A heavily protected visit to the Temple Mount by the Knesset Interior Committee Tuesday touched off an angry dispute between its chairman, Likud MK Dov Shilansky, and Laborite member Dov BenMeir over whether the Moslem religious authorities were altering the area in violation of the law.
Shilansky, an outspoken advocate of the right of Jews to worship on the Mount, which is the site of two of the holiest shrines of the Islamic faith, claimed he discovered that the Supreme Moslem Council and the Waqf — the Moslem Religious Trust which is caretaker of the shrines — were converting an underground area known as Solomon’s Stables into a giant mosque with room for 100,000 worshippers.
He accused the Waqf of building unauthorized prayer platforms on the Mount and destroying archaeological evidence of the Jewish past But the worst violation, he said, was the attempt to build a new religious center for Moslems from all over the world in Solomon’s Stables. “I don’t understand why they need a mosque for 100,000 people. This is 10 times bigger than Al Aksa,” Shilansky said.
The Al Aksa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, also known as the Mosque of Omar, are located at the site where the Temple was destroyed by the Romans 2,000 years ago. The government bars Jews from Praying there, a policy Shilansky is trying to reverse.
Ben-Meir, who is a Deputy Speaker of the Knesset, said the only evidence of change he saw on the tour of Solomon’s Stables was the installation of electric lighting.
He charged that the visit by the Knesset committee was intended by the rightwing parties to show the Moslems that the Jews are “the boss” on the Temple Mount. He said it was an example of extremists on both sides joining to “put fuel on the fire.”
Mayor Teddy Kollek of Jerusalem also questioned the wisdom of the visit. He called it “headline hunting.” He said there was no evidence of any illegal construction on the Temple Mount.
Shilansky led a group of Knesset members and Orthodox Jewish activists on a visit to the Temple Mount several years ago. They were surrounded by a hostile crowd and had to be extricated by police. There were no incidents during Tuesday’s visit. Police guards outnumbered the Knesset members.
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