Digging Up Trouble: Obama’s War Over Jerusalem

The following excerpt is taken from “When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You To Know” (Center Street/Hachette Book Group, May 13, 2025)

* * *

Obama and UNESCO

Had the coalition of radical advocacy groups not challenged us in the Supreme Court when it did, and had the court not suspended the excavation of the Pilgrimage Road, which resulted in our focusing on the drainage channel, it is likely that the City of David would not be connected to the Western Wall, even today.

Even though the tunnel could never accommodate large groups like the Pilgrimage Road once had, it was proof that the City of David and the Temple Mount were connected in ancient times. It became an irreversible fact-on-the-ground that they were connected once again — if only through a drainage channel.

This fact would become vital in the years to come, as Israel came under enormous international pressure to stop the excavations in the City of David, first by President Obama’s administration and then by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

A carefully coordinated campaign of news features and “reports” pushed a negative narrative about the excavations to diplomats and politicians in both Europe and the United States.

The following guidelines were adhered to in almost every report and article with few exceptions:

• The area would be referred to as either “Silwan” or “Wadi Hilweh” and almost never as “The City of David.”
• There would be no mention of the archaeology of ancient Jerusalem or the discoveries made.
• There would be no mention of the historic tie between the Jewish people and the area.
• In the rare event that the phrase “City of David” was mentioned, it would be only to refer to it as an archaeological ploy used to justify expropriating land from Palestinians in an attempt to “Judaize” the areas with government assistance.
• No mention would be made of the millions of dollars in legal real estate transactions conducted between Jews and Arabs.
• No mention would be made that the merits of these transactions had been upheld in court to be legally binding dozens of times.
• No mention would be made of the death threats against Arabs by either the Palestinian Authority or Hamas for selling their land to non-Muslims.
• No mention would be made of the improved roads, infrastructure, and safety in the area stemming from the City of David’s growth.

With no context of the historical importance of the area to Jews, certain foreign government officials were duped, willingly or unwillingly, into believing the narrative that this was nothing more than a militant takeover of an area outside the Old City walls, by lawless Jews at the expense of innocent Palestinians.

The first move came on August 25, 2014, when the United Nations secretary general issued an official report titled, “Israeli Settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan.” In the section titled “Archaeological excavations and parks” the report stated, “Observer organizations report that several archaeological projects in the Old City of Jerusalem are being used as a means to consolidate the presence of settlements and settlers in the area.” The footnote points out that the “observer organizations” mentioned are none other than Ir Amim — the radical NGO that operates in the neighborhood and that subsists primarily from European funding.[1]

In the same section, another radical NGO called Emek Shaveh claimed that the placement of the excavations and the building of the tourism centers in the City of David “shows that a contiguous line of Israeli settler presence along the entire northern boundary of the Silwan area is being created.”[2]

The United Nations report was followed up one month later on September 17 by a Peace Now report that included a map that showed “Settlers Houses” as menacing red dots covering the area of the City of David which is referred to only as “Wadi Hilweh”— with no mention of the importance of the land to the Jewish people.

Echoing the language of the UN report, the Peace Now report referred to “ideological tourist centers established by Elad in Palestinian areas around the Old City of Jerusalem” that are used for “‘Israelizing’ the area surrounding the Old City.”[3]

Not long after, the Peace Now report found its way into the hands of certain officials in the Obama White House.

Throughout 2014, the City of David experienced a tourism boom. It became cleaner and safer, and housing values in the area began to rise. A number of Arab families wanting to take advantage of the increased prices had approached us and sold us their homes. Many of them had gone on to build much bigger homes in other areas in Jerusalem where the prices were still relatively lower. Seeing the courage of these families to stand up against the racist and illegal policies of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority that forbade Muslims from selling their homes to non-Muslims, other Arab families who were happy to sell to Jews and non-Muslims were emboldened to sell as well.

While prices were higher than they had ever been, this was an important opportunity for the City of David Foundation as well. As owners of the property, we could rent out the apartments, while we considered how to utilize the land for the ever increasing excavations in the future.

On September 30, the day after a group of Arab sellers had moved out of the City of David, I was sitting in the visitors’ center as our lawyers went over the paperwork regarding all the land titles when my phone rang.

