Israeli Police Ban Conference on Holy Site
Pastor Dale Morgan
Israeli Police Ban Conference on Holy Site*
The Associated Press
Wednesday, February 28, 2007; 4:03 AM
JERUSALEM -- Israeli police on Wednesday banned a news conference by
Muslim and Christian opponents to Israeli excavation work near a
disputed holy site.
Police went to the Commodore Hotel in east Jerusalem and delivered an
order canceling the event because it was organized by the Palestinian
Hamas militant group, whose activities are prohibited in Israel, police
spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said.
The mufti of Jerusalem, the leader of Israel's Islamic Movement and a
Roman Orthodox archbishop in the city were to speak against the
renovation, which began with an archaeological dig earlier this month.
Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic Movement, has organized protests
at the site and police banned him from the area for more than two months.
The dispute over the site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to
Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, has triggered violence in the past and
scuttled several attempts at peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
The site _ home to the Al Aqsa mosque and the gold-capped Dome of the
Rock _ is Islam's third-holiest shrine, and the dig has inflamed Muslim
fears that Israel is planning to damage it.
Israel says the dig is meant to salvage archaeological finds ahead of
the construction of a new pedestrian walkway up to the hilltop compound,
to replace one damaged in a 2004 snowstorm. Israeli archaeologists
insist there is no danger to the compound.