Save the Temple Mount
By Daniel Pipes
September 3, 2002
The Temple Mount in Jerusalem -- holiest spot on Earth for Jews
and ranking up there in sanctity also for Christians and Muslims
-- may soon come partly crashing down.
Despite appearances, the 14-hectare Temple Mount plateau is not
a natural formation but a man-made esplanade built centuries ago
by stacking one large brick-like rock atop another.
The wall on one side might cave in due to the fact that the Palestinian
Authority has had administrative control over the Temple Mount
since the mid-1990s and since then has made many structural changes,
all aimed at increasing Muslim claims to the site. In particular,
the PA converted a long-disused space at the southern end, known
as Solomon's Stables, into a mosque. In the process, it took down
some supports. These alterations weakened the southern wall; an
area 190 square metres of the wall now bulges out as much as 71
centimetres.
The PA professes no concern. "This bulge is under our monitoring
since the '70s" and has neither grown nor shifted in 30 years,
says Adnan Husseini, director of the Islamic religious authority
(called the waqf) that oversees the Temple Mount. "It is stable;
we don't feel that there is any dangerous situation."
Knowledgeable Israelis beg to differ. Already back in 2001, the
Israel Antiquities Authority warned that if not treated, the bulge
would cause the Temple Mount "irreversible damage."
Today, their warnings are alarmed. That wall is "in danger of
collapse," says Shuka Dorfman, head of the IAA. It certainly "will
fall if nothing is done about it," says Giora Solar, formerly
of the Getty Conservation Institute. "It could collapse," says
Ehud Olmert, Jerusalem's Mayor. It "will collapse," warns Eilat
Mazar, an archaeologist at Hebrew University. Mazar goes on: "The
central issue at present is whether it will collapse on the heads
of thousands of people who are praying there, or whether it will
be done in a controlled manner."
The moment of truth might come in November. That's the Ramadan
holiday, when thousands of Muslim worshippers will aggregate in
the mosque at Solomon's Stables. Their weight and movement could
cause the southern wall to give way, causing metre-long rocks
to come cascading down on them, possibly killing many.
Judging by prior incidents in Jerusalem -- the arson at Al-Aqsa
Mosque in 1969, the opening of a tunnel in 1996 -- this disaster
would lead at least to wide-scale fighting in Jerusalem and a
heated international crisis. If things really went wrong, it could
precipitate a wave of violence in Europe and a full-blown Arab-Israeli
war. It could also complicate the war on Iraq, obstruct the war
on terrorism, and jump the price of oil and gas. At worst, it
could unleash an end-of-days messianism in three monotheistic
religions, with unforeseeable consequences.
The structural integrity of this ancient wall is, in short, very
serious business.
And yet successive Israeli governments, both Labor and Likud,
have abdicated their role, turning a deaf ear to the increasingly
anxious predictions. Their insouciance has two main causes.
First, memories of 1969 and 1996 are enough to make any Israeli
leader want to stay away from Jerusalem holy places. Second, it
is a well-established tradition that the governing authority in
Jerusalem -- Ottoman, British, Jordanian, Israeli -- endorses
the status quo, permits precedent to have sway, and stays out
of the city's many and hugely intractable religious disputes.
Thus, when Israel captured the Temple Mount in 1967, it permitted
the waqf to remain in charge. The PA has exploited that deference
of 35 years ago to increase Muslim claims to the Temple Mount,
notably by building the new mosque at Solomon's Stables. That
the waqf denies any structural problems means the Israeli authorities
just tip-toe away.
But they cannot afford to any longer. At issue is not some squabble
over who gets to sweep which church step or who gets which hours
in a sanctuary; this is a disaster in the making. As the Jerusalem
Post correctly editorializes, that the government of Israel has
abdicated its responsibilities is "nothing less than scandalous"
and it must now, however belatedly, "finally assert its full sovereignty
over the area."
Governments around the world, Jewish organizations and others
with influence over the Israeli Prime Minister should get him
to attend to the wall before it and much else crashes.
This article was originally published in the The
National Post on September 3, 2002
