To most Israelis, the City of David is little more than a dusty archaeological site south of Jerusalem’s Old City walls, in the heart of Silwan. Many first visit as children on a school trip or as soldiers on an army “culture day.” Few, however, realize that the site offers some of the strongest evidence of the Jewish people’s deep connection to the Land of Israel — dating back roughly a millennium before the birth of Jesus and more than 1,500 years before the rise of Islam.
That connection, says author and archaeologist advocate Doron Spielman, is at the heart of a broader struggle over historical truth. “The effort to minimize Jewish history in the Land of Israel isn’t just academic,” Spielman said. “It’s an ideological tool used by Israel’s enemies and by those who seek to deny our right to Jerusalem.”
Spielman, who served for nearly 20 years as vice president of the City of David Foundation, recently published the Hebrew edition of his book When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel's Enemies Don't Want You To Know. The English version was published in the United States earlier this year and quickly became a bestseller.
Archaeology and identity
The City of David has produced dozens of findings linking Jerusalem’s earliest settlement to the biblical period — discoveries that have fueled both national pride and academic controversy. Spielman says the evidence has dismantled theories popular in the late 20th century that portrayed the biblical accounts of David and Solomon as myth.
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Artistic reconstruction of the City of David, Jerusalem
(Photo: Courtesy of Yigal Shiloh, Archaeological Expedition. Artist: Lloyd Townsend)
“In academia there’s always debate about dating and pottery shards,” he said. “But once the discoveries here started matching the biblical record, the argument stopped being scientific and became political.”
He points to what he calls the “minimalist” school of archaeology, which gained influence in the 1980s and 1990s and, he argues, offered a narrative “convenient for the Palestinians and for the international community — that if David and Solomon never existed, then the Jewish people have no historical claim to Jerusalem.”
From the Bible to Washington
Spielman contends that the City of David even became a diplomatic fault line during the Obama administration. “Excavations here raised red flags not only among Israel’s critics but also in the corridors of the U.S. State Department and the White House,” he said. “At the heart of the two-state idea was the division of Jerusalem. Yet in the very area slated for a future Palestinian state lies the most significant biblical archaeological site in the world.”
He says as the digs expanded, they became a political obstacle for U.S. officials pressing Israel to cede parts of East Jerusalem — precisely where many of the key artifacts of Jewish history have been uncovered.
For Jews and Christians alike, the site has become a powerful symbol of faith. “For anyone with a spiritual connection to Jerusalem, the City of David is the fulfillment of a dream — like Disney World, only real,” Spielman said. “When people see biblical names emerging from the ground, it gives holiness to reality. Even nonreligious Jews feel connected to their roots when they walk here.”
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The City of David and the Temple Mount in the early 20th century, 1910–1920
(Photo: City of David)
Spielman notes that the symbolism of the ancient city resonates far beyond Israel. “America’s Founding Fathers saw themselves as the new Israelites who had found their promised land,” he said. “Hebrew was even considered as an official language of the United States.”
The Hebrew edition of Spielman’s book was completed shortly before U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Pastor Mike Huckabee visited the site in September to mark the opening of the ancient Pilgrims’ Road. Standing near the Givati parking area, Huckabee said: “The stones of this ancient site confirm that the Jewish people not only belong here today but have belonged here for 4,000 years, since God told Abraham, ‘This is your land.’ Tonight, the world says: Welcome home — and may no one ever try to take your home again.”
Unearthing the past
Born in the United States and immigrating to Israel in 2000, Spielman heads Spielman Dynamics, a Jerusalem-based consulting firm focused on defense strategy and geopolitics, and serves as a senior fellow at the Herut Center. For two decades, he worked alongside David (Davidle) Be’eri, the founder of the City of David Foundation, whom he calls “our modern-day Indiana Jones” for transforming the site from a neglected hillside into one of Israel’s most visited archaeological attractions.
The book highlights the legacy of the late Dr. Eilat Mazar, who proposed that ruins uncovered in the area may be the remains of King David’s palace. Mazar coined the phrase “Let the stones speak,” which later became the title of Spielman’s book.
“Even skeptics now acknowledge the scale of ancient Jerusalem,” Spielman said. “Prof. Yuval Gadot admits that the City of David was a real city, not a small village, and Prof. Israel Finkelstein himself wrote that Jerusalem already stretched over a wide area more than 3,000 years ago.”
Spielman calls the discovery of David’s palace “an archaeological knockout.”
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Cover of When the Stones Speak: The Remarkable Discovery of the City of David and What Israel's Enemies Don't Want You To Know by Doron Spielman
“Even if scholars disagree on dates, the structure is direct evidence of the Davidic dynasty — more than 600 years before Christianity and 1,200 years before Islam,” he said. “In a world where our connection to this land is constantly challenged, that is irrefutable proof of the Jewish people’s ancient bond with Jerusalem.”
Hidden treasures and enduring hope
Spielman’s book also touches on the age-old fascination with Jerusalem’s hidden treasures. He cites the biblical account of King Josiah hiding sacred artifacts and points to the discovery of a seal impression bearing the name Nathan-Melech, Josiah’s servant.
“Visitors today can literally walk the same Pilgrims’ Road that Jews walked thousands of years ago,” he said. “We are closer than ever to our ancestors and to the days of the Ark of the Covenant. Who knows — perhaps we may yet uncover it.”