Wakf stopped
from working on Temple Mount wall
By Etgar Lefkovits
JERUSALEM (September 7) - Wakf officials who were doing unsupervised
construction work on the southern wall of the Temple Mount earlier this week
were evicted by police, security officials said yesterday.
The unprecedented work on Monday followed reports that sections of the wall
were in danger of collapse, likely due to past Wakf work in Solomon's Stables
located just above.
The southern wall was the subject of a Sunday meeting between Antiquities
Authority Jerusalem regional archeologist Jon Seligman and senior Wakf
officials, sources said.
Seligman refused to comment.
On Monday, 10 Wakf officials were seen lowering construction materials from the
Temple Mount to the base of the southern wall with no archeologist on hand, in
what may have been an attempt to buttress the section of the wall that is
bulging out.
A guard from the nearby archeological park alerted police, who ordered the
construction immediately stopped.
Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby confirmed yesterday that police did
not allow the Wakf to carry out the work "since it did not coordinate
their moves with police."
Seligman, who is in charge of supervising any work going on at the site, also
refused to comment about the Wakf work. He has not been allowed on the Temple
Mount for nearly a year due to police regulations barring all non-Muslims from
the site in fear of renewed tensions.
Archeologists from the Committee against the Destruction of Antiquities on the
Temple Mount were up in arms following the latest revelations of Wakf work.
"It cannot be that the Wakf can take these unilateral moves without any
archeological supervision," said Dr. Eilat Mazar, of Hebrew University,a
leading member of the committee.
"The cement that Wakf officials were seen putting between the stones of
the protruding wall shows what primitive methods they are using to deal with
this problem and exemplifies the extent of the risk and the negligence the prime
minister is displaying in not properly dealing with this issue."
The committee, which has been decrying the ongoing Wakf work for more than a
year, sent a blistering letter to Prime Minister Sharon this week, asking for
an urgent meeting with him over the continued Wakf work.
Three months ago, the committee revealed that the Wakf was cleaning ancient
cisterns on the Mount. The police confirmed this last month.
Internal Security Minister Uzi Landau recently termed the barring of Jews,
Christians, and archeologists from the site an anomaly that "runs against
all the basic principles of the state." But he said that at present the
government has not acted to change the restrictions placed on non-Muslims due
to the "special sensitivities" of the site at this tense time