Israel’s Excavation at Al-Aqsa Stirs ‘Volcano of Anger’

Jalil Mustafa & Agencies

JERUSALEM/AMMAN, 7 February 2007 — Israeli excavation work near an entrance to a compound in Jerusalem that houses Al-Aqsa Mosque yesterday drew Palestinian protests. Israeli police stationed reinforcements in the alleyways of Jerusalem’s walled Old City to head off feared Palestinian violence at a site at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Fatah faction led by President Mahmoud Abbas said in a statement any damage to the mosque would release Palestinian militant groups from a cease-fire with Israel in the Gaza Strip they declared last November. The governing Hamas movement, which took power last March, said “any assault” on the mosque “will lead to a termination of the limited cease-fire” with Israel and would spark “a volcano of anger.”

Jordan’s King Abdallah said the work could derail the revival of Arab-Israeli peace talks. Abdallah was quoted by state news agency Petra as saying: “What Israel is doing in its practices and attacks against our sacred Muslim sites in Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa is a blatant violation that is not acceptable under any pretext.”

“The monarch strongly condemns the practices and aggressions Israel is currently committing against the Islamic shrines in Jerusalem and considers them a flagrant violation (of the peace treaty) that cannot be accepted under any pretexts,” the statement from the royal court said.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said before leaving for unity talks with Fatah in Makkah that Israel was out to cause “direct harm” to Al-Aqsa. “I appeal to all our Palestinian people to be united and to rise up together to protect Al-Aqsa and the holy sites on the blessed land of Palestine,” Haniyeh said.

Israel said the excavation work, some 50 meters from the existing ramp, would do no damage to Al-Aqsa or the Dome of the Rock mosque, which is also located on the hilltop compound.

An Islamic cultural organization yesterday attacked Israel’s decision. The Islamic Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (ISESCO), an offshoot of the Organization of Islamic Conferences (OIC) based in Rabat, called in a statement on member states to bring pressure “to put an end to these criminal acts.” It accuses Israel of “wanting to hand over part of the Jerusalem Mosque to Jewish extremists.”

Arrest in Jerusalem site protest

 

Israeli officials say the work will safeguard archaeological remains

 

Israeli police have arrested the head of the country's Islamic movement, as he tried to protest against excavations near al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem.

 

Sheikh Raed Salah was detained along with six other activists after they tried to enter the Old City.

 

Police limited access to the area amid calls by Muslim leaders for mass protests to stop the work going ahead.

Palestinians say it could damage the foundations of the Aqsa compound, also revered by Jews as the Temple Mount.

The Israeli authorities say renovations are needed to safeguard the ancient site and have guaranteed that they will be no structural damage to the ancient site.

 

 

The work is proceeding near a temporary walkway that replaces a centuries-old stairway which collapsed during storms in 2004. The al-Aqsa/Temple Mount compound is the third holiest shrine in Islam, as well as Judaism's holiest site.

 

 

In 1996, work by the Israeli authorities underneath the heavily-disputed compound triggered riots in which 80 people died in clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli troops.

 

And in 2000, the Palestinian uprising began at the mosque following a controversial tour of the site by Israel's then opposition leader Ariel Sharon.

 

About 2,000 Israeli police are on duty in the Old City, double the usual number, to quell any violent protest, said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.

 

Three Palestinian youths were questioned on suspicion of throwing stones at an Israeli bus on Wednesday morning, but there was no other reports of trouble, Mr Rosenfeld said.

 

Revered site

 

The Islamic authorities in charge of the compound say two underground rooms lie under the mound which is being levelled.

The work is intended to secure the area and protect archaeological artefacts that have not yet been uncovered, Israeli officials say.

 

Al-Aqsa is believed to be where the Prophet Muhammad made an ascent to heaven into the presence of God.

 

Jews believe the Temple Mount is where Abraham offered his son Isaac as a sacrifice to God and where Solomon built the First Jewish Temple.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 war. Since then, the compound has remained under Muslim jurisdiction in conjunction with neighbouring Jordan. On Sunday, Jordan's King Abdullah warned against "any attack on Islamic sites" and condemned Israeli attempts "seeking to change the nature of these sites and erase their Muslim character".

 

 

Palestinians protest over Jerusalem mosque works

 

by Jacques Pinto

JERUSALEM (AFP) - Scores of Arabs have protested against Israeli excavation works near Jerusalem's ultra-sensitive Al-Aqsa mosque compound as police went on alert for a planned day of mass Palestinian rage.

Around 200 Palestinians and Arab Israelis demonstrated peacefully outside Dung Gate leading to one of the mosque entrances not far from where Israel pressed on with excavations for a third day ahead of construction work.

 

Jerusalem mufti Mohammed Hussein, who has vigorously condemned the works and demanded international intervention to stop what Muslim leaders allege endangers the mosque, was banned from accessing the area, police said.

 

"With our soul, with our blood, we sacrifice ourselves for Al-Aqsa," the crowd shouted Thursday. "The soldiers of Satan want to turn Al-Aqsa into a synagogue," they added, held back from entering Dung Gate by police.

 

Israel's Islamic Movement accused the authorities of preventing dozens of buses of Arab Israelis from entering Jerusalem. Further protests were planned in the Arab Israeli town of Nazareth.

