To critics' eyes the work is a deliberate act of cultural vandalism
A group of Israeli archaeologists is protesting about fresh excavations at Jerusalem's holiest religious shrine, saying it threatens priceless relics. Muslim authorities at al-Aqsa mosque, also venerated by Jews as the Temple Mount, are digging a 150-metre trench for water pipes and electricity cables. Israeli critics say the work is causing irreparable damage, indiscriminately piling up earth and carved stones.
....With the rest of east Jerusalem the shrine was occupied by Israel in the 1967 war. Now the compound is run by the Muslim Waqf authorities under Israeli security control. The Waqf resumed working this week, using a mechanical digger on a metre-deep trench, cutting through the subsoil and piling it up beside the trench.
Israeli archaeologists say such material should be carefully sifted and documented, as it would be even at sites of far less significance than this most sensitive cultural and religious location.
Gabriel Barkai of the Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount calls it an act of barbarism. "They are digging in the most crucial and delicate point of the Temple Mount - of the whole country," the Bar-Ilan University senior lecturer told the BBC.
"They should be using a toothbrush, not a bulldozer."
Dr Barkai .... lambastes the Israeli Antiquities Authority, meant to supervise any work at archaeological sites, for apparently giving the work legitimacy. Yusuf Natsheh of the Islamic Waqf dismisses such claims...He says the work is urgently needed to maintain the al-Aqsa compound as an important religious institution.....
...."The earth here is saturated by history. All we can do is alert the world to what is happening and try to stop the next disaster," [Dr Barkai ] says.
As far as Dr Natsheh is concerned the Israeli government has no authority over what is happening, as the Muslim authorities do not recognise its legitimacy in the occupied territory....
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