Jerusalem mayor to consult on holy site plans

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli authorities announced on Monday they would reconsider planned construction work near Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque in response to Muslim protests but would continue to search for ancient artefacts in the area.

The decision by the Israeli mayor of Jerusalem, Rabbi Uri Lupolianski, failed to quell Arab anger in a controversy that has shown the depth of suspicion in the Muslim world over Israel's activities in a holy city it claims as its capital.

A Jewish Orthodox man looks at the excavation site in front of the Dome of the Rock (top) at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old city February 12, 2007. (REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun)

Hundreds of protesters, demanding cancellation of the project, clashed with Israeli security forces in the West Bank city of Hebron on Monday.

Israel says it is mandated by law to salvage artefacts before the construction of a walkway meant to replace an existing ramp leading up to the religious compound known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount.

The ramp to the complex, the site of two destroyed biblical Jewish temples and where the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosque stand, was deemed unsafe after it was damaged by a snowstorm and earthquake in 2004.

Muslim leaders had called for protests over the excavations about 50 metres from the compound in Arab East Jerusalem. Arab states had asked Israel to halt the work, charging it could undermine the foundations of the mosque.

Israel says the holy places would not be harmed.

An official at Lupolianski's office said the walkway plan would undergo a public review in which critics would be able to voice their opposition, a process that could postpone the start of actual construction work on the bridge.

"(The decision) is due to the sensitivity of the plan and following meetings and discussions with representatives from eastern Jerusalem who requested to look over the plans and voice their opinions," Jerusalem Municipality spokesman Gideon Schmerling said.

"Despite this decision, the rescue works, conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, scheduled to go on for several months, will still take place," he said, referring to the archaeological dig.

PALESTINIANS SCEPTICAL

Israeli media reports said that in practice, the decision to hold hearings on the project would ensure that mechanical digging equipment -- whose presence raised Arab ire -- would be removed from the area.

"The Israelis have not stopped digging, they simply completed the phase of digging using bulldozers," said Rafiq Husseini, chief of staff to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "The digging must stop in order to create a positive atmosphere for reviving the peace process."

Taysir al-Tamimi, head of the Islamic courts in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, attributed Lupolianski's decision to Arab and Muslim pressure.

But, he said: "We Muslims do not believe such a hold will last."

Israeli police clashed with Palestinians angry about the excavation work outside al-Aqsa, Islam's third holiest site, on Friday.

The compound has been a flashpoint of Israeli-Palestinian violence. A Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 after then-Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon toured the compound.

Israel captured East Jersusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in a step that has not won international recognition. Palestinians want East Jerusalem as the capital of a state they aim to establish in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip.

(Additional reporting by Wafa Amr and Haitham Tamimi)