Ron Dermer’s name flashed across the screen. By this time, Ron was Israel’s ambassador to the United States, and it was all over the news that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Ron were in DC for a meeting with President Obama. If he was calling me, it meant that once again something was up — and it probably wasn’t good.

“Hey, Doron, did you guys just move into some homes in the City of David or something?”

Ron sounded like he was in a rush.

“Hi, Ron, yes, last night. A few families left and we moved into the new properties.”

“I have to ask you a question,” he said, “just to be absolutely sure: Did you guys do everything according to the letter of the law?”

“Ron, I’m sitting right now in a room with our lawyers. We just went through every one of the documents with a fine-toothed comb. Everything here checks out one hundred percent. You have my word.”

Then came the surprise.

“Well,” he said, “not everyone likes what you guys are doing over there. I want you to know that tomorrow, the White House is going to issue a statement condemning you guys and the land that you bought.”

For a few seconds, I stood there, stunned. Then remembering that Ron seemed to be in a rush, I asked, “Ron, why is the White House interested in a few properties we bought in the City of David?”

“The White House has been getting reports about you guys. Someone contacted the president’s senior staff and convinced them that you guys threw a bunch of Palestinians out of their homes last night in Silwan, you’re igniting the entire area, and that you are going to bring about a crisis.”

I explained to Ron that the families had left quietly and that while there were initial rumblings from a few upstarts in the village, the area had been totally quiet since the morning.

“Listen,” he told me. “I spoke to them, and the prime minister spoke to them. I think we can get them to drop the claim about throwing anyone out of their homes. However, I don’t think they are going to back down altogether. They are going to issue some type of response.”

“What should we do?” I asked.

“I wanted you to know in advance. I also want you to know that the prime minister and I told them that if they do in fact condemn you, we are going to defend you, and do it publicly. Just be ready.”

I hung up the phone and updated Davidleh.

The next day, the White House followed through with their condemnation. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, speaking on behalf of President Obama, issued the following statement:

The United States condemns the recent occupation of residential buildings in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem—this is near the Old City—by individuals who are associated with an organization whose agenda, by definition, stokes tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. These provocative acts, these acts by this organization, only serve to escalate tensions at a moment when those tensions have already been high.[4]

After the White House condemnation, Prime Minister Netanyahu had an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation in which he defended the land transactions between Jews and Arabs in the City of David.

Arabs in Jerusalem are free to purchase apartments in the western [part of the] city and no one is arguing against it. I have no intention of telling Jews they can’t buy apartments in East Jerusalem. This is private property and an individual right. There cannot be discrimination—not against Jews and not against Arabs. . . . This goes against values that the United States also believes in.

Then he added, “Buying a house is a fundamental right. . . every person is entitled to private property. No one stole those houses or confiscated the property. Arabs are selling houses to Jews and Jews are selling houses to Arabs.”[5]

Any transaction between any two people of different ethnicities, in any other city of the world, would never have been questioned by the White House. The only exception is when a Jewish person buys a home from an Arab person — and only here, in Jerusalem. A legal transaction had been made with willing and courageous Arab families who had braved threats from organizations that opposed the sale of real estate by Arabs to Jews.

Instead of issuing a condemnation against the terror organizations threatening the lives of innocent Arabs — a gross violation of the law — the White House was condemning us for buying their homes, which we did according to the letter of the law.

Willingly or unwillingly, the White House had come out on the wrong side of the truth.

Thankfully, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Ambassador Dermer defended us.

Following the prime minister’s response, J Street, a radical left-wing US-based NGO that claims to be representative of American Jewry, called on the prime minister “to apologize and withdraw his remarks.”

J Street stated it would renew calls on President Obama to “take a tougher stance against settlement expansion, which has gone virtually unchecked for decades and which now threatens to strangle hopes for a two-state solution.”[6]

It was clear that the most senior government leaders and other public figures abroad were getting an unchallenged, distorted picture of the site from radical advocacy groups and their proxies abroad. It was imperative that we reveal the coordinated deception that was taking place. It was imperative that we present the true story of the City of David as a site of the highest historical value to the Jewish people and billions of non-Jews who hold Jerusalem sacred.

And it was imperative that we stress the legality of how the land was purchased.

