Israel okays renewing controversial Mughrabi excavation near Western Wall
Pastor Dale Morgan
Israel okays renewing controversial Mughrabi excavation near Western Wall*
By Akiva Eldar
Tags: archaeology, Temple Mount
The Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) has been instructed by the
cabinet to continue its work at the Mughrabi walkway near the Western
Wall in Jerusalem. The cabinet recently instructed the IAA to complete
the work "as soon as possible, with full transparency and with the
cooperation of the relevant bodies."
Excavations at the site, a walkway leading to the Mughrabi Gate at the
Temple Mount, were halted in June after they raised an international
protest. At the end of September, following a report in Haaretz that the
Ministerial Committee for Jerusalem Affairs had approved the
continuation of the work, Science, Culture and Sport Minister Ghaleb
Majadele appealed the decision to the cabinet secretariat and it was
frozen. Two weeks ago, Majadele acceded to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's
request to withdraw his appeal.
On November 29, the cabinet approved the Ministerial Committee for
Jerusalem Affairs decision, instructing the IAA to "remove any finding
that is not archaeological, and provide a solution to elements of
conservation, esthetics, security, safety and possible social
impairments." The latter element was a reference to homeless individuals
who have taken shelter in structures at the site that have no
archaeological value.
The cabinet decided to allocate NIS 3.5 million for the completion of
archaeological and conservation work. The director-general of the Prime
Minister's Office was charged with locating this money, as well as the
funds for construction of a permanent bridge at the site, at an
estimated cost of NIS 14 million. The budgetary source will be located
as soon as the plans are approved by the Jerusalem Regional Planning
Commission.
Following the decision of the ministerial committee in September, the
prime minister's bureau told Haaretz that it saw no problem in renewing
the work, and that if it had been stopped over the previous months it
was due to planning problems and did not reflect a political decision.
Majadele told Haaretz last night that he had been assured that no
activity would be carried out at the site as long as the regional
planning commission had not approved the changes. According to Majadele,
when he checked with the IAA he was told that no expert work needed to
be carried out at this stage.
"If political elements want to use the IAA as an umbrella, the
minister's eye is watching and he will not allow any work to be done
that invites friction and disturbances during this period of diplomatic
negotiations. I am glad that the prime minister supports the policy of
creating understanding and tranquility in order to protect the holy
places," Majadele said.
The phrase "removing any find that is not archaeological" refers to all
Palestinian finds and most of those of the Ottoman period. The Turkish
English-language daily Today's Zaman recently published a report stating
that a team of Turkish experts who had examined the excavations at the
Mughrabi walkway recommended that Israel stop work immediately.
The team's report said that Israel was attempting to disrupt Jerusalem's
history by stressing the Jewish aspect of Jerusalem, and that the
excavations were part of a plan to destroy cultural elements from the
Islamic period in Jerusalem. The report also stated that "the large
amount of soil extraction shown to our mission along the Wailing Wall
give the impression that this is an intervention of great scale and
depth and that this intervention goes beyond scientific purpose."
Attorney Danny Zeidman, legal counsel to the Ir Amim association, which
appealed the ministerial committee's decision to the attorney general,
said yesterday that an internal contradiction existed between the
cabinet decision's call for "transparency" and "coordination" and
decisions of an operative nature.
"How can money be allocated for construction at the Mughrabi Gate and
the work be ordered completed as soon as possible, when we don't know
what is to be built at the site, since the plan has not yet been approved?"
Zeidman said he was surprised that the cabinet was ordering the IAA - an
autonomous expert body - how to operate. He said it showed the extent to
which archaeology had been politicized, since he claimed a large amount
of the IAA's income and almost all its Jerusalem digs were being
financed by settler associations in East Jerusalem.