Hani Nur el-Din, a Palestinian professor of archaeology at Al Quds University, said he and his colleagues considered biblical archaeology an effort by Israelis "to fit historical evidence into a biblical context." He added: "The link between the historical evidence and the biblical narration, written much later, is largely missing. There's a kind of fiction about the 10th century. They try to link whatever they find to the biblical narration. They have a button, and they want to make a suit out of it."
classic arabian tactic of flipping the truth on top of itself to cover their own lie. "see you are the liar" they say. it is the arabians account of "history" in all the land of Israel which is in doubt, not Jewish history.
Again, do we want a debate on rights to be centered on who lived there 3000 years ago. The stronger argument should be who lives there now and who has a right to live there. By discussing the past we are just getting sucked into a debated with Islam-a-racists about events in forgotten history and, as much as people here believe the Biblical version, there is no way to know for sure. I too believe the Biblical version, but the attitude should be 'yea we were here 3000 years ago, but more importantly we're here now and we have a right to be here free from your ----.'
Of course, the only thing the NYT can think to do with this story is to get quotes from a bunch of Palestinians who have a strong vested interest in debunking the Bible. I'm surprised they didn't get quotes from Richard Dawkins and George Galloway, too. Just as a reminder, the Bible never says David built Jerusalem. He conquered the city when it was the capital of the Jebusites.