Panel nixes expansion at Western Wall
The Interior Ministry's Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee approved the original plan of the reconstruction project for the Temple Mount's Mugrabi Gate on the condition that certain changes be made in it. At the end of a hearing some two weeks ago, the committee accepted the objections submitted by the Ir Amim organization to the plan for transformation of the area underneath the new bridge into a space for Jewish prayers. In so doing, it rejected an initiative of the Western Wall's rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, which had gained the support of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, to take advantage of the collapse of the bridge as an opportunity to expand the women's section at the site.
...The committee also decided to order the preservation of findings from all historical eras, including the Ottoman period, as well as of remains connected to the Mughrabi Quarter, contrary to the spirit of the government decision on the matter of November 2007, which stated "the Antiquities Authority will eliminate any finding that is not archaeological, while taking into account the elements of preservation, aesthetics, security, safety and possible social hazards." The significance of the decision not to preserve any finding that is not "archaeological," that is, findings dated after 1700, would have meant disregarding any trace of the period of Ottoman rule.
...The committee asked for the final bridge designs to be sent to UNESCO's World Heritage Center. Ir Amim's legal adviser, attorney Daniel Seidemann, welcomed the committee's decision. "In canceling the instructions to transform spaces from Islamic periods beneath the Mughrabi Ascent into synagogues for women at the Western Wall, the committee acted with admirable responsibility," said Seidemann. "In doing so, the committee almost certainly prevented a most dangerous inter-religious flare-up."
And my comments:
1. First of all, since the Ottoman period started in 1517, two centuries of Ottoman construction and architecture will be preserved.
2. Secondly, nothing will be destroyed. Any archeological remains of importance even after 1700 will be moved to another nearby location or a museum.
3. And what have the Muslims and their Waqf been doing for the past century if not dstroying Jewish artifacts. Has Ir Amim ever turned to the courts to prevent what is happening on the Temple Mount or is it only Muslim concerns that bother them rather than a warm feeling of humanism? Did UNESCO ever halt the destruction of the Mt. of Olives cemetery? Ot is Muslim racism to be accepted, the usual leftist patronism?
4. So, Muslim sentiments are to be preferred to Jewish religious sentiments even though no Jew is allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, an obscurantist psoition of theology which Ir Amim accepts willingly but snivels at Jewish prayer needs.
And what do our Jewesses say?
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