Antiquities Authority: Temple Mount wall in danger

By Etgar Lefkovits

Fonte: The Jerusalem Post - 27 August 2002,

The southern wall of Jerusalem's Temple Mount is in unequivocal danger of collapse, the head of the Israeli Antiquities Authority, Shuka Dorfman, confirmed yesterday.

"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," Dorfman said yesterday.

Noting that over a year of contacts with Wakf, the Muslim religious trust, to fix the problem have been fruitless, Dorman noted that his archaeologists and engineers are prevented by Wakf officials from carrying out needed tests on the Temple Mount to survey the damage and enable repairs.

"The necessary cooperation needed with the Wakf is nonexistent," Dorfman said bluntly. "We cannot get in to carry out the tests," he added, although only "several days" are needed.

Wakf director Adnan Husseini confirmed yesterday that Islamic officials had rejected an Israeli request to be involved in the necessary 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 of the southern retaining wall surrounding the Temple Mount were seen protruding, likely 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.

Due to the extreme sensitivity of the issue and the need for cooperation from the Wakf, the Antiquities Authority has heretofore maintained a low profile on the issue, hoping that back channel and diplomatic efforts would bear fruit.

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.

The Internal Security Ministry declined to comment yesterday on Dorfman's warnings.

Concern is mounting in the Israeli archaeological community ahead of the upcoming Ramadan holiday 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.

While Dorfman says he cannot estimate the timing of a possible collapse if the problem goes untended, leading Hebrew University archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar said yesterday that disaster may be only weeks or months away.

"I have difficulty believing that the Wall will last the whole winter," Mazar, a leading spokeswoman of the Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, said yesterday.

"If a year ago it was a 'fourth-month' bulge, now it looks like it's in its 'eighth month,'" she added.