Zionist excavations beneath and around the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque: between the Torah narrative and religious, historical and archaeological facts: an analytical and critical study

This study explores the ongoing Zionist excavations beneath and around Al-Aqsa Mosque as a central instrument for reinforcing a fabricated biblical narrative and distorting the religious, historical, and archaeological realities of Jerusalem. The research addresses the political and ideological exploitation of these excavations to legitimize the occupation and construct an alternative narrative that denies the authentic Arab and Islamic presence, despite the lack of credible archaeological evidence supporting biblical claims. Employing a qualitative analytical approach, the study integrates academic sources, expert interviews, and field observations supported by reports and photographs, using content analysis to interpret the data. The findings reveal that these excavations are not objective scientific activities but ideologically driven projects seeking to fabricate material “evidence” for the biblical narrative and impose it as historical fact. No genuine archaeological proof confirms the existence of the alleged Temple or aligns with biblical texts. The excavations thus function as a tool to alter Jerusalem’s identity, Judaize its historical and spiritual consciousness, and reshape its spatial reality in line with mythological traditions. By analyzing the relationship between archaeology and politics in the Zionist context, the study underscores the dangers of employing archaeology to advance colonial and ideological agendas. It calls for the development of an alternative Arab scientific narrative grounded in objective analytical methods and authentic religious and historical truths to defend Jerusalem’s identity and preserve its civilizational and human heritage.