Michael Press

It's perverse for Israeli archaeologist to be promoting a study of the remains of dead Bedouin while that work is part of a massive displacement plan for living Bedouin.
And it's a journalistic failure for Live Science to mention none of this context.

B.M. on X: "Following a large demonstration in Be'er Sheva a couple of weeks ago, of Bedouins protesting the mass demolition of their homes and villages in the Naqab, many protesters returned to their cars to find parking tickets - they've been targeted by the police and municipality for https://t.co/EOrTei6DTl" / X Following a large demonstration in Be'er Sheva a couple of weeks ago, of Bedouins protesting the mass demolition of their homes and villages in the Naqab, many protesters returned to their cars to find parking tickets - they've been targeted by the police and municipality for https://t.co/EOrTei6DTl

The Bedouin of the Naqab have long had a poor relationship with the Israeli government, going far beyond the displacement plan. Rahat is an extremely poor city. And at this very moment the Negev Bedouin are engaging in an unprecedented protest/boycott
x.com/ireallyhatey...

And, sure enough, the newly-announced grave was found right near this early mosque -- so, the same neighborhood that's part of this displacement plan.

A Discovery of an Ancient Mosque in Israel Overshadows Planned Mass Evictions Coverage of the discovery of an ancient mosque in Rahat has neglected to mention the planned mass relocation of thousands of people to the Bedouin town.

In 2019 the IAA announced the discovery of one of the earliest known mosques in Rahat . . . in a neighborhood being built for forcibly removed Bedouin.

(That last fact was ignored in the announcement of course, because it didn't fit the feel-good story.)
hyperallergic.com/518160/an-ar...

Rahat is a Bedouin city in the Negev. For years now Israel has been expanding the city . . . as part of its plan to expel 100,000+ Bedouin from their towns and villages in the Naqab and resettle them in Rahat.

But the more hidden problem is a lack of curiosity about the context for this excavation. Note that the site is named as Rahat.

Why does Live Science have this headline?
A 19th-century grave was found in the Negev (Naqab) with a woman and a child. Why frame it this way? Presumably because the story isn't actually newsworthy.

Why this story?
As far as I know, there are no other news articles on this, not even from any Israeli news outlets.
Instead, it looks like Live Science just browsed the IAA journal Atiqot for a news story
publications.iaa.org.il/atiqot/vol11...

Ottoman-era burial found in Israel may violate Islamic tradition The unusual grave of a Bedouin woman who may have been buried with her son was found in southern Israel.

Not sure what Live Science is doing here but it's worth a brief look 🧵
www.livescience.com/archaeology/...

Attn @tobinghd.bsky.social

Forget that old shit, how do they explain this?

Meanwhile, "archaeologist" here means crackpot with no archaeological credentials (the notorious Vendyl Jones)

(To be fair, Israel's military government of the West Bank didn't understand what archaeologist means either, since they licensed him to dig at Qumran.)

Why do the religious beliefs of the victim's father feature in the *headline* of the story?

The tragedy of the murder aside, I can't believe this is a real headline at something trying to be a reputable news outlet.

Sources: J. W. Crowfoot and Grace M. Crowfoot, Early Ivories from Samaria (1938)
Raphael Greenberg and Adi Keinan, Israeli Archaeological Activity in the West Bank 1967-2007: A Sourcebook (2009)

Besides a major international expedition to Samaria/Sebastia in the 1930s (the "Joint Expedition"), following Israel's conquest of the West Bank in 1967 there was repeated illegal excavation at the site by Israel's military government.

Hey @palexfund.bsky.social turns out the Joint Expedition to Samaria may or may not have happened.

The Case for Retraction of Academic Authentications of Forged Fragments — ANCIENT JEW REVIEW This position paper issues a call for editors and publishers with oversight over peer-reviewed publications of inauthentic post-2002 Dead Sea Scroll-like fragments to embark on the processes that woul...

The Case for Retraction of Academic Authentications of Forged Fragments
www.ancientjewreview.com/read/2025/5/...

YouTube video by George Lewis - Topic Dallas Blues

George Lewis's band, with most of the same personnel as in 1950, playing the classic "Dallas Blues"
(recorded at NBC Studios in San Francisco, 1953)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1Q9...

Look Collection | The Library of Congress Search results 1 - 9 of 9.

Kubrick was part of a team from Look Magazine doing a feature on Lewis and New Orleans jazz in 1950
The photos (by Kubric and Janet Mevi) are part of the Look Magazine Photograph Collection at the Library of Congress
www.loc.gov/collections/...

A young Stanley Kubrick sits in on drums with George Lewis's Ragtime Band, New Orleans, 1950

Mamilla Pool and the surrounding cemetery photographed by Auguste Salzmann, 1854

(Marjorie and Leonard Vernon Collection, LACMA)
collections.lacma.org/node/216893

Michael Press on X: "Important report from Nir Hasson @haaretzcom on the latest problems with IAA's and Elad's archaeological tunnels under East Jerusalem https://t.co/4iTXGavi7G" / X Important report from Nir Hasson @haaretzcom on the latest problems with IAA's and Elad's archaeological tunnels under East Jerusalem https://t.co/4iTXGavi7G

For more on the archaeological and ethical nightmare that is the "PIlgrim's Road" tunneling project, see here:
x.com/MichaelDPres...

Benjamin Netanyahu - בנימין נתניהו on X: "עדכון ממני אליכם מאחד הרחובות העתיקים ביותר בירושלים >> https://t.co/ASDINwIccO" / X עדכון ממני אליכם מאחד הרחובות העתיקים ביותר בירושלים >> https://t.co/ASDINwIccO

Netanyahu was busy on Jerusalem Day -- here he is making a video at the "Pilgrim's Road" tunnel running under Silwan that has undermined people's homes
(Note: the claim circulating on social media that this is directly under al-Aqsa/Temple Mount is false)
x.com/netanyahu/st...

PM’s Jerusalem Day declaration triggers archaeological dispute over Mamilla pool site | The National Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu wants ancient reservoir site surrounded by Muslim burials to be developed into tourism site

Building a "Museum of Tolerance" on top of Muslim graves wasn't enough. Netanyahu has announced that Israel is going for more of Mamilla Cemetery -- by announcing plans to restore Mamilla Pool.
www.thenationalnews.com/news/mena/20...

Michael Press on X: "Israeli work in the area of the Dead Sea caves (mostly in the West Bank) has for a long time been framed as a race against looters -- even though before now it seems like they always lost out by 60+ years (See the thread here from 2019) https://t.co/xiiOeW0WIP" / X Israeli work in the area of the Dead Sea caves (mostly in the West Bank) has for a long time been framed as a race against looters -- even though before now it seems like they always lost out by 60+ years (See the thread here from 2019) https://t.co/xiiOeW0WIP

For more about how Israeli archaeologists and media have been mindlessly invoking this idea of a "race" for years now, see here:
x.com/MichaelDPres...

Jewish secrets scratched in stone: 2,000-year-old cryptic text found in Jerusalem ***

www.haaretz.com/archaeology/...

Wondering if Haaretz is getting tired of claiming there is some race here for more Dead Sea Scrolls.
(The race ended 60 or 70 years ago. The Bedouin mostly won.)

Now the Daily Mail calls ancient Jerusalem "biblical city 'home to Ark of the Covenant'"??!!