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Structural Collapse on Temple Mount
World Net Daily ^ | 9/24/03 | WND

Posted on 09/24/2003 8:05:12 PM PDT by abigail2

Structural collapse on Temple Mount

Muslims blame Israel for failure of interior wall in Al-Aqsa Mosque

September 24, 2003
9:17 p.m. Eastern

An interior wall has collapsed at a hotly contested Jerusalem holy site, setting off fears of religious violence between Muslims and Jews.

The Islamic Waqf, which administers the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock shrines atop the Temple Mount, accused Israeli authorities of instigating the failure of the wall by preventing engineers from maintaining it.

The collapsed wall is situated near the Islamic Museum.

Diagram of Temple Mount area.

Adnan al-Husseini of the Waqf said the failure was the result of "the Israeli intervention in our work and preventing us from maintaining it after we stated it was in urgent need for a rapid action to prevent its collapse," according to multiple news reports from Israel.

"It looks terrible," said Eliat Mazar, an Israeli archaeologist and Temple Mount expert and a leader of the committee for preventing the destruction of antiquities at the site. "This collapse might cause a terrific series of collapses."

She charged the Waif with directing "unsupervised" work in and around the Temple Mount resulting in the loss of archaeological treasures.

Last December, WorldNetDaily reported a huge bulge had developed in an outer southern wall on the 37-acre Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Israel waited for Jordanian engineers to repair it.

The Temple Mount is the foundation of the Jewish Temple that was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans. Because it is the only remnant of the foundation, it is considered the holiest site for observant Jews – perhaps the only true holy site. Muslims claim it is the third holiest in their faith because two mosques were constructed on the site hundreds of years later.

Despite the fact the Temple Mount is the only real estate in the world revered by Jews, Israel has turned over day-to-day administration of the area to the Waqf, an Islamic trust with close ties to Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority.

A year-long dispute between Israel and the Waqf over who will fix the bulge was solved in October with a decision to involve the Jordanian engineers, who inspected and took a sampling of the protruding wall.

A report the engineers subsequently issued recommended replacing some of the eroding stones in the 2,000-year-old wall to prevent it from future collapse.

Israeli archeologists believe the bulge and the new wall collapse are due to unauthorized Waqf construction at an underground area known as Solomon's Stables, located on the other side of the wall. Reports say Muslim authorities are constructing yet another mosque at the Jewish holy site.

Faulty drainage was cited by the Antiquities Authority as the probable cause for the bulge in its report, issued last year.

Prior to the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994, Jordan was in charge of maintenance at the Temple Mount. In the years since, the PA, seeking to gain a foothold in Jerusalem, ousted both the Jordanian-appointed Waqf director and the Jerusalem mufti – both of whom had for years quietly cooperated with Israel – and replaced them with its own people.

Fearing renewed Palestinian violence, police barred non-Muslims from entering the Temple Mount for nearly two years after Ariel Sharon's controversial visit in September 2000, leaving the area without any archeological supervision. In recent weeks, non-Muslim tourists have been permitted back with police or military escorts.

Newsweek has called the southern wall "The Armageddon wall," because the old rocks help support an enormous stone platform that holds the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, among Islam's most sacred shrines.

Should it collapse, some archeologists fear a doomsday effect – dead worshippers, perhaps in the thousands, riots throughout the Middle East and charges that Israel is responsible.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Israel; News/Current Events; Philosophy
KEYWORDS: christianity; israel; muslims; templemount
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UH OH!
1 posted on 09/24/2003 8:05:12 PM PDT by abigail2
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To: fabian; RonDog; AnnaZ; ALOHA RONNIE; diotima; DoughtyOne; janetgreen
PING!
2 posted on 09/24/2003 8:06:31 PM PDT by abigail2 (Refuse to do business with companies that are bilingual...)
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To: Salem
here it goes, bro!
3 posted on 09/24/2003 8:07:30 PM PDT by ovrtaxt ( http://www.fairtax.org **** Forget ANWR. Drill Israel !)
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To: abigail2
This is a big deal according to the doomsday preachers.
4 posted on 09/24/2003 8:07:59 PM PDT by bulldogs (Go Cubs)
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To: abigail2
I guess the mosque bit needs to be bulldozed away. It obviously wasn't built to code.
5 posted on 09/24/2003 8:10:20 PM PDT by dagnabbit (No Amnesty-Merger with Mexico)
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To: abigail2
Cute.

