Remember Tel Aroma?
Not the chain of cafes, but the ancient Hasmonean fortress in Samaria.
I follow him closely and with heartbreak.
Many months ago, the Palestinian Authority took over the ancient mound, waved a huge PLO flag and announced that it would build a mosque there. Nothing was done in Israel.
Israel is still not doing anything, nor will it.
Tel Aroma is a symbol of the dismal situation on the ground.
This week, a fascinating and sad document, the "National Heritage Survey", was published by the Sheila Forum and the "Preserving Eternity" organization, a civic organization with a small budget that replaces an entire government.
Some guys who have decided to dedicate their best years to trying to save the archeological catastrophe that is taking place under our noses in Bible land.
They mapped 365 archeological sites, the most important for the heritage of national and world culture in Judea and Samaria.
The magnificent Hurricane Fortress, the Saratva, Tel Dotan, Herod's "Third Palace", Tel Aroma and more.
At each site they checked and mapped what damage was done.
The picture is bleak: no less than 80 percent of the sites have been damaged, some systematically.
Yes, systematic. "I think there are no antiquities here that belong to the Jews," said an Arab resident of Jericho, when reporter Ohad Hemo asked him about the demolition. And that's the story. In recent years, the Palestinian Authority has been carrying out systematic and unprecedented destruction of archeological sites in Judea and Samaria. There are things we have lost forever.
The person in charge of the preservation of the archeological sites is the Civil Administration, which does not do its job. As a body of policy and execution, it is utterly failing to preserve the assets of our homeland. He does not enforce enough, does not know enough, does not want to know, does not strive to keep what we have. Worse: the Civil Administration does not even mark the sites, even though it is required by law. This is not just a mark. This technical marking has legal meanings, meanings of enforcement and of setting priorities. Far-left organizations know and understand well the meaning of marking. They issue briefings to Palestinians on how to use non-marking of sites most effectively in the field and with law enforcement. Thus, the Civil Administration fails and the antiquities are destroyed.
The State of Israel is elevated in its role of preserving and protecting heritage sites.
Foreign governments from faraway Europe fund tens of millions, directly and indirectly, from harming our heritage sites.
Combining an international and intra-Israeli academic boycott of those who dare to explore the region and are not Palestinians, we are talking about a trend of total erasure of our past.
We are erasing the land of the Bible.
The beginning of a solution, by the way, is in bringing the Antiquities Authority into the picture.
It is an independent, professional body that, if given the responsibility for the Judea and Samaria area, may save what is left to save.
"A nation that does not know its past, its present is poor and its future is full of fog," said Yigal Alon.
What will happen to a nation that has built an independent state, but is knowingly and indifferently abandoning its past?