Bugungi Isroilda, Ibroniy Muqaddas Kitobi moddiy jihatdan ro‘yobga chiqqani, ya’ni seklyarizatsiyalashgan bibliya arxeologiyasi tufayli, Yahudiy tarixiga et va suyak bag‘ishlagani, qadimgi o‘tmishni tiklagani, uni “sulola tartibiga” solgani hamda “Yahudiy o‘ziga xosligining arxiv manziliga qaytayotgani” haqida ruhiy darajada da’volar qilinmoqda (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).

Bibliya arxeologiyasi har doim Isroil yahudiy o‘ziga xosligini shakllantirishda va Isroil davlatining qonuniyligini idrok etishda markaziy o‘rin tutgan. "Qadimgi Isroil" haqidagi bahs, sekulyar va millatchi bibliyashunoslik hamda bibliya arxeologiyasi ayni paytda zamonaviy Isroil davlati haqidagi bahsdir, chunki G‘arbdagi ko‘pchilik odamlarning nazarida sionistik yahudiy "tiklanish" (restorationism) harakatining qonuniyligi bibliyaviy tasvirning ishonchliligiga bog‘liq.

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.

Bu bahsning bir jihati jamoatchilik muhokamasida "Isroil" atamasini Iordan daryosining g'arbidagi yerni, qadimgi va hozirgi zamonlarda, belgilash uchun ishlatish masalasidir. G'arbiy Injil tanqidchiligining Ibroniy Injiliga bo'lgan haddan tashqari qiziqishining muqarrar natijasi shuki, yerni "Injiliy" deb ataladi va uning tarixining kichik bir qismiga istisno darajada e'tibor qaratiladi. Bu esa, asosan, aholisi mahalliy yahudiy bo'lmagan yerning, uning qayd etilgan tarixining katta qismida, Isroil kimligiga diqqatni qaratishga olib keldi (Whitelam 1996). Bunday holat sayyoramizning boshqa hech bir qismida mavjud emas; bu Ibroniy Injilining va uning G'arbdagi ta'sirining natijasidir, bu yerda meros bo'lib qolgan xristian madaniyati Falastinning har doim qandaydir mohiyatan "Isroil yeri" bo'lganligi haqidagi tushunchani qo'llab-quvvatlagan. An'anaviy Injil tanqidchiligi mohiyatan "siyonistik" bo'lib kelgan va go'yo bu yerda 1400 yillik musulmonlar hukmronligi hech narsani anglatmagandek, Falastin kimligini yo'q qilishda ishtirok etgan. Uzoq o'tmishda qisqa bir davr tarixiga bunday e'tibor qaratish o'tmishni orqaga qarab mustamlakalashtirishning bir turiga hissa qo'shadi. U zamonaviy falastinliklarni boshqa birovning hududidagi bosqinchilar yoki "vaqtinchalik musofirlar" sifatida ko'rishga moyil.

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.

Milliy-ijtimoiy tuyg'u sabab, dunyoviylashtirilgan Muqaddas Kitob arxeologiyasining muqaddas artefaktlariga bo'lgan ishtiyoq 1948 yildan beri Isroilning dunyoviy-millatchilik jamoaviy o'zligi va sionistik millat qurilishining shakllanishida markaziy o'rin tutib kelmoqda. Yevropa yahudiy o'zligini yurtga ildiz otgan sifatida taqdim etish uchun Isroil tashkil topganidan keyin arxeologiya fani dunyoviy davrda ushbu o'zlikni qurish va mustahkamlash vazifasiga jalb qilindi; ravvinlar hamda Muqaddas Kitob arxeologiyasiga ixtisoslashgan universitet olimlariga muqaddas tarix sohasi topshirildi (Said 2004: 45). Abu El-Hajning muhim asari "Facts on the Ground" 1948 yildan oldin va keyin sionistik yahudiy jamoaviy o'zligini qurishda tanlab olingan Muqaddas Kitob arxeologiyasining markaziy o'rnini o'rganadi. Asarda Falastinda olib borilgan mustamlakachilik davridagi arxeologik tadqiqotlar, jumladan, XIX asr o'rtalaridagi Britaniya ishlari ko'rib chiqiladi. Abu El-Haj 1948 yilda Isroil tashkil etilgandan keyingi davrga e'tibor qaratib, arxeologiyaning akademik amaliyotini sionistik mustamlakachilik bilan hamda falastinlik tarixiy va geografik nomlarni o'zgartirish orqali yerni yahudiylashtirish va qayta egallash rejalari bilan bog'laydi. Falastinning arablashuvsizlantirilishining katta qismi arxeologik asoslash bilan oqlanadi: arab nomlari yangi yaratilgan ibroniy nomlari bilan ustidan yoziladi. Bu "epistemologik strategiya" arxeologik parchalar, mahkam qoldiqlari, stollar, suyaklar va qabrlarni o'ziga xos biografiyaga birlashtirishga asoslangan isroilcha yahudiy o'zligini shakllantirishga tayyorlaydi, bu biografiyadan Yishuv Yevropa koloniyasi "ko'rinadigan va lisoniy jihatdan yahudiy milliy uyi sifatida" paydo bo'ladi (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).

