Premier Golda Meir appointed a special commission today to investigate the drilling of four holes in the Western Wall and other construction work on the site which has already brought an angry protest from Sephardic Chief Rabbi Itzhak Nissim. The holes were reportedly drilled by Arab workers employed by the Jerusalem Municipality in order to insert Iron bolts through the wall to keep an adjacent Arab house from collapsing. The Arabs were said to have done the work without adequate supervision.
Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem and the City Engineer have denied responsibility for the act that has caused an uproar in the Orthodox community here. Chief Rabbi Nissim, in a telegram to Kollek demanded that the house be torn down immediately. The building is inhabited. The commission appointed by Mrs. Meir to probe the incident is headed by Haim Kubersky, director general of the Ministry of Interior. Its members are the Labor Ministry’s district engineer, the Jerusalem City Manager and the architect of the Ministry for Religious Affairs who is responsible for the aesthetic aspects of holy sites.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
