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Temple Mount and the Ultimate Nightmare
Growing fears of
Ramadan Temple Mount disaster
MAARIV International
Police mull limiting access to Temple mount mosques, following
warnings by experts that “Solomon’s Stables” could collapse.
The Defense establishment is carefully considering a proposal to
severely limit access to the Temple mount mosques during
Ramadan, the Moslem holy month due to begin at the end of the
week.
Proponents of the plan call for limiting access to 50,000
worshippers, instead of the 250,000 that usually come to pray in
the Temple Mount mosques on the first day's prayers of Ramadan
This is a result of mounting fears that the structural integrity
of Solomon's Stables has been compromised. Over the past several
months the Waqf (Moslem religious council) has carried out major
construction work without adequate supervision, due to its
refusal to allow Israeli construction engineers access to the
construction site.
Recently several experts have warned that the result could be a
catastrophic structural failure, causing the building to
collapse, possibly burying thousands of worshippers.
Opinions in the establishment are sharply divided, as fears of
the repercussions of a major disaster are tempered by concerns
of the possible domestic and international political fallout
resulting from Israel limiting access to the Temple Mount
mosques.
Three weeks ago, Maariv revealed that Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon had instructed the defense establishment to prevent a
disaster on the Temple Mount, in light of the estimate that the
compound knows as “Solomon’s Stables” would collapse, burying
tens of thousands of worshipers.
After all diplomatic efforts to convince Jordanian authorities
and the Waqf (Moslem religious council) to seal off the area
during the Ramadan prayers, police have decided to prepare a
massive emergency operation termed “Ma’ayan Shlomo” (Solomon’s
Fountain).
According to the plan, over 4,000 soldiers and police officers
would be deployed at potential hotspots. Police will attempt to
limit the number of worshipers from an estimated 250,000 to only
50,000. This, on condition that Jordan and the Waqf do not block
the entrance to the compound themselves.
Police is also mulling whether to completely isolate Jerusalem
by blocking all entrances from the West Bank and by preventing a
large number of Moslems who would head for Jerusalem from the
Galilee and the Negev.
In any case, Minster of Public Security Gideon Ezra has
instructed the Home Front Command, the fire fighting services
and MDA to prepare for a scenario of a collapse of “Solomon’s
Stables”.
Head of Israel Police, Chief Commissioner Moshe Karadi, has
proposed to begin the implementation of the plan as early as
this Thursday, if no indications on fixing the structural
deficiencies or of blocking the entrance to the compound are
received.
Officials are currently waiting to hear if the first Friday of
the Ramadan would be held this coming Friday, as the final date
is determined according to the hour in which the moon rises in
Saudi Arabia.
It has been reported that Waqf officials, in spite of its
official refusal to do so, have begun placing scaffoldings at
“Solomon’s Stables”.
The Waqf have also reportedly blocked the compound in the area
of the three loose arches, which raise the most concern as to
their stability. However, an official engineering approval that
the above actions have indeed managed to prevent a collapse, has
yet to be received.
Justice Minister Yossef Lapid went so far as to propose that the
engineering faults at the compound be documented on tape and
spread worldwide ahead of time, “so we wouldn’t have to explain
what had occurred there”.
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