I opened an international-affairs division at the City of David. The goal of the division was clear: We were not to impose our views on anyone or tell them what they should do or believe, but simply to inform them and educate them about the facts regarding the City of David.

* * *

Born and educated in the United States, Doron Spielman moved to Israel in 2000, where he serves as an international spokesperson in the Israel Defense Forces Reserves with the rank of Major. For over two decades, he has worked to transform the City of David into one of the world’s most significant archaeological and historical sites. He is a graduate of the Churchill National Security Program, a Senior Fellow at the Herut Center in Jerusalem, and a graduate of the University of Michigan.

This excerpt is taken from “When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You To Know” (Center Street/Hachette Book Group, May 13, 2025)

Published by permission of Center Street/Hachette Book Group.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

* * *

FOOTNOTES:

[1] United Nations, The Question of Palestine: The Palestinian People’s Right to Self-Determination (New York: United Nations, 2014), accessed October 9, 2024, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/780153?ln=en&v=pdf.

[2] United Nations, The Question of Palestine (New York: United Nations, 2014).

[3] “The Appeals Committee Cancelled Construction Permit Granted to Elad at Hashalom Forest,” Peace Now, last modified October 4, 2023, https://peacenow.org.il/en/the-appeals-committee-cancelled-construction-permit-granted-to-elad-at-hashalom-forest.

[4] Josh Earnest, “Press Briefing by Press Secretary Josh Earnest, 10/1/2014,” The White House, October 1, 2014, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/10/01/press-briefing-press-secretary-josh-earnest-1012014.

[5] Barak Ravid, “Netanyahu Rejects U.S. Criticism Over E. Jerusalem,” Haaretz, October 2, 2014, https://www.haaretz.com/2014-10-02/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-rejects-u-s-criticism-over-e-jlem/0000017f-e4b0-d568-ad7f-f7fb48550000.

[6] “Netanyahu Should Withdraw Statement That Opposing Settlements Is Un-American,” J Street, last modified October 1, 2014, https://jstreet.org/press-releases/netanyahu-should-withdraw-statement-that-opposing-settlements-is-unamerican-_1/.

​[#item_full_content]  

​[[{“value”:”

The following excerpt is taken from “When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You To Know” (Center Street/Hachette Book Group, May 13, 2025)

* * *

Obama and UNESCO

Had the coalition of radical advocacy groups not challenged us in the Supreme Court when it did, and had the court not suspended the excavation of the Pilgrimage Road, which resulted in our focusing on the drainage channel, it is likely that the City of David would not be connected to the Western Wall, even today.

Even though the tunnel could never accommodate large groups like the Pilgrimage Road once had, it was proof that the City of David and the Temple Mount were connected in ancient times. It became an irreversible fact-on-the-ground that they were connected once again — if only through a drainage channel.

This fact would become vital in the years to come, as Israel came under enormous international pressure to stop the excavations in the City of David, first by President Obama’s administration and then by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

A carefully coordinated campaign of news features and “reports” pushed a negative narrative about the excavations to diplomats and politicians in both Europe and the United States.

The following guidelines were adhered to in almost every report and article with few exceptions:

• The area would be referred to as either “Silwan” or “Wadi Hilweh” and almost never as “The City of David.”
• There would be no mention of the archaeology of ancient Jerusalem or the discoveries made.
• There would be no mention of the historic tie between the Jewish people and the area.
• In the rare event that the phrase “City of David” was mentioned, it would be only to refer to it as an archaeological ploy used to justify expropriating land from Palestinians in an attempt to “Judaize” the areas with government assistance.
• No mention would be made of the millions of dollars in legal real estate transactions conducted between Jews and Arabs.
• No mention would be made that the merits of these transactions had been upheld in court to be legally binding dozens of times.
• No mention would be made of the death threats against Arabs by either the Palestinian Authority or Hamas for selling their land to non-Muslims.
• No mention would be made of the improved roads, infrastructure, and safety in the area stemming from the City of David’s growth.

With no context of the historical importance of the area to Jews, certain foreign government officials were duped, willingly or unwillingly, into believing the narrative that this was nothing more than a militant takeover of an area outside the Old City walls, by lawless Jews at the expense of innocent Palestinians.

