Preserve the
Temple Mount
(January 23) - According to the red lines Prime Minister Ehud Barak
dispatched with his negotiators to Taba, Israel will not "transfer
sovereignty over the Temple Mount to the Palestinians." In the meantime,
the Barak government is already failing to exercise Israeli sovereignty on the
most basic level: ensuring proper preservation and oversight over the Israel's
most important archeological site.
Yesterday, the police categorically denied independent reports by a
watchdog organization and by Israel Radio that digging of a tunnel had begun
between two mosques below the surface of the Temple Mount. The Council for the
Prevention of Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, which includes
authors A.B. Yehoshua, Amos Oz, and noted archeologists, argues that such
police reports have already proven not to be credible, such as when the police
reversed previous denials regarding a ditch on the platform supporting the Dome
of the Rock.
Though Barak reportedly ordered police to stop work on the 40-meter
long by 70-centimeter deep ditch, this is far from sufficient comfort to all
those concerned about the potential for irreversible archeological damage.
According to Israel Caspi, the organizer of a public letter to Barak
on this issue, a triple scandal surrounds Israel's indifference to the Wakf's
activities: the destruction of antiquities of great importance to Israel and
the world, the blatant disregard for Israel's laws and the recommendations of
the attorney-general, and the draconian restrictions on public and press access
to the area.
All concerned agree that the major damage occurred in late 1999 when
the Wakf - the Islamic authority that continued to oversee the area after
Israel took over in 1967 - opened a huge entrance to the a mosque built into
the substructure of the Mount. At that time and since, hundreds of tons of
material were removed with heavy equipment and without any Israeli
archeological supervision.
According to one of the foremost experts on the Temple Mount,
archeologist Gabi Barkai, large-scale work has continued over the past few
months, some authorized by Israel, some not, in areas beyond the initial
construction. Most seriously for the future, archeologists have little idea
what is going on, since what little supervision ended last September.
Before September, the Antiquities Authority sent what it called
"observers" to the Mount. These visits were not called
"inspections" because the archeologists were not allowed to take
pictures, notes, or measurements, nor did they have any authority - as they
would elsewhere - to stop work if they judged that archeological damage was
being done.
Since September, even this extremely lax level of supervision is
gone since the police have barred all but themselves and Moslem worshipers from
going up to the Mount. The police ban has barred tourists, archeologists, and
the press - a blatant violation of the freedoms of access to holy places and of
the press.
Though the attorney-general has expressed increasing concern over
the government's rampant lack of enforcement of the antiquities and other
relevant laws, the Supreme Court has repeatedly established, with respect to
sensitive holy places, that the government has wide prerogative to essentially
waive the law according to security or diplomatic considerations. But the fact
that the government has leeway not to enforce the law does not mean such a
policy is wise or acceptable.
Israel is not without recourse with respect to the Wakf's complete
disregard for the archeological treasures partially placed in its trust. The
public council attempting to protect the area has made some common sense
demands: bar any unauthorized heavy earth-moving equipment from the Temple
Mount, institute regular and professional archeological inspections, end the
press blackout, and enforce an orderly process of planning and permits for any
new construction.
There is no security excuse allowing a level of destructive anarchy
on the Temple Mount that would not be tolerated by the most lowly municipality
in Israel. The Wakf, for its part, does not have a leg to stand on, because it
is not the freedom of Moslems to worship that is at issue, but the
custodianship of a place that is not only treasured by the Jewish people but by
the Western world.
The current abdication of responsibility does not even makes sense
for those who think that Israel should substantially relinquish sovereignty
over the Mount. Those inclined to trample our own interests out of respect for
the Wakf's illegitimate bullying should remember what Yasser Arafat says when
Israel complains about inflammatory Palestinian textbooks: 'Why didn't you,
Israel, change them when you were in charge of educating Palestinians before
Oslo?' If Israel does not set a standard for proper custodianship now, its
standing to demand such a standard from the Palestinians in the future will be
close to nil.