Just as we thought, the collapse of part of a stone embankment adjacent to the Western Wall during yesterday's rare snowstorm and last week's earthquake has prompted a "dispute" between Jewish and Muslim clerics.
Not surprisingly, the Muslim "authority", the Waqf, blamed Israeli building work nearby for the problem; but an Israeli architect said construction by Arabs was making the wall unstable.
Folks, on 11/29/2001, engineering tests conducted by the Antiquities Authority on the southern wall of the Temple Mount proved conclusively that sections of the wall are in the intermediate stages of collapse, most likely due to Wakf construction work carried out in recent years.
Just above the southern wall lies Solomon's Stables, where the Wakf has carried out extensive construction work during the past five years, most significantly in 1996 when the area was converted into a mosque.
For over 30 years Israel has delegated almost all authority over the Temple Mount to the Waqf; by doing this, Israel showed her commitment to respect the rights of Muslims.
But Muslims don't respect non-Muslims, and they certainly don't respect Jews.
In 1996 the Waqf changed the accepted status quo that was kept for generations and converted two ancient underground Second Temple Period structures into a new large mosque. Both structures, known as Solomon’s stables and the Eastern Hulda Gate passageway, were never mosques before. The new mosque extends over an area of 1.5 acres, thus being the largest mosque in Israel, able to accommodate 10,000 people.
In November 1999, the Waqf opened what they called an “emergency exit” to the new mosque. Over 3 days and nights the exit has expanded into a gaping hole, 18,000 square feet in size, and up to 36 feet deep. Thousands of tons of the ancient fills from the site, subsequently found by Israeli archeologists to contain artifacts dating as early as the First Temple Period, were dumped into the Kidron Valley.
Since the creation of the gaping hole and up until now, without any archaeological supervision, thousands of square-meters of the ancient surface level of the Temple Mount are dug up by tractors, paved and announced as open mosques.
Moreover, in 1997 another ancient underground Second Temple Period structure, known as the Western Hulda Gate passageway, has been converted into another new mosque. Recently, in February and March of 2001, an ancient arched structure built against the Eastern Wall of the Temple Mount enclosure was razed by bulldozers in order to enlarge further the “emergency gate” of the new mosque at the Stables of Solomon.
Muslims have commited a serious act of irreparable vandalism and destruction carried out without supervision, while abrogating the law.
It is appaling that the law requiring the preservation of all holy places is brazenly ignored on the Temple Mount, the most holy place to more people than any other site around the world.
For years now, brutal destruction occurs along the eastern wall of the Temple Mount enclosure. Modern construction continues to destroy ancient structures of the Temple Mount. Tractors are continuing construction work without any archaeological supervision, and a large stone saw there works non-stop, cutting dozens of ancient stones into slabs used for the new paving and construction on the Temple Mount.
Click here to see pictures and photos of the destruction of our Holy Temple by the peaceful "Paleo-stinians".
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