[LCM Articles] Jesus was Here: Israeli reports slammed as false

[Loai Naamani]

Jesus was Here: Israeli reports slammed as false

By Mohammed Zaatari 
Daily Star staff
Friday, December 24, 2004
 

QANA AL-JALIL: Salah Salameh, the mayor of this southern Lebanon town, on
Thursday rejected recent news reports that jars Jesus might have used to turn
water into wine were found near Nazareth.

The miracle, he said, instead occurred in this village 12 kilometers southeast
of Tyre, where the Qana grotto is located.

News reports Thursday suggested that the jars were discovered near Nazareth, 48
kilometers south of Tyre.

Salameh said the reports were an Israeli attempt to picture itself as a country
of tourism and cradle of religions.

The major characteristic of Qana al-Jalil is a grotto with engravings on a wall
that depict a main figure allegedly representing Jesus Christ surrounded by 12
other figures representing the apostles. Studies date the engravings to the 1st
century A.D, Salameh said.

A visit to the site - about 1 kilometer away from the grotto and where Jesus is
believed to have attended the wedding and changed the water into wine - shows
large deserted jars partly destroyed by erosion. 

Nour al-Khatib, a Muslim resident in the area who sells posters and booklets
about the site for tourists, said, "This is where the jars are located without
a doubt; no one can conceal the truth."

 
Hajj Sabeini Abu Amer, another resident, said Christ's history is engraved here
despite the Israeli claims.

Israeli media said the jars were found in the Arab village of Kfar Kena, near
Nazareth.

In an interview with The Daily Star, Salameh said the news broadcasts by foreign
news agencies, including the Associated Press, were surprising.

He said reporting such news at Christmas was an Israeli attempt to "monopolize
holy religious history and facts."

Salameh said Israel was trying to show the West that security had been
established in the region and that it could receive tourists at its holy
shrines

According to Salameh, the Gospel of John specifies that Qana is located in what
is now South Lebanon - a fact he said that was also confirmed by Roman Church
historians in the 3rd century.

He said historians and geologists conducted studies of the jars, found in
Lebanon over 50 years ago, and said the Qana jars were authentic. 

Salameh accused the Directorate General of Antiquities of neglecting religious
sites in Qana instead of renovating them to highlight their national and
international importance.