s heritage industry of archaeological theme parks is very much in evidence today in Palestinian Saffuriyah (destroyed by Israel in 1948) – the heritage industry geared towards both the retrospective colonisation of the past and the fashioning of modern Israeli collective identity.