JERUSALEM, 8 February 2007 — Israel yesterday continued public works under heavy police guard near Jerusalem’s volatile mosque compound despite hefty Arab-Muslim protests slamming the project for endangering the holy site. In the first high-profile detention since Israel began initial excavations on Tuesday, police arrested the head of the Islamic Movement in Israel when he refused to stop a public protest in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Some 2,000 police officers have fanned out across the Old City and around what is the most contested holy site in the Middle East, revered by Muslims as their third holiest site. The Israel Antiquities Authority said the work, expected to take months, what it calls, is to strengthen an access ramp to Dung Gate for the “benefit and safety of visitors” after damage caused by an earthquake and snowstorms in February 2004.
But the Waqf religious trust says the work endangers the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, the third holiest site in Islam, and the start of initial excavations has drawn condemnation from across the Arab world. Jordan, which has a formal role in the maintenance of Jerusalem’s Muslim holy sites, has lodged a formal complaint asking Israel to stop the work.
Israel has denied that the work harms the holy sites. “The work is continuing and we have deployed 2,000 police officers around the compound and in the Old City,” said police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
Israel Antiquities Authority spokeswoman Osnat Gouez told AFP that “archaeological excavations are continuing today and could go on for weeks, even months.” The compound, which houses both Al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, is the place where the second Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 following a controversial visit by then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon.
Police said the Arab Israeli chief of Israel’s Islamic Movement, Sheikh Raed Salah, was arrested with six other activists after a dispute with officers. “These activists entered the Old City by Dung Gate and refused to obey police instructions to leave the area,” Rosenfeld said.
An Islamic Movement spokesman confirmed that Salah and six other members had been detained, charging that they had been “beaten” by policemen. Israel yesterday limited access to the mosques to Muslim men aged over 45 with Israeli identity cards and to Muslim women, with Jewish visitors and foreign tourists denied entry. Salah had gone to the Old City to protest against excavations being conducted by Israeli authorities for a second day ahead of public works, close to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which sparked a wave of Arab-Muslim protest.
The Islamic Movement has for years waged a campaign to “save” Al-Aqsa. In July 2005, Salah was released after more than two years in an Israeli prison on charges of terrorism. He and four other Arab Israelis were arrested in May 2003, accused of belonging to a “terrorist organization” and funding radical Palestinian group Hamas, which is responsible for many of the deadliest attacks against Israel.
On Tuesday, Muslim and Palestinian political leaders urged faithful to rush to the compound to protest against the works, which were publicly criticized by Jordan, the Arab League, Gulf Cooperation Council and Syria.
Spin-off protests have been held in Amman, Gaza City and the occupied West Bank. Four rockets fired at southern Israel from Gaza were claimed on Tuesday by radical group Islamic Jihad to avenge the “crimes” in Jerusalem.
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday condemned Israel’s excavation works, urging Muslim countries to make the Jewish state regret the move.
“The reaction of the Islamic world to this insulting move should be in a way to make the Zionist regime regret it,” state television quoted him as saying.
“Silence in this regard is not permissible at all, and action is necessary from some leaders in the Arab world,” Khamenei added, without elaborating. The supreme leader made the comments while receiving the secretary-general of Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, Abdullah Ramadan Shala, who is currently on a visit to Iran.
Waqf Chairman Adnan Husseini said he and his colleagues first learned about the construction plans through media reports and warned the police and Jerusalem city council that the plan would spark fierce opposition. “We warned them not to do it, but there was no coordination,” he said. “They did not tell us.”
