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The southern wall of the Temple Mount is protruding and may be in danger of collapse. Image courtesy of Holy Land Photos.
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| By Ellis Shuman August 27, 2002 |
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Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert called on the government to prevent the "historical and human disaster" that would occur if the southern wall of the Temple Mount collapsed. The head of the Israel Antiquities Authority confirmed "that the southern wall is indeed in danger of collapse" and a citizens' watchdog committee warned Prime Minister Ariel Sharon "of the clear and present danger" resulting from illegal construction work at the site.
Olmert said the government "has no alternative but to decide to exercise our natural authority in regard to the Temple Mount." He said there had been quiet efforts, in Israel and abroad, to reach understandings with the Waqf, the Muslim religious trust in charge of the Temple Mount, to examine the growing bulge in the southern wall and work to prevent its collapse, but these talks had failed.
"The necessary cooperation needed with the Waqf is nonexistent," Shuka Dorfman of the Israel Antiquities Authority told the Jerusalem Post. "We cannot get in to carry out the tests," he added, although only "several days" are needed.
Yesterday Sharon was warned of "a clear and present danger that the southern part of the Western Wall and the Temple Mount might collapse." Among the signatories to the letter sent by the Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount were archeologists Dr. Gabi Barkai and Dr. Eilat Mazar; Yaakov Yaniv, a former section chief in the Shin Bet; and Dr. Orit Zur.
In their letter, committee members told Sharon that "the expansion of the southern wall has recently increased and the situation has become irreversible over the past six months... The danger of a collapse is close and real," the letter concluded.
Ha'aretz reported that the Waqf, the Antiquities Authority, the Israeli government and the Jordanian government were all actively dealing with the bulge in the southern wall. Secret talks were held between the Antiquities Authority, the Jordanians and Muslim religious leaders, the paper reported.
But Waqf director Adnan Husseini confirmed Monday that Islamic officials had rejected an Israeli request to be involved in the necessary work. "It's a principle. The Waqf works alone at the mosque," he said.
The Antiquities Authority conducted a series of tests in 2000, after sections of the southern wall were found to be protruding, likely due to Waqf construction just above the site. The Waqf was converting the Temple Mount area known as Solomon's Stables into a mosque.
"If not treated, the problem is a source of danger in the medium-term, and its collapse may cause irreversible damage to the structure," the Antiquities Authority stated in July 2001.
The Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount has been decrying Waqf work on the Temple Mount for years. "I have difficulty believing that the Wall will last the whole winter," Mazar said Monday. "If a year ago it was a 'fourth-month' bulge, now it looks like it's in its 'eighth month,'" she added.
Yaacov Sheffer, head of the Antiquities Authority's preservation department, said the structural decay on the southern wall may have to do with "low building standards," and the 2001 report cited faulty drainage as a possible cause.
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