JERUSALEM, Feb. 27 (UPI) -- With small hand axes, hoes and brushes, workers at what may be the world's most sensitive current archaeological dig are slowly clearing the top layer of a ramp leading to Jerusalem's Temple Mount. The religious site, behind a heavy wooden door, is revered by Jews, Christians and Muslims.
Big white jute sacks are already filled with sand as the diggers exposed a floor and remains of a wall. Archaeologist Dan Bahat believes they were destroyed in 1967. The work is just beginning. "It will take a fortnight more to see whether they will find anything significant," he said.
The project sparked riots by Muslims claiming the Jews were going to harm the Mosque of al-Aqsa, atop the Temple Mount, and might seek to dig into the hill.
The Israelis flatly denied it. Gideon Avni, head of Excavations and Surveys at the Israel Antiquities Authority stressed the entire excavation will be done "outside the walls of the Temple Mount and it will neither touch nor endanger the stability of the walls or of the Temple Mount itself." Israeli cameras are transmitting pictures on the Internet to prove its case.
Nevertheless, Mustafa Abu-Sway, professor of philosophy and Islamic studies at Jerusalem's al-Quds University remained suspicious. "There were many issues on which they have lied and (this) could be one of them," he told United Press International.
The Temple Mount is the Jews' holiest site. Successive temples existed there until 70 AD when the Romans destroyed a magnificent temple that Herod began building but never finished.
Jesus arrived there in 26. Prof. Dan Bahat, who studied the area and dug there for 45 years, told UPI he believes he can tell where Jesus chased the money changers and where Solomon's Portico existed.
Then came the Muslims maintaining Prophet Mohammad had gone there on a night journey. The belief is based on a verse in the Koran that says, "Glory be to Him Who made His servant to go on a night from the Sacred Mosque (meaning Mecca) to the remote mosque." The Muslims believe it is the al-Aqsa in Jerusalem, and so it became their third holiest site.
The ramp to the plaza had been part of a neighborhood the Israelis destroyed right after the 1967 war. Israel did so to expand the tiny area opposite the Western Wall and then dug it deeper to expose more layers of the Herodian Wall making it more impressive.
The old path became a ramp and one night, in 2004, an earthquake and a snowstorm caused part of it to collapse. The Israelis built a wooden bridge to the Temple Mount's southwestern gate, the only gate open to non-Muslims.
They want to replace it with a sturdy bridge, and before doing so, began salvage excavations "to document and save antiquities prior to construction," wrote Avni.
Such excavations are mandatory. "On rare occasions, an item of supreme archaeological and historical importance is discovered, which necessitates a change in the construction plans and conservation of the archaeological finding at the site," he continued.
That is what happened last year in the Megiddo prison that was about to be expanded. Diggers discovered 3rd Century Christian prayer and the prison's construction plans were changed.
Abu-Sway maintained that a path leading to al-Aqsa is part of the al-Aqsa. Israel should have obtained the Muslim Waqf's written consent for the works, he said.
This, however, is exactly part of the problem. The Waqf, the Muslim authority in charge of Islamic shrines, maintains Israel occupied the area and has no legal right to be there. The Israelis maintain all of Jerusalem is part of their eternal capital. They recognize the Waqf manages the Temple Mount, informed the Waqf of its plans, but are not going to give it a say on what happens outside the mount's walls.
With the Jews praying three times a day that God should return Jerusalem and the Muslims building beautiful mosques at the site of the old temples, there was an inherent cause for friction. It was tamed because orthodox rabbis maintain Jews must not set foot on the sacred mount.
Bahat noted the Crusaders had burnt the Jews who were in Jerusalem in 1099. Jews returned after the Muslims reoccupied the area. The Jews used to circle the mount and stop at each gate for prayers. In the 17th Century security deteriorated; it was dangerous to leave the walled town, so they focused on the Western Wall, which is part of the wall surrounding the Temple Mount, Bahat said.
The Muslims believe Mohammad arrived on a magical horse, all-Buraq. Yuval Baruch, the Antiquities Authority's Jerusalem regional archaeologist, said that at least in the 15th Century, there was an al-Buraq Mosque in the Temple Mount.
In the early 20th Century the Zionists emphasized the Western Wall as a Jewish national symbol -- not just a religious one -- so the Muslims declared the Western Wall a holy Muslim site called al-Buraq.
The issue is still festering. Jordan's King Abdullah met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo Sunday, and the two "renewed their condemnations of the ...excavation." Egypt and Jordan are the only two Arab countries with peace treaties with Israel.
Olmert, who was in Ankara 10 days ago, showed Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan pictures of what Israel was doing, but Erdogan said he did not believe that "100 percent" and planned to send over a team to check the works. The team hasn't yet been formed but Jordan and the Palestinians arranged for a meeting in Ankara to present their views before the teams leaves for Jerusalem, a Turkish diplomat told UPI.
The U.N. Education and Cultural Organization,UNESCO, is also planning to send a high level team to carry out "a technical assessment," it said.
