At the opening of an international heritage conference in Judea and Samaria, a giant pool dug by King Herod about 2,000 years ago was inaugurated at Herodium. The event drew hundreds of guests from Israel and abroad, including ministers, Knesset members, local leaders, archaeologists, ambassadors, and other public figures. Among the guests of honor were US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, who received the Israel Heritage Prize, and Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu.
Eliyahu said the ceremony was part of a four-year effort to bring heritage sites in Judea and Samaria back into the public spotlight. Addressing claims of Israeli isolation and Palestinian Authority efforts to register Jewish sites at UNESCO as Palestinian heritage, he said, “This is our answer, to those weakening us from inside and outside, not in words, but in deeds.” He added, “Our weapon is the connection to the Bible,” and said the government is restoring the region’s heritage treasures with broad support.
Huckabee told Eliyahu that the land’s Jewish heritage belongs not only to Israel but also to the United States. He said, “This is your heritage without a doubt, but Mr. Minister, it is also the heritage of the United States,” linking American identity to the biblical history of the area.
The pool restoration is part of the “Derech Eretz Heritage” initiative, the ministry’s major national project to develop, upgrade, and make accessible Jewish heritage and historical sites in Judea and Samaria. Ministry director general Itai Granek called it “a real revolution,” saying hundreds of millions of shekels have been invested in sites including Herodium, Sebastia, and Sartaba, and that thousands came to connect with a history that is “not only the past, but also our future.” Antiquities officer Beni Har Even, who helped enable the work at Herodium, called the evening “historic” and said the preservation of the pool is another step in a long process. Eliyahu also noted Har Even’s personal loss of his son in the October 7 attack, calling him “an angel” for the ministry.
