Eastern Temple wall in danger of immediate collapse
Etgar Lefkovits
May 19, 2004
The eastern wall of Jerusalem's Temple Mount is in danger of immediate collapse, which could cause a 'domino effect' and bring down other sections of ancient compound, the head of the Israel Antiquities Authority Shuka Dorfman said Tuesday.
The rare public warning, made at a meeting of the Knesset's Interior Committee, came one month after a team of senior Egyptian and Jordanian engineers began to carry out tests to determine the stability of the eastern wall.
Dorfman's first public comments on the issue Tuesday followed a classified report issued by the Israel Antiquities Authority earlier this year, which stated that the 2,000- year-old wall was in danger of immediate collapse as a result of a February earthquake that rattled the region. The report says that the February 11 earthquake damaged the eastern wall of the Temple Mount to such an extent that sections of the wall are liable to cave in on the underground architectural support of the mount, known as Solomon's Stables.
New cracks and movements in the already fragile wall were discerned by archaeologists following the earthquake, the report states.
The six-person team who conducted a survey last month, which included four Egyptian engineers and geologists and two architects from Jordan, was summoned to Jerusalem at the behest of the Jordanian government,
The Jordanians, who have been charged with the ongoing repair of a bulge on the southern wall over the last year, have become increasingly involved in Temple Mount issues after nearly a decade when they were sidelined at the site by the Palestinian Authority.
A representative from the prime minister's office told the Knesset committee that staff work was underway on the matter.
Dorfman's public warnings over the danger to the eastern wall mirrored concern among Israeli archaeologists over the possible collapse of the southern wall in the fall of 2002 following months of bickering between Israel and the Wakf over who would repair the bulge, a dispute which was resolved with the Jordanian involvement.
Israel maintains overall security of the site, while the Wakf, or Islamic Trust, is charged with day-to-day maintenance at the compound. The Wakf director, Adnan Husseini, has previously asserted that there is "no problem" at the eastern wall.
Israeli archaeologists from the Antiquities Authority have not been carrying out routine supervision at the site for more than three years, despite the reopening of the ancient compound to non-Muslims last year, due to concern over renewed Palestinian violence at the site.
"Our ongoing demand for the renewal of full archaeological supervision of the site is needed now more than ever after it has been proven yet again that the direct result of the lack of such inspection on the Temple Mount is further antiquities damage as well as physical danger," said Hebrew University archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar, a leading mount expert and a senior member of the non-partisan Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount.
At the Knesset meeting Tuesday, committee head Yuri Shtern (National Union) called on the prime minister to have an authorized Israeli team carry out the needed repair work at the mount's eastern wall, as opposed to the foreign team at work on the southern wall.