 

The demonstration came on the eve of a planned day of "anger" on the Muslim day of rest called by senior local Muslim leader Sheikh Tayssir al-Tamimi against work that observers have said risks igniting a third intifada.

 

Some 2,000 Israeli police were deployed around occupied and annexed east Jerusalem, where the mosque compound is located, with the national force on a wider state of alert ahead of Friday's planned protests.

 

"The state of alert has been boosted up on a general level in central public places, bus stops etc as well as at the same time on the roads to prevent demonstrations from blocking," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP.

 

Israel is restricting access to the mosque compound to all but Muslim women and Muslim men aged over 45 with Israeli identity cards to minimize the threat of violence at the most volatile holy site in the Middle East.

 

The compound, which houses both the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is where the second Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 after a controversial visit by then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon.

 

In 1996, more than 80 people were killed in three days of Palestinian riots after then Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened a new entrance to a controversial archaeological tunnel near the holy sites.

 

The compound is also revered by Jews as the site of their ancient temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in 70 AD.

 

Israel insists the public works, expected to take months, poses no risk to the holy sites and will strengthen an access ramp to Dung Gate for the "benefit and safety of visitors" after an earthquake and snowstorm damage in 2004.

 

But the Muslim trust that oversees the compound charges that the Israelis are leveling a mound which contains two underground rooms connected to the mosque complex whose destruction risks undermining its foundations.

 

Muslim governments from pro-Western Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, to US

 

foe Iran have spoken out against the Israeli "aggression" and demanded that the international community intervene.

 

The Israel Antiquities Authority is now considering a live video broadcast from the Al-Aqsa on the Internet, in a bid to quell Muslim fears that the works are harming the holy site, an official said.

 

"We are looking at the possibility of installing cameras at the start of next week that would broadcast real-time footage on the Internet of the excavations being carried out at the site," said spokesman Osnat Gouez.

 

 

Defence Minister Amir Peretz separately wrote to Olmert asking for a halt to the works, citing fears that the security situation will deteriorate.

 

The Haaretz newspaper said Peretz's letter was attached to an opinion piece written by Reserve General Amos Gilad, a senior defence ministry official, saying that the work would foment fury in the Arab world.

 

Arab politicians and the Israeli press have both warned that the authorities are courting a new conflict with the Palestinians.

"The volcano in Jerusalem is threatening to erupt once again, and perhaps to ignite a third intifada," Israel's top daily Yediot Aharonot wrote Wednesday.

Jerusalem 'tense' after clashes

 

A tense calm is reported in the Old City of Jerusalem after clashes between Israeli police and Palestinians erupted at a contested holy site.

Israel denies the excavations threaten the al-Aqsa mosque

 

 

Dozens of people were hurt when police moved in to quell violent protests against excavation work in the area.

 

Skirmishes in other parts of the city have also been reported.

 

The violence flared over the digging work, which protesters say threatens the foundations of the al-Aqsa mosque - Islam's third holiest site.

 

The compound containing the mosque is also revered by Jews as the site of their biblical temples.

 

The BBC's Tim Franks, in the Old City, says the area may now have been cleared and sealed but elsewhere in East Jerusalem the police have said that Palestinian youths have been throwing rocks and petrol bombs.

 

He says the police themselves have been hitting back with stun grenades.

 

Stand-off

 

Palestinian Muslim clerics had called for a day of protest against the excavation works following days of rising tension.

 

 

Braced for possible violence, Israeli authorities had restricted entry to the mosque and deployed thousands of police in the Old City.

The clashes broke out after thousands of Palestinians attended Friday prayers at the mosque.

 

 

Jewish worshippers were evacuated from the Western or Wailing Wall area below the complex as hundreds of riot police poured into the compound, firing an assortment of munitions.

 

Israeli police say 20 protesters and 15 police officers were injured in the clashes.

 

Farid Haj-haya was in the mosque when the police moved into the area.

He told the BBC that Israeli police had started shooting and using grenades after Friday prayers had finished.

 

Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld denied police entered the mosque itself, where about 150 protesters sought refuge.

 

After a tense stand-off, the protesters left the mosque after negotiations between officers and Muslim representatives.

 

Flashpoint

 

The excavations, which began on Tuesday, are a prelude to the construction of a new walkway leading to the compound.

 

Israeli authorities say the work is needed after a centuries-old walkway partially collapsed in 2004.

 

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said the works posed no threat to the mosque, about 60m (200ft) away.

 

"The tragedy is you have... people out there with very hateful, extremist agendas, who come and start with all this very extreme and hateful language about the Jews wanting to destroy wanting to destroy the mosques and the Jews wanting to build a synagogue there instead of a mosque and it's all just... rubbish," he told the BBC.

 

The compound, in the Old City in East Jerusalem - an area captured by Israel during the 1967 Middle East war - has regularly been a flashpoint for violence.

 

In 1996, Israel's opening of an exit to a tunnel near the site triggered riots in which 80 people died in clashes between Palestinian protesters and Israeli troops.

And in 2000, the Palestinian uprising began at the mosque following a controversial tour of the site by Israel's then opposition leader, Ariel Sharon.

i think if isreal destroied el Aqsa that will make big mess and isreal closing to her end.