Ko‘plab isroilylik tadqiqotchilar va Injil arxeologiyasi bilan shug‘ullanuvchilar – general Yigael Yadindan va general Moshe Dayangacha, hatto general Ariel Sharongacha – Injil arxeologiyasi Isroil fanining eng xos "imtiyozi" ekanini ta’kidlashgan (Said 2004: 45–46; Kletter 2003). Isroilning yetakchi arxeologi va hozirgi Isroil hukumatining Nomlar qo‘mitasi a’zosi Magen Broshi shunday deb yozgan:

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:

Isroil hodisasi, ya'ni o'z eski-yangi yurtiga qaytayotgan xalq, o'xshashi yo'q hodisadir. Bu o'z yerlari bilan yana tanishish jarayonidagi xalqdir va bu jarayonda arxeologiya muhim rol o'ynaydi. Bu jarayonda arxeologiya Yedi'at ha-Aretz, ya'ni "yer haqidagi bilim" deb nomlanuvchi kattaroq tizimning bir qismidir (ibroniycha atama, ehtimol, nemischa Landeskunde so'zidan olingan) … Yevropadan kelgan muhojirlar o'zlari uchun ham qarindoshlik, ham begonalik his qilgan mamlakatni topdilar, bu ziddiyatli bo'lsa-da. Isroilda arxeologiya, o'ziga xos davlat sifatida, yangi fuqarolarning begonalashuvini bartaraf etish vositasi bo'lib xizmat qildi. (Said 2004: 46 dan keltirilgan)

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)

Isroillik tarixchilar, Muqaddas Kitob olimlari, arxeologlar va geograflar, Meron Benvenisti o'zining "Muqaddas landshaft: 1948 yildan keyin Muqaddas Yerning ko'milgan tarixi" asarida ta'kidlaydiki, ular qadimgi Falastinning tarixi va xronologiyasini isroillik o'ziga xoslik siyosatiga asoslanib qayta yaratib, qayta qurganlar. Bu bilan yahudiylarning erga bo'lgan aloqasi ta'kidlangan va "Muqaddas Kitob davri", "Hasmoniylar davri", "Mishna davri" va "Talmud davri" kabi nomlar kiritilgan. Biroq "erta musulmon" davridan boshlab ular "fotihlar xronologiyasi" nomenklaturasini qabul qilganlar, chunki shu tarzda musulmon-arab hukmronligining taxminan 1400 yilini yahudiylarning Eretz Isroil/Falastin ustidan hukmronligidan (u ko'pi bilan 600 yil davom etgan) qisqaroq davrlarga bo'lish mumkin bo'lgan. Ayniqsa, mamlakat tarixini yahudiylardan tortib olingan bir qator chet el kuchlarining uzoq hukmronligi sifatida tasvirlash mumkin bo'lgan — bu davr 1948 yilda Falastinda yahudiy suverenitetining qayta tiklanishi bilan tugagan. Shu tariqa mahalliy musulmon arab aholisi hukmron musulmon xalqlarining ajralmas qismi ekanligini yashirish va mahalliy aholi tarixini — uning ichki urushlarini, viloyat hokimlarini, landshaftga qo'shgan hissasini — ahamiyatsiz, bu yoki boshqa "chet el bosqinchilari" sulolasi bilan bog'liq voqealar sifatida ko'rsatish mumkin bo'lgan.

