Fireworks Continue over the City of David Dig

Education and Culture Minister Zevulun Hammer last night signed an order requiring the City of David archaeologists to suspend their excavations for two weeks, pending the Attorney General’s legal opinion on the issue. Hammer acted after the archaeologists and the Israel Exploration Society refused to accede voluntarily to his request that they suspend the dig for two weeks.

Following his order, the archaeologists and leading academics at Hebrew University said they would consider challenging the Minister’s action in the Supreme Court on the ground that he was exceeding his legal authority.

Dr. Yigal Shiloh, who heads the archaeological team at the dig, told Hammer that he would refuse to suspend the dig for two weeks, pending Attorney General Yitzhak Zamir’s rulings on the powers of the Minister and the two Chief Rabbis under the laws of the State. Zamir is expected to determine whether under law the Chief Rabbinate’s halachic ruling that the site is an ancient Jewish cemetery can affect its status as an archaeological place of interest and lead to the revocation of the excavation license which was issued three years ago.

Hammer said that he had consulted with his Ministry’s legal aid and was fully within his powers to ban the dig for two weeks. The Chief Rabbinate specifically ordered Hammer to stop the dig permanently and he, by referring the question of legal powers to Zamir, sought to give himself some breathing space in a thoroughly awkward political situation. Hammer, a leader of the National Religious Party, said he will consider resigning his Cabinet post if he cannot resolve the City of David issue to the satisfaction of the Chief Rabbis and at the same time act in strict accordance with his legal responsibilities as Minister of Education and Culture.

CLASHES BETWEEN ARABS AND JEWS

Meanwhile, as Hammer was preparing his legal order, ultra-Orthodox Jews clashed with police at the excavation site. Twenty zealots were arrested after they failed to observe police orders to disperse. At the same time ultra-Orthodox Jews and Arabs clashed in a tunnel under the Temple Mount in the Old City. The existence of the tunnel, which leads from the Temple Mount site of the Al Aksa and the Dome of the Rock mosques to the Western Wall, was kept a secret until last week.

After the news of its existence became widespread, Arabs walled up an entrance to the tunnel. The ultra-Orthodox Jews reacted by tearing down the wall. Yesterday, some 30 Arabs tried to enter the tunnel to rebuild the wall in order, they said, to prevent Jews from entering the mosques. As soon as word spread that the Arabs had entered the tunnel, police were rushed to the scene but a scuffle between the Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox Jews erupted inside the tunnel before police could intervene.

Several Arabs were slightly injured in the clash. Both the Arabs and the Jews emerged from the tunnel only after lengthy negotiations were conducted between high-level Israeli officials and the leaders of the Moslem council which handles the religious institutions in the Old City. Police Inspector General Arye Ibtzan ordered the reconstruction of the wall and said it would remain in place until responsible authorities decided otherwise.

But the tension between the religious and secular communities in Jerusalem did not end at that point yesterday. Religious zealots also clashed with police in the Mea Shearim quarter following the clash between the Arabs and the ultra-Orthodox Jews at the tunnel. The religious zealots in Mea Shearim tossed a Molotov cocktail at the police but it failed to explode. Police, using billy clubs, chased them from the scene. The narrow road leading to the quarter was closed to traffic and the Egged bus company suspended all services to the quarter.