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Wailing Wall ‘collapsing’
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BBC, Aug. 27, 2002
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2219337.stm
Part of the Western Wall – Judaism’s most revered site – is in danger of falling down, say Israeli officials in Jerusalem.
Mayor Ehud Olmert is calling on the Israeli Government to take action to repair the wall, also known as the Wailing Wall.
His views are backed by a group of Israeli archaeologists.
But the Muslim authorities who run the mosque compound above the wall – known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif – have rejected intervention.
The bulge, which is about 10 metres wide, has been noticeable in the wall for several years.
Mr Olmert told Israel Radio: “There are serious grounds for the apprehension that it could collapse.
“In my view, we have reached the moment of truth.”
Shuka Dorfman, head of the Israeli Antiquities Committee, told The Jerusalem Post that the Waqf, the Muslim religious trust responsible for the site, had turned down requests by Israeli officials to carry out tests and repairs if necessary.
“The necessary co-operation needed with the Waqf is non-existent,” he said.
Waqf director Adnan al-Husayni said Waqf would not agree to intervention by Israel – or any other party – on the compound.
He said that Waqf had been monitoring the situation and began repairing the wall several months ago, but that Israel was trying to cause difficulties over the wall, which is part of the most sensitive religious complex in the world.
The wall is also known as the Wailing Wall because it was there that Jews bewailed the loss of their Temple above it.
That area, now the site of the al-Aqsa mosque, is sacred to Jews and to Muslims.
It was Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s visit there as Israeli opposition leader in September 2000 that marked the start of the latest wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.
In effect, the dispute is less about structural integrity of the wall, and more about politics and about ownership of perhaps the most disputed site in the Middle East.
During the war in 1967, Israel took control of Arab lands including the old city of Jerusalem.
But the government decided to leave the day-to-day custody of the mosque compound in the hands of Muslim religious authorities.
Since then, there have been repeated disputes between the two sides over stewardship of the site.
But during failed peace talks two years ago, neither side could agree on sovereignty of the compound.
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