In May, on a visit to Jerusalem, I spent half a day in Silwan, where an extremist settlers’ group runs and profits from an archaeological site – arguably the most sensitive and most politically-charged archaeological dig in the world.

The group, Elad, is busily Judaizing Silwan, turning it into “Ir David,” (the “City of David”) both by turning it into a site that exclusively champions the Jewish narrative of Biblical Jerusalem and by settling extreme right-wing Jews in this vast, densely-populated Palestinian village.

How did it happen that the government of Israel officially sub-contracted to an extremist settlers’ organization one of the most sensitive sites in Israel, a stone’s throw from the world’s most sacred site to Jews and the third most sacred site to Muslims? How did it happen that the government appointed the cat to guard the cream?
Read on…