Excavation near Al Aqsa angers Muslims, Arabs

[Bent_Bladi]

i guess so...

[Al-khiyal]

KUALA LUMPUR - The Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Thursday warned of dangerous tensions provoked by Israeli construction work near Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque but opposed violence against the Jewish state.

"This is very dangerous. There is no (need for a) second opinion that it is dangerous," said OIC secretary general Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu.

"The issue is how to convince the Israel government to stop the excavation," he told reporters at the sidelines of a gathering of lawmakers from the grouping's parliaments here.

The work, which started on February 6 near the revered Al-Aqsa mosque compound, has angered Muslims around the world and officials have warned it endangered the compound's foundations.

Last Friday, 15 Israeli police and at least 20 Palestinians were wounded in clashes at the compound, the third-holiest site in Islam.

Ihsanoglu called on Muslim countries to rally and pressure Israel to halt its activities, but urged Muslims against resorting to violence.

"We do not want violence. We are against violence," Ihsanoglu said, adding he hoped "common sense will prevail".

Some 170 lawmakers from 36 of the grouping's 57 nations are attending the two-day annual meeting hosted by current OIC chair Malaysia to discuss a range of issues - from political, economic and security matters to social issues and the environment - confronting the Muslim world.

Earlier, the deputy speaker of Iraq's House of Representatives, Khalid al-Attya, described Israel's public works at the holy mosque as "an insult to all Muslims".

"The internal problems in Palestine have encouraged Israel to violate their land," he said.....

OIC condemns Israeli work near sacred site

[Al-khiyal]

The planned walkway at the centre of the furious dispute over Jerusalem's holiest site could be further delayed by the discovery of a Byzantine mosaic.

The geometric patterned fragment was exposed by archaeological workers yesterday at the bottom of an underground shaft where one of the walkway pillars is intended to go, as The Independent examined excavation work in the area.

"We have a real time discovery," reported Gideon Avni, director of excavations and surveys at the Israel Antiquities Authority.

Dr Avni said further excavations would now be needed to see whether the mosaic, probably from the fifth or sixth century AD, was part of a larger decorated room or house. He said it was too early to say whether the pillar would have to be moved. If the fragment turned out not to extend further, it could possibly be extracted and exhibited.

The discovery was the latest in a series of twists in the conflict over access through the Mugrabi Gate to the compound sacred to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif - noble sanctuary.

Seventeen policemen and 23 Palestinians were injured last Friday during demonstrations against the building of the new walkway, where the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque - Islam's third holiest site - is located. The work, is being carried out close to the Western Wall, the remains of the second Jewish Temple destroyed by the Romans AD70, and most sacred place in Judaism.

On Monday, Jerusalem's ultra-Orthodox Mayor, Uri Lupolianski, won praise from Israeli liberals when he unexpectedly announced work on the new walkway would be frozen to allow time for objections, including by Muslims, under a formal planning procedure. But the Israeli government said the archaeological "salvage digging" customary when construction work is carried out in the area, would continue.

Dr Avni vehemently denied claims by some Islamic leaders - and echoed by demonstrators from Cairo to Damascus - that the excavations posed a threat to the foundations of the mosques, saying they were all taking place in a limited area outside the walls of the compound. The Israeli authorities are arranging for webcam pictures of the dig to prove his case.

And while archaeology in Jerusalem is often complicated by religious and political overtones, Dr Avni virtually ruled out the possibility that the digs will discover remnants of the Jewish temple period.

Pointing to arches from Ottoman and Mameluke structures below the ramp, he added: "I don't believe that they will even reach the early Islamic period."

The eminent Israeli novelist Amos Oz yesterday praised the Mayor's decision to put work on the walkway on hold but added in an article in Yedhiot Ahronot: "It would be appropriate if this argument would also lead to the postponement of the archeological excavations - these excavations are also sparking the fires of religious dispute over the question of who in fact is the proprietor of the Temple Mount holy sites."

Discovery of mosaic halts work at Jerusalem walkway

[Al-khiyal]

JERUSALEM (AP) - Police scuffled on Friday with Muslims protesting Israeli construction outside a disputed Jerusalem holy site, but the scattered clashes were quickly contained and no one was seriously hurt, police said.

Fifteen protesters were arrested, police said.

