'You can feel it here. It's life, real life," whispers a voice in the dim light illuminating a narrow tunnel hidden below the surface of Jerusalem's streets.

Protesters near Ir David in Jerusalem.
Photo: Michael Green

"Life in Jerusalem ended here," says Doron Spielman, the Ir David Foundation's international director of development, crouching in the passage in which he says the last Jewish residents of ancient Jerusalem took their final stand during the revolt against the Romans in 70 CE.

Indeed, one can actually feel the soft black residue lining the stone walls of the channel - dubbed the "Herodian Tunnel" because it is believed to have been built by King Herod - which Spielman says is ash from the destruction of the Second Temple.

"It was built to direct rainwater to the upper city of Jerusalem in the Second Temple Period and is part of one massive underground water system. At that time, water meant life," he explains.

The still air in the tunnel is a stark contrast to the controversy that it has caused above ground. Climbing up to the surface, the 21st century comes to life in the shape of Sudanese laborers carrying rubble around the site, not to mention the large protest tent erected yards from the excavation where local Arab residents raised a banner across the street declaring, "To dig a tunnel means to kill a village."

Tourists have been flocking to see the phenomenal archeological findings at the Ir David site, or City of David in English, the place where the city of Jerusalem began thousands of years ago. But the new excavations in the Arab village of Silwan have brought simmering tensions in the neighborhood to the surface.

Demonstrations earlier this month by a group of Arab residents and Jewish Israeli activists to prevent work on the latest tunnel, which runs under the homes of several families, resulted in the arrest of eight people under suspicion of interfering with the dig and damaging property. But the disquiet goes beyond the tunnels to the wider activities of the Ir David Foundation, which opponents says is telling a selective history of the area and putting archeology before the daily lives of the local residents.

The entrance to the main City of David Visitors Center, a five-minute walk from the Western Wall, has now become the site of weekly Friday protests, with a few dozen activists distributing leaflets to tourists and holding placards reading, "Yes to archeology, no to re-writing history," "An entrance ticket = ticket for a brainwash" and "Enter as a tourist, exit as a settler."

The protests were sparked by excavations on the new tunnel, which residents fear will endanger the safety of the people living above them. "Unlike the usual manner of an archeological dig, which is vertical and digs deeper, here it is advancing horizontally in both directions," says B., a Jewish Israeli activist.

"It is very dangerous for the families and children living here," believes Abu Diav Fakhri, from the community committee.

"The dig is passing under the land of the Palestinians and we argued that they do not have a permit for these digs. To get a permit, one has to ask the owners of the land and involve them in the process; they can't dig horizontally under the land of the Palestinians," says attorney Gabi Laski, who is representing three of the protesters who were arrested. "According to land law in Israel, a person who has property is also the owner of what is underneath. Of course, if archeological artifacts are found there is a process to enter the land, but to do that the landowner must be involved, and they have never been approached."

In a written statement, the Israel Antiquities Authority says: "The IAA acts according to the Antiquities Law and does not take any action that is contradictory to the instructions of the law."

The Ir David Foundation says that locals have nothing to fear from the digging. "The claims are bogus. We are simply cleaning out tunnels that were already dug by King Herod," says Spielman, noting that the tunnel was originally discovered and partially excavated in 1895 by archeologists Frederick Bliss and Archibald Dickie of the Palestine Exploration Fund.

In an exclusive tour of the Herodian Tunnel In Jerusalem saw first-hand the progress of the latest discovery at the City of David which runs south to the Shiloah Pool. "Everything I am showing you now was dug here by Bliss and Dickie. It's defined as an archeological cleaning operation because the work is taking place in a confined capsule," says Spielman nine meters below street level, pointing to the large stone slabs supporting the tunnel walls. "It's not a standard archeological dig when you dig down through all the layers, from the base of the excavation up to the surface. We are literally cleaning what Bliss and Dickie left behind, it's as if the Channel Tunnel got dirty and was cleaned out. Whenever we dig we put up steel supports… but we are not required to put up supports here because the tunnel is a capped space. We're not going to the surface of the earth. If we were digging to the road we would be having a different conversation. There is no structural damage to any homes."

Silwan residents showed In Jerusalem large, fresh cracks in the road adjacent to the new excavation site, including where they say the road caved into the ground three weeks ago and was subsequently filled in by the municipality. Residents say that property is at risk of damage occurring on the northern section of the tunnel, which they claim is not supported by walls, but IJ was unable to confirm this.

Attorney Sami Ershed, who took a petition by the villagers to the High Court of Justice to stop the excavations on February 10, says that the dig requires legal permission from the municipality, as well as permission from the landlord in order to enter privately-owned land. Nevertheless, Spielman says he is "extremely confident" that the case will be rejected by the court. The municipal spokesman's office told IJ that City Hall does not deal with permits for archeological digs, leaving this to the IAA.