When Israeli archaeologists started to excavate the tombs of the Maccabees, the ancient high priests of Judea, at a site north of Jerusalem, an ultra-Orthodox rabbi cursed them, calling for their hands to drop off. It was the latest round in the long-running battle between rabbis and archaeologists over disinterring ancient Jewish bones.

The ultra-Orthodox hold that the dead must not be disturbed if they are to be resurrected in one piece. To protect their bones the black-hatted "Haredim" demonstrate in their thousands, vandalise excavations and, in extreme cases, employ elaborate curses bringing death and disease.

They say that ritual cursing, with its origin in the esoteric Jewish tradition of mysticism and magic known as the cabbala, has proved effective against their enemies in the past. Aharon Kempinski, a well-known archaeologist, was cursed for digging up graves in the path of a main road in Jerusalem in 1993. Within a year he died of Aids. Six years earlier, Yigal Shilo died of cancer at 50 after a curse was placed on him for excavating the ancient city of Jerusalem.