A team of researchers have found evidence of an “Israel Silk Road” between the Dead Sea and Eilat. Photo: Olga Nganbitsky, Israel Antiquities Authority, Nofer Shamir, Roy Galili

We live in a world of lies and misrepresentations. Nowhere is this more obvious than in regard to the long history of the Jews. The resurgence of Holocaust denial is now being pared with the denial that Jews ever had a history in the land of Israel. It is as though our whole past has been eradicated.

Even in some Jewish circles, it’s common to hear that the Jewish tradition is based on fantasies, fairytales, and unlikely miracles. It is true that the amount of documentation that has survived over thousands of years is limited. Archaeology is a relatively modern science. Even so, it is important to point out how much of the ancient Jewish tradition has been verified by archaeology, even though there’s a great deal that still remains to be discovered.

The earliest record comes from the Merneptah Stele dated 1028 BCE, which is housed in the new Cairo Museum. Merneptah was an Egyptian Pharaoh and a stele (plural: stelae) was a vertical slab of stone or wood, usually rectangular with a rounded top. In the stele, Merneptah records that he conquered “Israel [and] laid it waste and bereft of seed.”

The next example is the Mesha Stele, dated 840 BCE. Discovered in 1868, now in the Louvre, Mesha was a Moabite king subject to the Northern Kingdom of Israel. There was constant friction between them. Mesha rebelled after years of subjugation, and he killed King Omri of the North. In the stele, Mesha also mentions taking a city from the Israelite tribe of Gad on the East Bank of the river Jordan. The Bible records Mesha differently (2 Kings 3:4). There it says Mesha was defeated by the joint armies of Yehoshafat and Yehoram. Different names, perhaps different times — but in those days, apart from Biblical narratives, only victories were recorded.

Assyria became the dominant power of the Middle East during the Iron Age. Many artifacts, inscriptions, and records have been unearthed of the interactions between Assyria and the kingdoms of Israel and Judea. Two monoliths, now in the British Museum, were found at Kurukh. They mention a battle against an alliance of local kings including Achav, King of Israel, who was defeated. There are also corresponding stories about this in the Torah.

The Tel Dan Stele was discovered in 1993 and is now in the Israel Museum. In it, the Aram/Damascus King Hazael describes his victory against Ahab King of Israel and Yoram of the House of David. It is the earliest external evidence of the House of David.

After the Babylonian Exile of 586 BCE, the Judeans were able to re-constitute their identity. The Persian king Cyrus conquered Babylon. The famous Cyrus Cylinder (also at the British Museum) tolerated all religions in the Persian Empire, including that of the Jews. He also allowed them to return and rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. There was opposition from opponents of the Jews, which delayed the work. But Ezra and Nechemia succeeded in the completion of the re-building, thanks to the intervention of Darius the Great. And we have documents from Darius the Second to the Jewish garrison in Elephantine about keeping the Passover and directing the pagan priests to stop harassing the Jews.

Once we get to the Greek and Roman period, the importance and presence of the Jewish communities in Judea and Rome are well documented by both Josephus and other Roman sources. Naturally, the opponents of a Jewish homeland like to deny any of this and claim it is all fake Zionist propaganda. Ironically and in a sign of the times, the British Museum itself pulled an exhibition of Israelite artifacts because they did not want to upset the opponents of the Jewish State.

Nothing we say will persuade those whose minds are made up. But we can at least show the evidence to those willing to listen. And above all, to ensure that the coming generations learn how to distinguish fact from indoctrination. We must have the pride to fight for the right to a land of our own, regardless of how many seek to deny it.

The author is a writer and rabbi, currently based in New York.