Treasure Lost

By Jacob Lefkovits Dallal

December, 1999: Dozens of truckloads of earth from the Temple Mount were dumped in the Kidron Valley. An artists depiction of the ?Ancient Al-Aksa? passageway, as it looked during the time of the Second Temple when it served as a corridor leading to the Temple Mount. Solomon's Stables in the early 1900s. Moslems - primarily from the north of Israel - donate their time and craftsmanship to projects on the Temple Mount. Pictured: Work being done at Solomon's Stables in September.
It's a chilly day at the beginning of the week and the Temple Mount is open for tourists. The month of Ramadan and the Eid el-Fitr holiday are over and the Mount is quiet, except for a scattering of tourists and Moslem worshippers. A white makeshift shack is visible along the southern edge of the Mount, and an occasional construction worker goes in or out, but the shack, like the areas of recent contention between the Wakf, the Moslem religious authority, and Israel, are off limits to non-Moslems.

Even on a weekday afternoon, Moslem worshippers can be seen descending to the area known as Solomon's Stables or Massalam Marwani, or down to the passageway beneath the Al-Aksa Mosque; Wakf guards at the entrances to these places tell non-Moslems they may not enter. No one gets to see the recently dug-out exit to Solomon's Stables, close to the eastern wall, not even from a distance.

Archeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority also can be found making their rounds on the Temple Mount several days a week. But their access to sites on the Temple Mount is often as limited as that of tourists, and they insist that the job of an archeologist is not to observe and report to higher authorities but to oversee archeological work as needed.

In the most recent and serious incident in December, the Wakf dug out an exit for the underground Solomon's Stables. The government gave approval for the digging, but the Wakf used bulldozers to unearth an area 15 meters deep, instead of giving it the meticulous archeological excavation needed for such a site.

'Something of this sort has not been done on the Temple Mount in the last 1,300 years,' says Gideon Avni, director of excavations at the Antiquities Authority, referring to the size of the area dug up on the Temple Mount.

For its part, the government says it is trying to rebuild dialogue with the Wakf, but that it will take time. Meanwhile, the police assured the Antiquities Authority last month that their inspectors would get an escort if needed; and the police say they also will report any further construction work.

Such is the status quo at present on the Temple Mount. Indeed, such has been the status quo for the last three years. The Wakf initiates some sort of construction or refurbishment, sometimes with the tacit approval of the government, sometimes without; it carries it out alone, without consultation of the Antiquities Authority; and more archeological damage is sustained to a site which happens to be the most important archeological site in Israel, and one of the most important in the world.

In fact, the last several years have seen an increase in Wakf construction on the Temple Mount. Until recently, only very straightforward renovation work was done, and generally in consultation with the Antiquities Authority. The major projects that were carried out included renovations of the dome of Al-Aksa in the 1980s and the gilding of the Dome of the Rock in the mid-1990s. But these were improvements on existing structures, and did not involve excavating beneath the Temple Mount surface.

'Beginning a few years ago,' says Jon Seligman, Jerusalem regional archeologist, 'the Wakf began a series of major works, larger in scale than anything done until now.'

THE SHORT history of the recent construction initiatives by the Wakf begins, not in Jerusalem, but in the Israeli-Arab city of Umm el-Fahm, with the city's mayor, Raed Salah. In the early 1990s, Salah, a leader of the Islamic movement, decided to take on the cause of Jerusalem and began a campaign under the slogan 'Saving Al-Aksa.'

Each year he organizes a large rally in his city, calling on the Moslem world to defend Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. The most recent rally held in September, with sizable delegations from several Moslem countries, drew some 30,000 people.

On the more practical level, Salah has initiated work on the Temple Mount, in coordination with the Wakf. He organized Moslems in Israel, as well those living in east Jerusalem and the territories, to donate their labor, money or materials for projects on the Temple Mount.

The first and most significant project undertaken was the clearing of Solomon's Stables. The area called Solomon's Stables is essentially an underground vaulted arch support at the southeast corner of the Temple Mount, spanning some two to three dunams. It was constructed in the seventh century around the time the Al-Aksa mosque was built as a support for the area.

The Moslems call the area Massalam Marwani, built by Marwani, a calif during Ommayid period. The name Solomon's Stables was an invention of the Crusaders. When the Crusaders discovered the underground vault they assumed it was the place where King Solomon kept his horses, as they associated everything on the Temple Mount with the Temple of King Solomon. According to archeologists, the area never had been put to any use.

Recently, however, as Ramadan was falling during the winter months, the Wakf was in need of additional prayer space, and particularly in need of a covered area which would protect worshippers from the rain.

