The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has vowed to rebury all ancient Western Wall stones on display and return them to their original burial sites, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Chief Rabbinate announced on Tuesday.
This promise follows a controversial IAA move earlier this month to transfer a five-ton fragment of the Western Wall, which was salvaged from the rubble of the Second Temple, to an exhibition at Ben-Gurion Airport.
The move sparked outrage among the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and traditionalists, who said that the stones must be treated with the same reverence afforded to any other piece of the wall and not displayed as museum artifacts.
In their view, any object from the wall is holy and may not be handled or exhibited in a secular context.
The IAA’s decision to rebury the stones was made following a tense meeting at the Western Wall attended by the two chief rabbis of Israel, Kalman Ber and David Yosef, government ministers, and senior IAA officials.
Specifically, Religious Services Minister Michael Malkieli, Jerusalem Affairs and Heritage Minister Meir Porush, and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu were in attendance.
Also present were Eli Escusido, the IAA’s director-general, Mordechai Soli Eliav, the chairman of the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, and representatives from the Prime Minister’s Office and The Company for the Reconstruction and Development of the Jewish Quarter.
The attendees agreed that Western Wall stones – some weighing as much as five tons – must not be treated as archaeological exhibits but rather as sacred relics subject to Jewish law.
At the gathering, Yosef and the rabbi of the Western Wall and Holy Sites, Shmuel Rabinowitz, said that the fragments of the 2,000-year-old wall were intrinsically linked to the sanctity of the site and must be buried alongside other fallen stones.
Before convening at Rabinowitz’s office, the rabbis and ministers toured the burial site in Jerusalem where dozens of fallen Western Wall stones from the Second Temple era have been buried.
There, they inspected the carefully arranged boulders and underscored that Jewish law requires their interment rather than public display.
“Issues of sanctity must be resolved according to the ruling of the Chief Rabbinate,” Yosef told attendees.
“These stones are part of the Western Wall’s holiness and must remain with their brethren in a state of burial,” he said.
LATER, THE IAA and the Western Wall Heritage Foundation issued a joint statement. They said that all Western Wall fragments currently being held in various locations, such as Ben-Gurion Airport, the President’s Residence, the Israel Museum, and IAA storage facilities, will be returned to burial alongside the rest of the wall’s fallen stones.
The statement added that the site would be properly fenced off with clear instructions for the public to refrain from handling or moving the stones.
“We will act in all matters of sanctity according to the position of the Chief Rabbinate,” said Escusido, adding that the IAA would coordinate the transfer of the stones in the coming days.
“Every fragment will be returned to its burial place next to the other Western Wall boulders, and their holiness will be respected.”
Rabinowitz welcomed the decision, saying that the Western Wall’s stones were not mere antiquities but extensions of a living religious site.
“These rocks speak of our history and faith,” he said. “They deserve the same dignity as every other piece of the Wall.”
The Prime Minister’s Office spokesperson, Omer Dostri, said that the government fully endorsed the rabbinate’s ruling.
“We recognize the profound spiritual significance of every stone removed from the Western Wall,” he said. “The IAA’s commitment to reburying these relics underscores our respect for Jewish tradition and the sacred nature of this site.”
Among the fragments to be returned first are several massive stones that had been displayed in IAA warehouses in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv, as well as smaller pieces exhibited at the President’s Residence and the Israel Museum.
The repatriation process is expected to take approximately two weeks. A joint rabbinic-IAA committee will oversee it to ensure that every stone is handled in accordance with halacha.
Conservative, Haredi groups applauded the decision
Conservative and haredi (ultra-Orthodox) groups alike applauded the decision.
“The Western Wall is not a relic for secular display,” said Rabbi Meir Kahane of the Council for Jewish Heritage. “This outcome reaffirms that our heritage cannot be commodified.”
The controversy rekindles a longstanding tension between Israel’s archaeological authorities and religious institutions over the treatment of artifacts connected to the Second Temple. While the IAA maintains that preservation and study require scientific handling, rabbinate authorities say that certain objects, especially those tied to the Western Wall, must be governed by religious law.
In 2010, a similar dispute over fallen Western Wall stones stored at the Jerusalem Archaeological Park in the Old City prompted a rabbinical ruling that they be buried.
Yesterday’s resolution extends that principle to every fragment currently in secular hands.