Dorfman says the objections are purely political and have nothing to do with the antiquities authority.
"We are a nonpolitical organization. We are a professional organization and an organization that is working according to the law of antiquities," he says. "I don't care about politics."
Residents' distrust of Israeli archeology is rooted in their history with the Ir David Foundation, which funds several digs in the area, including the Silwan tunnel project.
The foundation has created the City of David, an archeological park built around what it believes to be ruins from the time of the legendary Hebrew king, who ruled in Jerusalem some 3,000 years ago.
Ir David provides as much as US$600,000 a year to the IAA for projects in and around the City of David, but says it plays no part in the actual digging.
However, the foundation has sought to create a "living testament" to the historic Jewish presence in the mostly Palestinian neighborhood.
"This is the most important place in the world for the Jewish people. We have been waiting for 2,000 years to come back to this area," said Doron Spielman, a senior foundation executive.
A white limestone street of newly built homes secured by heavy doors and cameras and decked with Israeli flags juts into Silwan, an extension of the park built to look like the Jewish quarter of the Old City.
"Building a residential Jewish community is definitely a priority of the organization," Spielman said, but he insisted the foundation enjoys good relations with Arab residents.
Meir Margalit, a spokesman for the Israeli Committee Against Housing Demolitions, said: "The problem is not the archeological digging, it is the agenda of the people who are behind the digging."
He and other Israeli activists fear that sensitive projects like Silwan, if left in the hands of right-wing groups, could one day be used to detonate the Middle East peace process.
"For a long time this has been a problematic issue, but now it is a dangerous issue," Margalit said.
Yoni Mizrachi, an Israeli archeologist critical of Ir David, said IAA reliance on it for funding ties them to its agenda.
"They need the money, and they are not just doing this for the benefit of archeology," Mizrachi said. "It's one of the few sites operated by private organizations and it is the only one run by a right-wing organization."
Israel occupied and annexed east Jerusalem in 1967, a move not recognized by any other country or by the Palestinians, who have demanded the mostly Arab half of the city as their future capital.
But Silwan's residents say the foundation is slowly tunneling its way toward control of the entire neighborhood.
"You start wondering what is happening when they change the names of places," Qarain says. "This is Silwan, but they call it Ir David. We know this street as Wadi Helwa Siyam, but they put up signs calling it Maale David."
In the climate of fear and distrust that prevails in Jerusalem the kind of nonpolitical archeology that the IAA claims to practice may be impossible, but the secrecy around the project is not dispelling the controversy.
"Nobody knows how long these tunnels are and how far they have excavated so far," Mizrachi says. "Nobody knows anything."
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