For the last eight centuries, Muslims have controlled Judaism's holiest of sites, the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, claiming it as their own. Ignoring Israeli antiquities laws that require the preservation of excavation debris to be salvaged in case it contains archaeological artifacts, the controlling party continues to destroy these historical sites in order to make room for more mosques. 

In an effort to build a new entrance to a mosque in 1999, a bulldozer carved a huge pit under the Temple Mount, carelessly dumping 9,000 tons of soil replete with thousands of years of Jewish history into a nearby valley. In 2004, a project called The Temple Mount Sifting Project was created to search the dirt so haphazardly discarded to find the treasures it contains. The sifting project has made news with another exciting archaeological find once again pointing to the historical accounts recorded in the Old Testament.

The Blaze picked up on the latest story about a 10-year-old Russian boy who is being credited with uncovering a King David-era seal while volunteering at the site. Archaeologists are calling the item a first of its kind to be found in Jerusalem, according to the official release:

A rare 3,000 year-old seal dating to the period of the Biblical kings David and Solomon of the 10th century BCE was recently discovered at the Temple Mount Sifting Project in Jerusalem.

The seal is the first of its kind to be found in Jerusalem. The dating of the seal corresponds to the historical period of the Jebusites and the conquest of Jerusalem by King David, as well as the construction of the Temple and the royal official compound by his son, King Solomon.  What makes this discovery particularly significant is that it originated from upon the Temple Mount itself.

The team hopes this discovery, among others, will give even more credence to the historicity of the Biblical text as it describes Jerusalem in the 10th century. The Blaze rightly points to Commentary Magazine's Jonathan Tobin for explaining the significance of this find and the implications of how it should effect who claims the Temple Mount:

That excavation was ordered by the Muslim Wakf that Israel has allowed to administer the site and its mosques since Jerusalem’s reunification in 1967 and was the result of a mosque building project. Though this is one of the key historic sites in the world, the Wakf had no interest in preserving the vast treasure trove of artifacts that are contained in the 35-acre Temple Mount compound. Indeed, judging by the brutality of its methods and its decision to simply dump the contents of their excavation in the Kidron Valley outside the walled city, it appears the Wakf was as interested in trashing any possible evidence of the history of this place as they were in improving their facilities.

The Israeli government, then as now run by the supposedly hard line right-winger Benjamin Netanyahu, was so interested in keeping the peace that it made no effort to stop what must be considered the greatest act of archeological vandalism in history. Indeed, the Wakf’s actions must rank with the efforts of the Taliban and ISIS to destroy the vestiges of pre-Islamic cultures in areas under their control. But while the Taliban and ISIS merely wish to erase evidence of pre-Muslim religions in the region, the Wakf, supported by the Palestinian Authority, had a more specific agenda: denying Jewish history.

In this context the battle over archeology isn’t merely a scholarly debate but a vital part of the effort to deny the legitimacy of a Jewish state no matter where its borders would be drawn. By trashing an area that was loaded with precious artifacts buried over 30 centuries, the Palestinians hope to convince the world that Jews have no claim to Jerusalem, let alone any part of Israel, including the areas inside the 1967 lines.

The significance of the seal is that it shows the level of activity that is consistent with it serving as the site of the capital of ancient Israel. Since denying the existence of David’s Kingdom might hurt the case for Zionism’s legitimacy, destroying evidence of that history is key to their agenda. That’s why they trashed the Temple Mount and also why the volunteers of the Temple Mount Sifting Project that is painstakingly going through the material they removed from the historical site is so important.