Olmert: We must fix Temple Mount bulge
The time has come
for the government to assert its sovereignty and repair the bulge in the the
southern wall of the Temple Mount before it collapses, Jerusalem Mayor Ehud
Olmert said yesterday.
But Muslim
officials in charge of the site insisted the wall supporting the Aksa Mosque
compound is stable. They accused Israel of exploiting the situation to try to
increase its supervision of the site, revered by Muslims and Jews.
"There are
serious grounds for the apprehension that it could collapse," Olmert told
Israel Radio. "In my view we have reached the moment of truth. The
government of Israel has no alternative but to decide to exercise our natural
authority in regard to the Temple Mount."
The 10-meter-wide
bulge is in the wall holding up the southeastern corner of the Mount.
Judaism's holiest
site, the Western Wall, a retaining wall below the middle of the Temple Mount,
is not affected by the bulge.
Eilat Mazar, head
of the Public Committee for the Protection of the Antiquities on the Temple
Mount, said the wall has deteriorated beyond repair.
"The wall
will collapse," she told the radio. "The central issue at present is
whether it will collapse on the heads of thousands of people who are praying
there, or whether it will be done in a controlled manner as it should be
done."
Shuka Dorfman,
head of the Israel Antiquities Authority, said Monday: "I cannot tell you
when it will happen, and I do not know what section will fall, but I can tell
you that the southern wall is indeed in danger of collapse." Dorman said
over a year of contacts with the Wakf, the Muslim religious trust, to fix the
problem have been fruitless.
His archeologists
and engineers are prevented by Wakf officials from carrying out needed tests on
the Temple Mount to survey the damage and enable repairs, Dorfman said.
However, Wakf
director Adnan Husseini said the bulge has not grown or shifted for about 30
years and poses no immediate threat.
"This bulge
is under our monitoring since the 70s," he told The Associated Press.
"It is stable, we don't feel that there is any dangerous situation."
Husseini
confirmed Monday that Islamic officials had rejected an Israeli request to be
involved in the repair work, which he said was previously done by an Arab
company. "It's a principle. The Wakf works alone at the mosque," he
said.
The Antiquities
Authority first conducted a series of tests on the outside of the wall in the
first half of 2000, after sections were seen protruding. It was theorized that
the bulge was due to Wakf construction work in years past at Solomon's Stables
just above.
"If not
treated, the problem is a source of danger in the medium-term (in a range of a
number of years), and its collapse may cause irreversible damage to the
structure," the Antiquities Authority's survey stated in July 2001.
After Dorfman
notified the political echelon of the likely disaster waiting to happen,
Foreign Minister Shimon Peres tried unsuccessfully to bring aboard the
Egyptians and Jordanians in the effort to fix the problem, sources said.
A Jordanian group
visited the site last week, but nothing came of their trip since the Wakf is
now controlled by the Palestinian Authority.
Concern is
mounting in the Israeli archeological community ahead of the Ramadan holy month
in November, when hundreds of thousands of Muslim worshipers visit the site,
with perhaps 10,000 able to attend the mosque at Solomon's Stables.
News agencies
contributed to this report.