Temple Mount in Congress
Bill Seeks to Halt Construction

Congress is considering a bill that would cut American aid to the Palestinian Authority until it stops construction on Jerusalem's Temple Mount—construction that critics charge has been destroying remains from the First and Second Temple periods.

The Temple Mount Preservation Act was introduced in July by Republican Eric Cantor, who represents the seventh district of Virginia. His bill would halt $200 million in aid to the Palestinians this year.

Construction atop the Temple Mount—the platform that once held the First and Second Temples and which today holds the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock—was begun in late 1999 by the Waqf, the Muslim religious council responsible for the mount, ostensibly to enlarge an emergency exit for an underground mosque in the southeast corner of the mount. Since then many truckloads of earth filled with ancient artifacts have been hauled off the mount and much of the southeast corner has been paved over. None of the work has been supervised by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), as required by Israeli law.

At a Capitol Hill press conference at which he introduced his bill, Cantor charged that Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestinian Authority, had barred Jews and Christians from the Temple Mount and was bent on erasing Jewish or Christian connections to the mount.

But Cantor's bill may be misdirected. Recent discussions held by BAR with top IAA officials and with members of the Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, who have been harshly critical of what they see as the IAA's ineffectual response to the construction, made clear that the power to preserve antiquities on the mount lies not with Arafat but with Israel.

Both right- and left-wing governments in Israel have been loath to crack down on the construction for fear of sparking riots and of scuttling negotiations with the Palestinians. "Israeli law is not enforced on the Temple Mount," an IAA official confided.

The official also noted that the impetus behind the construction came not from Yasser Arafat nor even from Waqf officials, but from Raed Salah, the mayor of Umm el-Fahm, the second largest Arab city in Israel, and the leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel. Salah raised the funds for the work on the Temple Mount and brought in hundreds of volunteers to carry it out. Similarly, the decision to bar non-Muslims from the mount was made not by Arafat but by Israeli police out of concern for public safety in the wake of the Palestinian uprising that began in September 2000.

It was clear from discussions with IAA officials that they feel hamstrung. They are obligated by law to oversee the work on the Temple Mount, but they are barred from the mount by Israeli police. "Our role is to observe and to report, and the government has to decide what to do," another IAA official said. He added that the construction could easily have been stopped, but at a heavy cost in lives—50 Palestinian rioters and 10 Israeli policemen, in his estimate.

This IAA official added that the work on the Temple Mount had been slowed over the previous three months because the Israeli government was not allowing construction materials onto the mount. Archaeologist Eilat Mazar, a leading member of the Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, countered that new construction materials were no longer needed. She produced a photo showing a truck that had dumped ancient stone blocks near a stone-cutting saw. On the other side of the photo were piles of smaller stone blocks, freshly cut from the old blocks.

Mazar also produced two aerial photos; the first was taken in November 1999, just before construction began, while the second was taken in June of this year. Much of the southeast corner of the Temple Mount has been greatly altered: Two arched doorways now lead to the underground mosque, while much of the area leading to the entrances has been cleared of trees and paved over.

The work on the Temple Mount seems to be nearing completion, but what will Israel's government do if construction begins in another area of the Temple Mount? Perhaps more important, can Israel reverse the perception that it has ceded control of the mount?—S.F.