Three thousand officers - triple the ordinary number - were deployed around east Jerusalem to keep order during weekly prayers Friday, and access to the hilltop shrine was restricted to women and Muslim men over the age of 50 with Israeli ID cards. After prayers last Friday, police streamed into the grounds of the complex and used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse stone-throwing protesters.

There has been sporadic unrest in Jerusalem since early February, when Israel began work on a new walkway up to the Old City compound known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. Muslims have claimed that the work will harm the site's mosques, a charge Israel denies.

The Palestinians arrested were trying to break through police checkpoints or throwing stones at police officers, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. Policemen used stun grenades to disperse a crowd in one neighborhood, Rosenfeld said, but there were no casualties.

Arab teenagers threw stones and burned tires at a West Bank checkpoint leading into Jerusalem, and security personnel used tear gas to disperse them. Shoving matches were reported around the city. But the 6,000 worshippers who attended prayers at the site dispersed without incident, Rosenfeld said.

Outside the mosque compound, Mohammed Omar, 65, attributed the relative quiet to the severe restrictions on access to the mosque.

"The rage is still here, it will not go away,'' Omar said.

The Israeli work has drawn protests from around the Islamic world. In Srinagar, the capital of Indian Kashmir, the rebel group Jamait-ul-Mujahedeen shut down shops and public transportation on Friday. Police used cane batons to control stone-throwing crowds in some parts of the city, but no one was injured or detained.

Scattered clashes at Jerusalem holy site

[Al-khiyal]

Turkish team to inspect Jerusalem Temple Mount

[Bent_Bladi]

Turkish team to inspect Jerusalem Temple Mount

I'm interested to read this bas the link aint working...

[Al-khiyal]

The link works OK for me but I will print it all out for you:

Protester near a placard that reads "Killer Olmert. Leave Turkey"

15/02/2007 - - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Thursday agreed to allow a Turkish team to inspect the construction site at the Temple Mount compound in Jerusalem.

Muslims fear excavation at the site will harm the face of the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The announcement was made by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan after he met Olmert in Ankara.

Erdogan said his Israeli counterpart had shown him photographs of the construction work, but had failed to convince him that it would not harm the holy sites there.

Olmert then agreed to a Turkish suggestion for a technical team from Turkey to inspect the site, Erdogan said.

Olmert said he agreed to the inspection because "Israel has nothing to hide."

He added that the matter of the construction on the site had been misconstrued and presented in a tendentious way in the international media.

"The construction of this bridge next to the Western Wall has been taken out of context, but we will cooperate with everyone and will be happy to host the delegation in order to show that the Israeli story is correct and exact," he said.

In an interview published earlier on Thursday, Erdogan harshly criticised the construction work conducted by Israel at the Mugrabi Gate at the Temple Mount.

A Turkish newspaper quoted Erdogan as saying, "Turkey is disturbed and angered by Israel's actions, which raise tensions in the entire region."

Demonstrations in Istanbul against Israeli prime minister's visit

A demonstration was staged in the city of Istanbul, the largest Turkish city, on Thursday in protest of the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's current visit to Turkey.

The Turkish, "NTV" network, said a group of the "Oppressed House" association organized a major demonstration in Istanbul, condemning the visit at a time where Holy places in Jerusalem were subject to Israeli sabotage.

Turkish police were deployed in large forces to guard against any rioting and chaos, the network said.

The demonstration was staged while the Prime Minister of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Israeli counterpart held talks in Ankara tackling the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Excavation at Aqsa Mosque part of scheme to demolish it

The head of the Palestinian delegation and member of the legislative assembly, Jamal Ayesh, said on Thursday Israel's "arbitrary measures" against the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque was a main topic in the currently-held Ninth session of the Council of Parliamentary Union of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (PUOIC).

Ayesh, said in a statement on sidelines of the conference recent excavation work under the mosque "constituted an explicit proof of the Israeli arrogance against the Muslims."

These measures are ultimately intended to demolish the mosque and establish in its place Solomon Temple, in line with some Hardline Jewish religious beliefs, he said.

He called on Muslim nations to close ranks and warned against intervention by foreign states in the domestic affairs of the Muslim nations.

Turkish team to inspect Jerusalem Temple Mount