The first move came on August 25, 2014, when the United Nations secretary general issued an official report titled, “Israeli Settlements in the occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the occupied Syrian Golan.” In the section titled “Archaeological excavations and parks” the report stated, “Observer organizations report that several archaeological projects in the Old City of Jerusalem are being used as a means to consolidate the presence of settlements and settlers in the area.” The footnote points out that the “observer organizations” mentioned are none other than Ir Amim — the radical NGO that operates in the neighborhood and that subsists primarily from European funding.[1]

In the same section, another radical NGO called Emek Shaveh claimed that the placement of the excavations and the building of the tourism centers in the City of David “shows that a contiguous line of Israeli settler presence along the entire northern boundary of the Silwan area is being created.”[2]

The United Nations report was followed up one month later on September 17 by a Peace Now report that included a map that showed “Settlers Houses” as menacing red dots covering the area of the City of David which is referred to only as “Wadi Hilweh”— with no mention of the importance of the land to the Jewish people.

Echoing the language of the UN report, the Peace Now report referred to “ideological tourist centers established by Elad in Palestinian areas around the Old City of Jerusalem” that are used for “‘Israelizing’ the area surrounding the Old City.”[3]

Not long after, the Peace Now report found its way into the hands of certain officials in the Obama White House.

Throughout 2014, the City of David experienced a tourism boom. It became cleaner and safer, and housing values in the area began to rise. A number of Arab families wanting to take advantage of the increased prices had approached us and sold us their homes. Many of them had gone on to build much bigger homes in other areas in Jerusalem where the prices were still relatively lower. Seeing the courage of these families to stand up against the racist and illegal policies of Hamas and the Palestinian Authority that forbade Muslims from selling their homes to non-Muslims, other Arab families who were happy to sell to Jews and non-Muslims were emboldened to sell as well.

While prices were higher than they had ever been, this was an important opportunity for the City of David Foundation as well. As owners of the property, we could rent out the apartments, while we considered how to utilize the land for the ever increasing excavations in the future.

On September 30, the day after a group of Arab sellers had moved out of the City of David, I was sitting in the visitors’ center as our lawyers went over the paperwork regarding all the land titles when my phone rang.

Ron Dermer’s name flashed across the screen. By this time, Ron was Israel’s ambassador to the United States, and it was all over the news that Prime Minister Netanyahu and Ron were in DC for a meeting with President Obama. If he was calling me, it meant that once again something was up — and it probably wasn’t good.

“Hey, Doron, did you guys just move into some homes in the City of David or something?”

Ron sounded like he was in a rush.

“Hi, Ron, yes, last night. A few families left and we moved into the new properties.”

“I have to ask you a question,” he said, “just to be absolutely sure: Did you guys do everything according to the letter of the law?”

“Ron, I’m sitting right now in a room with our lawyers. We just went through every one of the documents with a fine-toothed comb. Everything here checks out one hundred percent. You have my word.”

Then came the surprise.

“Well,” he said, “not everyone likes what you guys are doing over there. I want you to know that tomorrow, the White House is going to issue a statement condemning you guys and the land that you bought.”

For a few seconds, I stood there, stunned. Then remembering that Ron seemed to be in a rush, I asked, “Ron, why is the White House interested in a few properties we bought in the City of David?”

“The White House has been getting reports about you guys. Someone contacted the president’s senior staff and convinced them that you guys threw a bunch of Palestinians out of their homes last night in Silwan, you’re igniting the entire area, and that you are going to bring about a crisis.”

I explained to Ron that the families had left quietly and that while there were initial rumblings from a few upstarts in the village, the area had been totally quiet since the morning.

“Listen,” he told me. “I spoke to them, and the prime minister spoke to them. I think we can get them to drop the claim about throwing anyone out of their homes. However, I don’t think they are going to back down altogether. They are going to issue some type of response.”

“What should we do?” I asked.

“I wanted you to know in advance. I also want you to know that the prime minister and I told them that if they do in fact condemn you, we are going to defend you, and do it publicly. Just be ready.”

I hung up the phone and updated Davidleh.

The next day, the White House followed through with their condemnation. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, speaking on behalf of President Obama, issued the following statement:

The United States condemns the recent occupation of residential buildings in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem—this is near the Old City—by individuals who are associated with an organization whose agenda, by definition, stokes tensions between Israelis and Palestinians. These provocative acts, these acts by this organization, only serve to escalate tensions at a moment when those tensions have already been high.[4]

After the White House condemnation, Prime Minister Netanyahu had an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation in which he defended the land transactions between Jews and Arabs in the City of David.