/sarcasm.

(Of course, it was, only what - some 30-odd years ago that the Temple "reconstruction" was predicted as a precurser to Armegeddon....)

And there I was assuming that his prediction would require "rebuilding" the whole thing.
6 posted on 09/24/2003 8:10:42 PM PDT by Robert A Cook PE (I can only support FR by donating monthly, but ABBCNNBCBS continue to lie every day!)
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To: abigail2
They should kick the damn Muslims from the Site of Solomon's Temple. They have as much right being there as a boatload of Maoris from New Zealand.
7 posted on 09/24/2003 8:11:02 PM PDT by ZULU
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To: All
Is this a result of the muzlims excavation below the Temple Mount?
8 posted on 09/24/2003 8:12:39 PM PDT by Texas_Jarhead
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To: abigail2
Nah,That Pizza Hut needed the parking space. Chill Dude.
9 posted on 09/24/2003 8:14:19 PM PDT by jaz.357 (The beatings will continue until morale improves!)
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To: abigail2
Israel should just go ahead and remove those filthy moon-god monstrosities atop the Temple Mount before they cause any more damage.
10 posted on 09/24/2003 8:14:25 PM PDT by LibWhacker
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To: abigail2
Muslims love to riot over this stuff. It's their most potent form of catnip when the mad mullahs and Arafat incite and whip them into frenzy.

Are they getting their piles of rocks ready?
11 posted on 09/24/2003 8:16:00 PM PDT by dennisw (G_d is at war with Amalek for all generations)
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To: abigail2
The Arabs were destroying Jewish antiquities on the mount...serve them right...the wall is falling on their head.
12 posted on 09/24/2003 8:16:49 PM PDT by dinok
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To: abigail2
Newsweek has called the southern wall "The Armageddon wall," because the old rocks help support an enormous stone platform that holds the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, among Islam's most sacred shrines.

Gee, wouldn't that be a shame. (Snicker) (Snort) (Big Grin)

13 posted on 09/24/2003 8:16:56 PM PDT by neutrino (Oderint dum metuant: Let them hate us, so long as they fear us.)
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To: abigail2
What doesn't Israel get blamed for?
14 posted on 09/24/2003 8:16:57 PM PDT by scott7278 ("If I'm not back by dawn -- call the president.")
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To: Texas_Jarhead
Is this a result of the muzlims excavation below the Temple Mount?

That's irrelevant. They'll mob up into riot mode blaming the Jews. Jews will need to wear hard hats if they want to pray at the Western Wall.

15 posted on 09/24/2003 8:18:31 PM PDT by dennisw (G_d is at war with Amalek for all generations)
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To: dennisw
I understand your point and agree but I would still like to know the answer to my question.
16 posted on 09/24/2003 8:22:50 PM PDT by Texas_Jarhead
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To: SJackson
You will be interested in this...
17 posted on 09/24/2003 8:25:17 PM PDT by ovrtaxt ( http://www.fairtax.org **** Forget ANWR. Drill Israel !)
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To: abigail2
Faulty drainage was cited by the Antiquities Authority as the probable cause for the bulge in its report, issued last year.

I hate those bulging reports!

18 posted on 09/24/2003 8:25:29 PM PDT by Fresh Wind (Repeat after me: I, Cruz Bustamonte, do solemnly swear...)
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To: abigail2
Never get God upset.

SHE can get very pissed!

19 posted on 09/24/2003 8:27:26 PM PDT by Hunble
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To: Texas_Jarhead
This should clear things up:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/863106/posts
20 posted on 09/24/2003 8:28:23 PM PDT by ovrtaxt ( http://www.fairtax.org **** Forget ANWR. Drill Israel !)
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