Knesset Committee Hears of Moslem Plan To "Upgrade" Temple Mount Sanctity

The Knesset Education Committee held a comprehensive hearing today on the damage that the Moslem Waqf continues to cause to precious Jewish antiquities on and under the Temple Mount. The Waqf is working to build a new mosque in underground chambers of the Mount, and antiquities found in ancient water cisterns there are destroyed in the process.

What is the procedure for monitoring archaeological work on the Mount? The Antiquities Authority is the responsible body, but it has not visited the site since Sept. 2000. Instead, it is the police who report to both the Authority and the government about the goings-on there. Although the Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities says that it has clear proof of destruction caused by the Waqf, it says that its reports to the police are consistently ignored. The referee in this melee, Public Security Minister Uzi Landau, sides with the police - who tell him that the Waqf is causing no damage: "I have all the reasons to believe that the information I receive from the police is trustworthy." Police protection of the site *has* increased since Landau assumed his position, and the heavy earth-moving works and truck traffic to the Mount have almost totally stopped.

Dr. Eilat Mazar, an archaeologist of the Committee, says that the Moslems' goal is even more grandiose than merely building a mosque or even destroying evidence of the Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. She told Seri that the Arab press is full of reports that the plan is to bring "holy water" from Mecca to the Temple Mount cisterns, thus "upgrading" the status of the Temple Mount in Moslem eyes and obviating the need for Moslem worshippers to go to Mecca; they will obtain the same spiritual "value" by visiting the Temple Mount.

Meanwhile, the Temple Mount Faithful petitioned the Supreme Court today, demanding to be allowed to conduct a ceremony on the upcoming Chanukah holiday at the foot of the Temple Mount. The police refuse to grant a permit for the ceremony, and also forbid the members to blow a shofar near the Mughrabi Gate on the Western Wall.