The Palestinian Authority has announced that it intends to build a national park at Tel Orma, the site of an important Hasmonean fort that overlooks the Itamar ridge.
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The Tel Orma site includes the ruins of the biblical town Aruma, where King Avimelekh ruled, as well as many historical discoveries that testify to Jewish presence there throughout the biblical era. In addition to the fortress, there are large water cisterns that date back to antiquity.
In recent years, the PA has been carrying out various works at the site that are causing harm to the antiquities there. The destruction began in 2009, when Palestinians arrived with tractors and other heavy equipment to demolish much of the site and steal antiquities.
Last year, Shomrim al Hanetzah, a coalition of groups working to protect Israeli archaeological and heritage sites in Judea and Samaria, launched a drone and discovered that Palestinian authorities had built a mosque on the site to commemorate Palestinian martyrs.
Shomrim al Hanetzah also discovered, while conducting a tour, that the Hasmonean-era wall to which decorated stones had been added in the Herodian area had been dismantled and taken away.
Tel Orma is located in Area B, which limits its accessibility to Jews, therefore making it difficult to protect the site and its antiquities.
The Palestinians have flattened the top of the mound, likely causing irreparable damage to artifacts that might still be buried, and erected a flag that can be seen from a distance in all directions. The site is now surrounding by farming activity funded by the United Nations.
The new Palestinian national park is being built on the site despite the fact that the Palestinians have no link whatsoever to the Hasmoneans, and will apparently entail the destruction of the site's ancient walls.
Head of the Samaria Regional Council Yossi Dagan said that the new PA projects comprises dangerous "escalation."
"In the past few years, we've witnessed a new kind of terrorism whose purpose is to attack Jewish history in Samaria. The Palestinian Authority is working to destroy all evidence of Samaria, along with the rest of the Land of Israel, belongs to the Jewish people. We saw that in the destruction of Joshua's Altar on Mount Ebal, the place of the blessings when the Jewish people entered the Land of Israel. We've seen the takeover of Tel Orma, where there is no dispute about the findings discovered there and their ties to the Hasmoneans, and we've seen it at other places in Samaria," Dagan said.
"We call on the Israeli government, the defense minister, and the public security minister to take action right away and protect these important places. Just like no other country in the world would allow its people's history to be attacked, we must not allow rioters from the Palestinian Authority to harm our history. Tel Orma is [part of] the Jewish people's legacy and an important part of Jewish history, and we cannot stand by as the place is systematically destroyed," Dagan added.
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