The Guardian’s Julian Borger, the outlet’s senior international correspondent, published an article framing as something sinister Israeli interest in Solomon’s Pools, three giant cisterns that were part of an extensive water infrastructure in the Judean hills that supplied water to the Jewish Temples in Jerusalem (“Israel threatens to seize ancient water reservoirs near Bethlehem,” July 10).
First, while it’s true that, under the terms of Oslo, Solomon’s Pools – located south of Bethlehem – are in Area A, which is under full Palestinian Authority (PA) control, Borger seems to go out of his way throughout the piece to obfuscate the Jewish connection to the site.
According to Dr. Azriel Yechezkael, whose doctoral research at Tel Aviv University focused on Jerusalem’s ancient underground water systems, the lowest pool dates to the reign of Yochanan Hyrcanus, the Hasmonean ruler who governed Judea from 134 to 104 BCE. If so, the project was initiated during the only period of complete Jewish independence in the Second Temple era.
The first-century Jewish historian Josephus Flavius alludes to the pools The Jewish War and Antiquities of the Jews.
It’s only at the third to the last paragraph where Borger concedes that “the first two pools were built in the time of…Jewish king, Herod the Great”.
The Guardian piece also warns readers that “Israel is threatening to seize ancient water reservoirs near Bethlehem, in what would be a significant escalation in an intensifying campaign for control of West Bank land and the Middle East’s historical narrative.”
Borger’s hook is based on recent comments by Israel’s finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, who threatened in May to “erase” the Oslo agreements “that confirmed Palestinian ownership of Solomon’s Pools“. We’re then told that “Israeli settlers and troops have stepped up their presence around the spectacular site.”
However, though Smotrich has made several such threats this year about taking control of areas controlled by the PA under the Oslo Accords, the foreign ministry has made it clear that he doesn’t have the unilateral legal authority to enact such policies. Further, what Borger frames as “settlers and troops” stepping up their presence at the site is, in fact, merely the decision last year to allow for a limited number of guided tours of the historic site for all Israelis.
Moreover, Borger’s framing mirrors that of the PA and terrorist affiliated ‘news’ sites.
For instance, PA Prime Minister Mohammad Mustafa convened a meeting in June regarding renewed Israeli interest and the visits to the site, which he framed as part of the “ongoing threats and attacks by Israeli occupation authorities and settlers.” Mustafa also used language that was adopted by the Guardian, warning of the need to safeguard the site “against attempts to seize it and alter its historical character”.
The propagandistic narrative of nefarious Israeli plans to “seize” the site was also used in article at Quds News Network – a site affiliated with Hamas:
Further into the article, Borger uncritically amplifies Eman al-Titi, the head of Bethlehem’s tourism and antiquities department, making the following argument:
Archaeological sites should never become instruments of political conflict. This issue extends beyond control of the land itself. It also involves attempts to reshape history and promote a single historical narrative that does not reflect the archaeological evidence or the many civilisations that have contributed to Palestine’s rich cultural heritage over thousands of years.
A journalist committed to accurate reporting would have noted the stunning hypocrisy of al-Titi’s criticism of the politicisation of archeological sites and “attempts to reshape history and promote a…narrative that does not reflect the archeological evidence” in light of the PA’s own decades-long attempt to erase the Jewish connection to the land.
There are literally thousands of examples of the PA’s attempt to erase and re-write Jewish history, a campaign which includes Yasser Arafat’s claim to President Clinton in 2000, during peace negotiations, that there was never a Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. This farcical accusation – which is actually contradicted by Muslim religious texts – has been promoted by Arafat’s successor, Mahmoud Abbas, and has been consistently spread by PA officials and media outlets to this day.
In fact, it’s not uncommon for journalists at state-controlled Palestinian media outlets and PA officials to deny that Jews have any connection whatsoever to Jerusalem and Israel.
Here’s a clip from 2025 showing Dirgham Al-Fares, Director-General of the PA Ministry of Culture and Antiquities in the Nablus District, denying any Jewish connection to the land, and also claiming that “Palestinian people today is the continuation of the true inhabitants from the Stone Age until now”.
While PA officials and journalists continue to deny Jews’ nearly 4,000 year history in the land, the Guardian, in their refusal to deviate from an ideologically-driven narrative of perpetual Israeli villainy, insists on taking every Palestinian accusation at face value.