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)

1960-yillardan boshlab G‘arb olimlari va ijtimoiy fanlar vakillarining sobiq mustamlakalariga nisbatan kolonial qarashlari tanqidiy qayta baholanishni boshlagan bo‘lsa-da, isroilliklar Falastin–Isroil hududida kolonial an’anani va mustamlakachi ko‘chmanchilar tarixshunosligini mustahkamlashni tanlashdi. Isroilda doimo "Injil xotirasi"ga nisbatan o‘ziga xos ishtiyoq mavjud bo‘lgan va Injil qazishmalari bilan yahudiy ko‘chmanchilarining mustamlakalashtirish faoliyati o‘rtasidagi yaqinlik doimo sezilib turgan, ammo 1967-yildan keyingi bosib olishlardan so‘ng bu yaqinlik yanada yaqqol namoyon bo‘ldi. Bundan tashqari, Isroil biblik arxeologiyasi sekulyar sionistik identitet siyosati va isroilliklarning ko‘chmanchilik faoliyati uchun markaziy ahamiyatga ega bo‘lib qolmoqda, Isroildagi ko‘pchilik ortodoks yahudiylar esa uning natijalariga doimo befarq bo‘lgan va hozir ham shunday (Elon 1997: 38). Meron Benvenisti shuni kuzatadiki, sobiq chet eldagi mustamlakalarining arxeologiyasi va tarixini o‘rganayotgan britaniyalik, amerikalik va boshqa olimlar mustamlakachilik davrida hukm surgan qarashlarni qayta baholay boshlagan. Ular Yevropamarkazchilik qarashlari natijasida koloniyalar tarixiga kiritilgan jiddiy buzilishlarni tan olishgan, mahalliy aholining o‘tmishi va moddiy madaniyatidan qolgan izlarni e’tiborsiz qoldirgan yoki yo‘qotgan. Ushbu baholashdan so‘ng Amerika hindulari, aborigenlar va mahalliy afrikaliklarning joylari o‘rganilib, tiklandi hamda yangi tarix yozildi, unda Yevropa xalqlari tarixida faqat chetdagi izoh bo‘lib kelgan o‘sha hududlarning tabiiy xronikalariga e’tibor qaratildi. Isroilliklar esa, aksincha, kolonial an’anani oz-moz o‘zgarishlar bilan saqlab qolishni tanlashdi... [Isroil] Qadimiy yodgorliklar boshqarmasi Eski Yaffodagi faqat ikki joy haqida ma’lumotga ega: "Biuim uyi" (1882-yilda mamlakatdagi ilk sionist kashshoflar guruhining birinchi uyi) va birinchi Ivrit o‘rta maktabining ("Gimnasiya Gertsliya") birinchi binosi, ular 1978-yildagi Isroil qadimiy yodgorliklar qonunining 2-moddasiga muvofiq "qadimiy yodgorlik" deb e’lon qilingan. Албатта, Исроил қонунига кўра, фаластинликлар учун тарихий аҳамиятга эга бирон-бир бино ҳам himoyalangan qadimiy yodgorlik sifatida e'lon qilinmagan.

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)

Quddus shahri atrofida Yahudiy milliy fondi tomonidan minglab gektar archa o‘rmonlari ekilgan. Bu o‘rmonlar vayron qilingan Falastin qishloqlarini yashirish va yangi cho‘ponlik “Injil manzarasi”ni yaratish, yangi ijtimoiy xotirani shakllantirish hamda daraxtlar abadiy o‘sib kelgandek, “haqiqiy” va vaqtdan tashqari Injil manzarasi taassurotini uyg‘otish uchun mo‘ljallangan. Lekin bu “tabiiy manzara” Falastin qishloqlarining tizimli ravishda musodara qilingan yerlarini, ekin ekilgan zaytun bog‘larining yo‘q qilinishini va Nakba davridagi etnik tozalashni yashirish uchun ehtiyotkorlik bilan yaratilgan sahnadir. Asosiy maqsad Falastin qishloqlarining joylashuvini yashirish va yahudiy bo‘lmaganlarning bu yerda dehqonchilik qilishiga to‘sqinlik qilishdir. Isroillik me’morlar Rafi Segal va Eyal Veyzman Isroil aholi punktlari va cho‘ponlik Injil manzarasining yaratilishi haqida fikr bildirib, shunday yozganlar:

