Experts dismiss Netanyahu’s claim over Siloam Inscription
ISTANBUL
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has renewed calls for the 2,800-year-old Siloam Inscription, but Turkish historians and legal experts dismiss the demand, stressing the artifact was lawfully transferred to Istanbul and offers no basis for claims over Jerusalem.
Carved in ancient Hebrew, the inscription was discovered during the reign of the Ottomans in 1880 in a water tunnel in Jerusalem dating to King Hezekiah’s reign.
It was sent shortly after to Istanbul’s Imperial Museum, today the Istanbul Archaeology Museums, where it has remained since 1883.
A replica is on display in Jerusalem.
Netanyahu said that he personally asked then-Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yılmaz for the inscription during a 1998 visit, even offering to exchange it for Ottoman relics kept in Israel.
Yılmaz rejected the request, reportedly telling him: “This has no price.”
Similar appeals by Israeli leaders over the years were also turned down.
Despite multiple failed attempts to acquire the inscription, Netanyahu has recently once more cited the artifact as evidence to assert Israel’s claims over Jerusalem.
Turkish experts, on the other hand, say the inscription cannot be used to support Israel’s political or territorial claims.
Speaking to daily Hürriyet, renowned Turkish historian İlber Ortaylı emphasized that such artifacts are not subject to exchange based on political claims.
“No country hands over such inscriptions. What legal ground could this provide? If that logic applied, Romans could reclaim lands they ruled two thousand years ago,” he said.
Ortaylı argued that Israel’s attempt to frame the inscription as proof of sovereignty is historically meaningless, adding that Türkiye has spent years recovering artifacts taken from its territory and “would never hand over the ones in its museums.”
Religion historian İsmail Taşpınar also questioned the validity of Netanyahu’s claim.
“Archaeological findings have long been tied to scripture as part of a bid to construct history for Israel,” he said.
He added that the dating and purpose of the inscription remain debated among specialists, and therefore it cannot be treated as conclusive evidence of anything.
International law professor Enver Bozkurt emphasized that past presence does not translate into permanent rights.
“A civilization’s existence in a place for a certain period does not make it theirs forever under international law,” he explained, underscoring that the inscription does not provide legal legitimacy for Israel’s sovereignty claims.
Former ambassador Tahsin Burcuoğlu argued that such arguments are purely propaganda tools and would not be taken seriously by any international legal body.
Yahya Coşkun, former deputy head of Türkiye’s museums authority, recalled that Israeli officials once approached him directly about the artifact.
“I showed them the record, dated 1883, proving it was registered in Istanbul during Ottoman rule, long before Israel even existed,” he said.
Despite repeated appeals, Türkiye has made its position clear: The Siloam Inscription will not leave Istanbul.
