"The settler group Elad, which established the City of David archaeological site on expropriated Palestinian land in the Silwan district, has presented the road as the route taken by Jews to the temple during the lifetime of Jesus Christ.
The enterprise was declared illegal by the UN as it was built on occupied territory as part of a broader effort to dispossess Palestinians, and a UN commission of inquiry last year denounced its use of archaeology for political ends.
“Despite its rich, heterogeneous history, the narrative presented at the City of David site focuses only on the site’s Jewish history … disregarding all other periods and cultures,” the commission said.
Alon Arad, the head of an independent group of archaeologists, Emek Shaveh, pointed out that the “Pilgrimage Road” tunnel had already been opened once before, in Donald Trump’s first term, by his first ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, using a sledgehammer to break down a wall in 2019.
“This whole festival now is completely bizarre,” Arad said. “The fact that the settlers and the evangelists and other rightwing Americans found each other a perfect match is not news. But this ceremony is just bad archaeology and another proof that the whole City of David archaeological park project has nothing to do with either archaeology or heritage.”
A large stone stepped structure on the site has been claimed by some archaeologists as the biblical City of David, but the claim is hotly disputed. Arad also accuses the Elad organisation of using discredited methods
“Archaeologists stopped digging in tunnels at the beginning of the 20th century,” he said. “The fact that they are excavating in tunnels under people’s houses without their permission makes this whole thing bad archaeology. Once you excavate in a tunnel, you have a very narrow perspective. This whole branding of the Pilgrimage Road is an attempt to Judaise the entire heritage of this region. It is the best example of the term ‘tunnel vision’.” "
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/sep/25/israel-archaeology-jerusalem-history-us