Five Towns Jewish Times Online

The Israeli Government Press Office took members of the foreign press corps on a guided tour of the Western Wall tunnels this past week, apparently in response to recent claims by the Palestinian Authority, Israeli Arab lawmakers, and the Waqf administration.

Such claims have been used as the pretext for violent clashes, rock-throwing attacks, and firebombing throughout East Jerusalem and the Old City.

At the beginning of the tour, GPO director Danny Seaman denied that the tour had any connection to recent events: "We don't want to turn this into a political tour. What is happening here by the State of Israel is being done to uncover the past. This area is important to the three monotheistic religions. There is an obligation for all of us to learn the past, to understand what happened here."

He further stated that he did "not want to get involved" in any discussion of the current tensions or violence surrounding the site.

However, the tenor of statements made later in the tour indicated that the chief reason for the tour was indeed setting the record straight regarding Israeli excavations on the mount.

Ofer Cohen, chief engineer of the Kotel tunnels, explained that the work being done was actually beneficial to the stability of the area. In discussing the recent work in the soon to be opened Hall of Ages, which is located underneath a row of Arab houses abutting the Wall, Cohen stated, "There's a lot of talk about instability and the digging causing problems. Let me reassure you that wherever we dig, or wherever we are and we have access to, we improve the structural stability tenfold."

"When we put on this structural system above us, we actually improved the structural stability of this place. That's what we do everywhere in the tunnels. Our first priority is always safety, of both visitors inside the tunnels and the inhabitants above us. That's our top priority. We take it very seriously and there's no room for error in this aspect."

Since the Palestinian Authority was given de facto control over the mount, renovations aimed at destroying the Jewish character of the site have taken place and have seriously weakened the structural integrity of the southern retaining wall. In 2001, Israeli Antiquities Authority head Shuka Dorfman warned that the wall is "in danger of collapse."

When the Waqf, the Islamic trust that oversees civil administration of the Mount, began excavation work in the area known as Solomon's Stables in 1997, archaeologists offered to pay for the work being done in exchange for the right to examine the area and to salvage artifacts unearthed in the course of the digging.

Former Waqf director Adnan Husseini explained, "It's a principle. The Waqf works alone at the mosque."

Many archaeological treasures were found in the rubble discarded by the Muslim trust, including a coin dated to the First Temple period.

Explaining the reasons for the current riots, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education stated that "extremists" had announced plans to "storm the mosque in order to perform religious rites in the occasion of the so-called  Yom Kippur.'" The PA called for "the masses of Arab and Islamic nations, and lovers of justice in the world to protest the crime and to refuse it by all legitimate means."

Shmuel Rabinovitch, the Kotel Rabbi, spoke with reporters in the Hall of Ages. The rabbi put the onus of responsibility for controlling the violence on Muslim religious leaders. "The people who are coming to pray with a bundle of stones do not belong in such a holy place . . . The police are not needed for that. Every religious leader has to distance such people from holy places," the rabbi said.

"The Jewish law forbids ascending the Temple Mount. Any person who says that Israel is excavating on the Temple Mount, it is as if he is saying that day is night and that the night is day; it is a complete lie. To my sorrow, there are people who speak in the name of G-d and even lie in the name of G-d. Even those who ascend to the Temple Mount, and I am against ascending to the Temple Mount, they agree that it is forbidden to excavate on top of the Temple Mount."

When asked to elaborate on who was meant by his statement that there are those who lie in the name of G-d, the rabbi demurred. When pressed for an answer, he named Sheikh Raed Salah. Salah, the fiery leader of the Northern Islamic Movement, has served time in jail for funding the Hamas terror organization and has been detained on multiple occasions for inciting Arab violence against Jews.

After exiting the tunnels, the GPO showed journalists excavations being conducting at the rear of the Western Wall plaza. The Israeli Antiquities Authority is currently excavating a Roman road from the Second Temple period. An IAA guide explained that the Israeli government is planning to excavate underneath the Western Wall plaza.

The excavations will create an archaeological park directly underneath the area where worshippers currently stand while praying at the Kotel. The current prayer area will remain open, supported by pillars, while a new area will be added underneath, at the level at which worshippers at the ancient Temple stood in the past.

The dig may be met with harsh reactions by Israel's Muslim population. The Palestinian Authority has stressed "the danger of describing Al-Boraq Wall as Wailing Wall" as it is "the western part of the Wall of Al-Aqsa Mosque."

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