According to a tradition that dates back to the 9th century CE—and may be Christian or Muslim in origin, although it is shared by Jews as well—King David’s tomb is located on Mount Zion in Jerusalem. Although most archaeologists reject the accuracy of this tradition, they have found the site a fruitful one for excavation, as evidenced by the recent discovery of an inscription connected to a famed 15th-century Swiss warrior. Nicky Blackburn writes:

Adrian von Bubenberg . . . came on pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1466, and on his visit either he or his son—also called Adrian—left a charcoal inscription of his name and family emblem on a wall in Jerusalem. Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) discovered the inscription while carrying out an archaeological survey on Mount Zion to document ancient graffiti by Muslim and Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem.

So far, they have revealed more than 40 inscriptions in different languages, as well as the family emblems of medieval knights.

“In the Mamluk period, between 1332-1551, the building complex adjacent to the traditional tomb of King David was owned by the monks of the Franciscan Catholic Order” said Michael Chernin and Shai Halevi of the IAA, who headed the project. “The building served as a monastery and a hostel for the Western pilgrims, who left their mark on the walls.”

Bubenberg, who is considered a national hero in Switzerland, was born to a noble family in 1424, and—after long service as the mayor of Bern—gained fame in 1476 when he led the Swiss Confederate army to victory against Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, in the battle of Murten.

While it is commendable that administrators of several universities finally called upon police to crack down on violent and disruptive anti-Israel protests, the actions they have taken may be insufficient. At Columbia, demonstrators reestablished their encampment on the main quad after it had been cleared by the police, and the university seems reluctant to use force again. The school also decided to hold classes remotely until the end of the semester. Such moves, whatever their merits, do nothing to fix the factors that allowed campuses to become hotbeds of pro-Hamas activism in the first place. The editors of National Review examine how things go to this point:

Since the 10/7 massacre, Columbia’s Jewish students have been forced to endure routine calls for their execution. It shouldn’t have taken the slaughter, rape, and brutalization of Israeli Jews to expose chants like “Globalize the intifada” and “Death to the Zionist state” as calls for violence, but the university refused to intervene on behalf of its besieged students. When an Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia’s library, it occasioned little soul-searching from faculty. Indeed, it served only as the impetus to establish an “Anti-Semitism Task Force,” which subsequently expressed “serious concerns” about the university’s commitment to enforcing its codes of conduct against anti-Semitic violators.

But little was done. Indeed, as late as last month the school served as host to speakers who praised the 10/7 attacks and even “hijacking airplanes” as “important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in.”

The school’s lackadaisical approach created a permission structure to menace and harass Jewish students, and that’s what happened. . . . Now is the time finally to do something about this kind of harassment and associated acts of trespass and disorder. Yale did the right thing when police cleared out an encampment [on Monday]. But Columbia remains a daily reminder of what happens when freaks and haters are allowed to impose their will on campus.