The foundation said in a press statement that the “Israeli
occupation is carrying out excavations in the area at night, especially in one
of the water wells in the area which extends under the Al-Aqsa Mosque and are
covered with tents and plastic sheets.”
It added that the Israeli authorities are “constructing a
network of bridges and iron stairs in the historic area to transfer it to
facilities of the so-called second temple.”
It added that the Israeli authorities would build a biblical
park in the site, connected with a tunnel with the East Jerusalem’s town of
Silwan. The foundation said the park would be exclusively intended for Jews and
tourists.
The foundation said that the excavation in the Umayyad
Palaces area reached tens of meters. It warned that the use of huge machines in
the excavation works in the area inflicts serious danger to the foundations of
the Al-Aqsa Mosque, noting that similar excavations, which were carried out in
the past, led to cracks in the southern part of the mosque’s wall.
The foundation described the Israeli move as “a theft and
piracy against the Islamic civilization and culture.”
According to the foundation, the excavations are part of “an
Israeli scheme to Judaize the vicinity of the Al-Aqsa Mosque from all sides and
the collapse of Al-Aqsa Mosque to build the so-called second temple on ruins of
it.”
Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and
Palestine, denounced the Israeli move.
Hussein said that “Israel, in accordance to international
rules and treaties, is forbidden from excavation works and confiscating the
antiquities.”
He urged the urged the Arab, Islamic and United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to pressure the
Israeli government to stop what he described as “crimes against Jerusalem.”
In last April, the Israel stole Umayyad-era stone from the
same area and was transferred to the courtyard of the Israeli Knesset in the
southern part of Jerusalem.
Israel rejected Palestinian calls to return the stone to the
Al-Aqsa Compound.
Israel captured East Jerusalem in the June 1967 War, annexed
it, and has since built settlements there that are home to more than 200,000
Israelis.
Control over the city has been seen as the most sensitive
and thorniest issue of Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians hope to make
East Jerusalem the capital of their future state but the Israel says the city
is its eternal capital.