The Wakf tacitly approached the government of Shimon Peres in early 1996 with plans to convert Solomon's Stables into a prayer area, and then-Prime Minister Peres agreed. According to press reports at the time, Peres came to an understanding with the Wakf that if he would allow the Wakf to use Solomon's Stables, the Wakf would not object to the impending opening of the exit to the Western Wall Tunnel; the Wakf subsequently denied there was any such deal. So construction work - primarily by Arabs from the north of Israel, all donating their time and craftsmanship - began. The renovation essentially involved renovating the floors, installing lighting, putting in carpets and plastering where needed.

Then, in September 1996, the Western Wall Tunnel exit was opened, followed by the bloody disturbances. As a result, the Wakf broke off all informal contacts it had with Israel, including with the Antiquities Authority. Until today, the Wakf no longer cooperates with Israeli archeologists.

A few months later, in December 1996, just before the start of Ramadan, the Wakf announced it was opening Solomon's Stables for prayers during the holiday. The Israeli government decided not to react.

Today, the underground prayer area is in regular use and can hold up to 10,000 worshippers. It looks something like a glitzy wedding hall, as Seligman described it.

After Solomon's Stables were put to use, the Wakf needed more sheltered prayer space, with the growing number of worshippers, particularly on holidays. So in early 1998, again at the behest of Umm el-Fahm mayor Salah, the Wakf began to renovate two passageways underneath the Al-Aksa mosque. These passageways had been used in previous years for prayer, but were not maintained.

The passageways both run parallel underneath the mosque to the southern wall and are about 60 meters long and 20 meters wide. The area is known as Al-Aksa Al-Kadima or the Ancient Al-Aksa, although they have no connection to the mosque.

Their significance is that these passages once served as the entranceway to the Second Temple. In the time of the Second Temple, worshippers would walk up the stairs at the southern wall and then enter this corridor before entering the Temple Mount expanse.

The work done by the Wakf on these passageways is similar to the work done at Solomon's Stables, namely cleaning, renovating the floor surface, and installing lighting. The work was completed last year. Today, the two passageways can accommodate up to 1,000 worshippers.

The Wakf also began work on a structure at the end of the passageway, on the southern wall. The structure, called el-Khatunnia, is from the Medieval Period and of unknown significance. It has several floors, all of which were recently renovated by the Wakf. In August, as part of the work on the structure, the Wakf opened a doorway leading out to the southern wall. Prime Minister Ehud Barak had the opening sealed several days later. No Antiquities Authority archeologist has been allowed entrance to the el-Khatunnia structure since the renovation.

BUT NONE of these projects has upset the archeological community as much as the Wakf's latest undertaking.

The area of Solomon's Stables had been accommodating thousands of worshippers during the holidays for three years, yet there were only two small entrances to the underground area, and there was a need for an emergency exit. There existed within the underground vault seven archways, but to make these archways a viable exit required digging an area 15 meters deep on the Temple Mount to reach the underground level.

The Wakf approached the Barak government, which gave permission to open the exit. The Wakf wanted to open five archways but Barak gave permission to open only two.

To dig up the area, the Wakf brought in bulldozers - instead of conducting an archeological excavation.

The reason archeologists view this so gravely is that there has never been an archeological excavation on the Temple Mount, because it is a holy site. Therefore, since this unearthing was going to take place, it was paramount that it be done in a way that would adhere to archeological procedure.

Instead, the Wakf dug out the area, loaded the earth on trucks and deposited it in the Kidron Valley outside the Old City Walls. The bulldozers used also caused structural damage to the eastern wall of the Temple Mount.

The Wakf, for its part, says it acted properly. 'We finished our work in an excellent way. There was no destruction,' says Adnan Husseini, spokesman for the Wakf. 'We don't need to have contact with anyone. Every piece of stone on the Temple Mount is Islamic property.'

JERUSALEM DISTRICT archeologist Seligman drives his car into the Kidron Valley right up to the huge mound tens of meters high, where dozens of truckloads of age-old earth from the Temple Mount had been dumped. He climbs up and picks out a shard of red pottery. 'From the Byzantine era,' he says.

Seligman explains that the Antiquities Authority was alerted to the dumping site by an authority inspector who saw workers on the Temple Mount loading the dug-up earth onto trucks. 'He simply got in his car and followed the truck.'

Today, Seligman says, his archeologists continue to visit the Temple Mount every few days and report to him. At present there is no new work underway, he says. He refuses to say how many archeologists working for him go on the Mount or what their observation procedures are.

Jerusalem police spokesman Shmulik Ben Ruby says that the police are also keeping an eye out and if there is any further excavation around the emergency exit, they will report it immediately.

Amir Drori, director of the Antiquities Authority, blames the government for not enforcing the law on the Temple Mount. 'We need a political decision. We don't have freedom of access. Taking a tour now and then to observe what is happening is not archeological oversight.'

The political implications aside, from the archeologists' point of view, it is simply a treasure lost. 'We don't object to the need for an emergency exit,' says Seligman. 'We object to the brutal, charlatan manner in which it was done, and the huge damage caused to human knowledge about the Temple Mount.'