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:

Ideal tasvirida pastoral manzara, mustamlakachilik an'analari nuqtai nazarining ajralmas qismi sifatida, qishloq panoramasiga bo'lgan havas har doim zamonaviylik derazalari orqali ko'riladi. Shaharni tark etib qishloqqa qaytish intilishi tabiatga yaqin, sodda hayotning fazilatini qayta tasdiqlaydi... Bibliya manzarasining go'zal ko'rinishlarini qayta yaratish esa yerga bo'lgan qadimiy da'voning guvohiga aylanadi. Shunday qilib, manzaraga havas ijtimoiy va madaniy o'ziga xosliklar shakllanadigan madaniy amaliyot vazifasini bajaradi. Biroq bu panoramada shafqatsiz paradoks yashiringan: manzarani "Bibliyaga oid" yoki "pastoral" qilib turgan narsa – uning an'anaviy aholisi, terrasalarda ekinlar, zaytun bog'lari, tosh binolar va chorva mollari – aynan falastinliklar tomonidan yaratilgan, ularning o'rnini bosish uchun yahudiy ko'chmanchilar kelgan. Ammo "yashil zaytun bog'lari"ni ekish va manzarani Bibliyaga oid qilish uchun kelgan odamlarning o'zlari panoramadan chetlashtiriladi. Falastinliklar manzarani yaratish uchun u yerda bo'ladi, so'ngra g'oyib bo'lishadi... Bibliyaga oid pastoral manzarani ko'radigan nigoh o'zi ko'rishni istamagan narsani qayd etmaydi; bu jismoniy chetlashtirishni izlaydigan ko'rish jihatidan chetlashtirishdir. Teatr sahnasi kabi, panoramani ko'rinmas sahna xodimlari tomonidan yig'ilgan, tahrir qilingan manzara sifatida ko'rish mumkin... Davlat uchun falastinliklarni kuzatishga qaratilgan nazorat mexanizmi bo'lgan narsa, ko'chmanchilar uchun ularni yo'q qilishga intiladigan pastoral manzaraga ochiladigan deraza hisoblanadi. Yahudiy aholi punktlari mavjud landshaftning ustiga geografiyaning yana bir kenglik ma'lumotini qo'yadi. Shunday qilib, ko'chmanchilar faqat boshqa aholi punktlarini ko'radi, falastinlik shaharlar va qishloqlarning aholi punktlaridan qochadi va o'zlarini "odamlari bo'lmagan yerga yerсiz odamlar sifatida" haqiqatan ham yetib kelganday his qiladi. (Segal va Veyzman 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)

Israelda Tabiat va Bog'lar Boshqarmasi (Rashut Hateva’ Vehaganim) tomonidan boshqariladigan o'nlab bibliya va arxeologik bog'lar mavjud. Bu 1998 yilda tashkil etilgan davlat tashkiloti. Ushbu arxeologik (bibliya va salib yurishlari davriga oid) "milliy meros" bog'larining ko'pchiligi 1948 yilda vayron qilingan falastinlik qishloq va shaharlar xarobalari ustiga qurilgan. Isroilning meros sohasi, ya'ni arxeologik tematik bog'lar sanoati yerning qadimgi falastinlik va islomiy merosini inkor etishi bugungi kunda Falastindagi Saffuriya (1948 yilda Isroil tomonidan vayron qilingan) misolida yaqqol namoyon bo'lmoqda. Bu sanoat o'tmishni orqaga qaratib mustamlaka qilishga hamda zamonaviy isroilliklarning jamoaviy o'ziga xosligini shakllantirishga qaratilgan.

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.