Waqf announces halt in Temple Mount construction

By Nadav Shragai, Ha'aretz Correspondent

The Muslim religious trust, Waqf , announced Sunday that no construction work will be carried out in the Temple Mount area on Sunday.

Police officials said construction work on the Temple Mount has stopped.

The Waqf announcement came after it was revealed that for the first time since the Six day War, that the Waqf had been digging in the elevated area of the Temple Mount on which the Dome of the Rock stands.

Ha'aretz reported Sunday that public figures, intellectuals and archaeologists sent a letter of protest to Prime Minister Ehud Barak demanding him to immediately acts toward stopping construction work on the Temple Mount site.

The Waqf announcement came after Barak ordered Public Security Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami to intervene and stop construction in the area.

The Shin Bet has been telling Barak for the past few days that the long-term intention of the Waqf and the Islamic movement is to pave the area, build additional mosques and make the whole area one big mosque, thereby preventing Jews from entering the area.

Chief rabbi Eliyahu Bakshi-Doron also joined the demand Sunday that Barak stop construction on the Temple Mount.

Barak said in an interview to Army Radio Sunday that the information the archaeologists and public figures had regarding the construction on the Temple Mount was incorrect and many details in it were wrong.

A spokesman for the group which watches developments at the Temple Mount said that all the information presented to Barak by the public figures was well-established and true.

Jerusalem Mufti Shiekh Ekrima Sabri told Itim news agency Sunday that there are no historical artifacts that belong to the Jews on the Temple Mount and that construction work in the area is legitimate and legal. He added that the Palestinian and Muslin people have the right to renovate all parts of the mountain.