Beyadenu, an NGO working to establish Jewish rights on the Temple Mount, has launched a campaign to save timbers from the First and Second Temples that are being neglected, exposed to the elements, and rotting away. The only obstacle to saving these precious artifacts is the Muslim Waqf, which insists that the Temples never existed and that Israel, therefore, has no right to bring them in out of the rain.
Tom Nisani, the head of Beyadenu, explained the situation in an email he recently sent:
“I’m reaching out to you today about an urgent matter that deeply concerns me,” Nisani wrote. “Right now, in the heart of Jerusalem, at the holiest site for the Jewish people, ancient wooden beams are exposed to destruction and decay. During my recent visits on the Temple Mount, I saw with my own eyes how some of these beams, dating back to the First and Second Temple periods, are crumbling and rotting.”
“The situation is particularly concerning because the beams are exposed to weather damage, the Muslim Waqf has already demonstrated its intentions to destroy evidence of Jewish heritage on the Temple Mount, and the official authorities in the State of Israel are completely ignoring their condition.”
Adjacent to the Sha’ar HaRachamim (Gate of Mercy, also known as the Golden Gate) is a pile of timber covered in a blue tarpaulin. Though they appear to be debris and are treated as such by the Muslims, some of these timbers are from Solomon’s Temple. Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount have noted that refuse is piled on these precious timbers.
The timbers came to be lying outside after the earthquake in 1927 caused extensive damage to the Aqsa Mosque, causing it to collapse. The structural roofing beams were dismantled, and later, at the request of the Waqf, the beams were studied by Robert W. Hamilton, director of antiquities for the British Mandate. He described most of the beams and wooden panels as being from the early Islamic Umayyad Dynasty from the Eighth Century. The best examples were taken to be displayed at the Rockefeller Museum near Jerusalem, where they are on display to this day.
Others were stored underneath the Temple Mount in Solomon’s Stables. When that area was turned into the Marwani Mosque in 1996, the beams were moved, and many disappeared. The leftovers were put in the outer courtyard next to the Golden Gate.
Some of the beams were sold to an Armenian wood merchant as scrap, and even more disappeared. Some ended up as firewood.
Some timbers found their way to the town of Ofra in Samaria, where they were stored. Some of these beams have Arabic inscriptions and decorations, while others have Roman inscriptions and decorations.
In the 1970s, a team of Israeli botanists checked the beams and determined that most were cedars from Lebanon and some were Cyprus trees. They carried out Carbon-14 tests on several of the timbers. Some were determined to have been felled about 1,340 years ago, approximately when al Aqsa Mosque was built initially. One cypress beam was determined to be 2,600 years old, harvested around 630 BCE, around 50 years before the destruction of the First Temple. This was approximately 1,400 years before the Aqsa Mosque was built and some 1,200 years before Mohammad lived.
Shockingly, one of the oak beams was determined to be 2,860 years old. That meant the tree had been cut down around 880 BCE, early in the First Temple period.
Archaeologists have suggested that these beams were used in al-Aqsa Mosque as a secondary use. When al-Aqsa was first built, the builders used materials that were on site from the destroyed Jewish Temples.
The Israeli Antiquities Authority wanted to preserve the beams about a decade ago, but the Waqf insisted they were their property. There have been unconfirmed sightings of some of the beams stored next to the Golden Gate being burned.
Beyadenu has run several campaigns to preserve the Temple Mount and seeks public support for this mission. They request that concerned individuals sign an online petition. Concerned individuals can help Beyadenu by donating online.
