Knesset Committee Digs the Temple Mount

A second session of the Knesset's Interior Committee was conducted today, following-up on the first.

I attended.  I sat next to Dr. Gaby Barkay, Israel Caspi of the Committee To Prevent Temple Mount Antiquities Destruction and Prof. Arieh Eldad, to my right:

Across the way was, first on the right, Avi Biton, Police Commander of the Temple Mount and Old City district [Merchav David], (in dark shirt) Dr. Yuval Baruch, the Israel Antiquities Authority point-man for the Temple Mount who was harshly criticized by the Chairlady and MK Motti Yogev and the two others, from the Jerusalem Municipality Engineer's Unit (but they didn't speak).

One filmed item was shown - the incident two days ago and you can see it here.  In addition, Michale Foa, aide to MK Moshe Feiglin, presented a powerpoint illustration of problems, one of which is discussed here.


I have always been a proponent to utilize the across-the-board sympathy and identification the vast majority of Israelis possess for the importance of our history in this land as supported by archeology as a central connector-theme rather than Third Temple, sacrifices and other religious elements, whose time will come.


MK Miri Regev concluded the meeting (a Hebrew video clip) and said that:

One -  The Committee will invite Minister Limor Livnat who chairs the Ministerial Committee for the Holy Sites (its sole agenda item is the Temple Mount) to review the actions of the Committee. Questions that will prompt answers would be: what actions have the Commission approved on the Mount? Under what conditions? Who oversees the operations and how? Who in the government was notified? When should actions be completed?   The minister will also be asked to refer to the prohibition of Jewish prayer on the Mount.

Two - The Public Committee Against the Destruction of Temple Mount Antiquities is directed to request of Minister Livnat to remove the ancient timbers to a protected place. The working assumption is that the Antiquities Authority affirms this recommendation.

Three - To propose to consider the removing of the piles of dirt containing archaeological finds to a more tidy place tidy. Committee will refer this to the Ministerial Committee.

Four - the Interior Committee will approach the police and internal security minister to consider removing from out of the mount all tractors after hour of 14:00.

Five - The Interior Committee demands the expanding of visiting hours at Mount and in addition, the Committee will require the presence of Israel Antiquities Authority inspectors 24 hours. The committee will seek a report on the implementation at its next discussion.

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UPDATE:

The Al-Aqsa Foundation said in a statement released on Thursday, 01.09.2014 that "Regev's statements about the existence of the structure in the Al-Aqsa Mosque is an exaggeration, lacks reality and historical truth and that is glaringly obvious. The institution confirmed the lack of an alleged structure [the Temple] in the al-Aqsa mosque, noting that the Israeli occupation...aims through these black thoughts to create a pretext in order to extend its control to Al-Aqsa, ever stronger and commercialization of novel temple.

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