Israel to open ancient site near Jerusalem shrine

September 29, 2005

JERUSALEM, Sept 29 (Reuters) - Israel will soon open to the public an underground archaeological site near Jerusalem's most sensitive shrine, an official said on Thursday, in an area where inauguration of an exhibit in 1996 led to bloodshed.

The Jewish ritual bath, dating to the 1st century, will be opened at a site running parallel to Judaism's Western Wall in the Israeli-annexed Old City of Jerusalem.

Palestinians have long opposed Israeli excavations in the area, citing dangers to the foundations of al-Haram al-Sharif, the site of the Dome of the Rock and al-Aqsa mosques where the biblical Jewish Temples once stood.

In 1996, Israel's opening of an archaeological tunnel near al-Haram al-Sharif sparked Palestinian violence in which 61 Arabs and 15 Israeli soldiers were killed.

Adnan Husseini, director of the Waqf, or Islamic Trust in Jerusalem administering al-Haram al-Sharif, an area revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, voiced opposition to the new site.

"Excavations are dangerous for the mosques' structures," he told Reuters. "Such moves are also illegal."

Arieh Banner, an official with Israel's Western Wall Heritage Foundation, said the ritual bath did not run under al-Haram al-Sharif or endanger the shrine.

"This is a very important discovery from the second (Jewish) Temple period and we hope to open this to the public within the next month to two months," Banner said.

"We would not do anything in the direction of the Temple Mount," he said, adding the site was 60 to 70 metres (230 feet) from the Western Wall.

Israel captured East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed it, a step that has not been recognised internationally.

Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future state.

SOURCE: Reuters