Arabs in Jerusalem are free to purchase apartments in the western [part of the] city and no one is arguing against it. I have no intention of telling Jews they can’t buy apartments in East Jerusalem. This is private property and an individual right. There cannot be discrimination—not against Jews and not against Arabs. . . . This goes against values that the United States also believes in.

Then he added, “Buying a house is a fundamental right. . . every person is entitled to private property. No one stole those houses or confiscated the property. Arabs are selling houses to Jews and Jews are selling houses to Arabs.”[5]

Any transaction between any two people of different ethnicities, in any other city of the world, would never have been questioned by the White House. The only exception is when a Jewish person buys a home from an Arab person — and only here, in Jerusalem. A legal transaction had been made with willing and courageous Arab families who had braved threats from organizations that opposed the sale of real estate by Arabs to Jews.

Instead of issuing a condemnation against the terror organizations threatening the lives of innocent Arabs — a gross violation of the law — the White House was condemning us for buying their homes, which we did according to the letter of the law.

Willingly or unwillingly, the White House had come out on the wrong side of the truth.

Thankfully, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Ambassador Dermer defended us.

Following the prime minister’s response, J Street, a radical left-wing US-based NGO that claims to be representative of American Jewry, called on the prime minister “to apologize and withdraw his remarks.”

J Street stated it would renew calls on President Obama to “take a tougher stance against settlement expansion, which has gone virtually unchecked for decades and which now threatens to strangle hopes for a two-state solution.”[6]

It was clear that the most senior government leaders and other public figures abroad were getting an unchallenged, distorted picture of the site from radical advocacy groups and their proxies abroad. It was imperative that we reveal the coordinated deception that was taking place. It was imperative that we present the true story of the City of David as a site of the highest historical value to the Jewish people and billions of non-Jews who hold Jerusalem sacred.

And it was imperative that we stress the legality of how the land was purchased.

I opened an international-affairs division at the City of David. The goal of the division was clear: We were not to impose our views on anyone or tell them what they should do or believe, but simply to inform them and educate them about the facts regarding the City of David.

* * *

Born and educated in the United States, Doron Spielman moved to Israel in 2000, where he serves as an international spokesperson in the Israel Defense Forces Reserves with the rank of Major. For over two decades, he has worked to transform the City of David into one of the world’s most significant archaeological and historical sites. He is a graduate of the Churchill National Security Program, a Senior Fellow at the Herut Center in Jerusalem, and a graduate of the University of Michigan.

This excerpt is taken from “When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel’s Enemies Don’t Want You To Know” (Center Street/Hachette Book Group, May 13, 2025)

Published by permission of Center Street/Hachette Book Group.

The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

* * *

FOOTNOTES:

[1] United Nations, The Question of Palestine: The Palestinian People’s Right to Self-Determination (New York: United Nations, 2014), accessed October 9, 2024, https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/780153?ln=en&v=pdf.

[2] United Nations, The Question of Palestine (New York: United Nations, 2014).

[3] “The Appeals Committee Cancelled Construction Permit Granted to Elad at Hashalom Forest,” Peace Now, last modified October 4, 2023, https://peacenow.org.il/en/the-appeals-committee-cancelled-construction-permit-granted-to-elad-at-hashalom-forest.

[4] Josh Earnest, “Press Briefing by Press Secretary Josh Earnest, 10/1/2014,” The White House, October 1, 2014, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2014/10/01/press-briefing-press-secretary-josh-earnest-1012014.

[5] Barak Ravid, “Netanyahu Rejects U.S. Criticism Over E. Jerusalem,” Haaretz, October 2, 2014, https://www.haaretz.com/2014-10-02/ty-article/.premium/netanyahu-rejects-u-s-criticism-over-e-jlem/0000017f-e4b0-d568-ad7f-f7fb48550000.

[6] “Netanyahu Should Withdraw Statement That Opposing Settlements Is Un-American,” J Street, last modified October 1, 2014, https://jstreet.org/press-releases/netanyahu-should-withdraw-statement-that-opposing-settlements-is-unamerican-_1/.

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