Mount under the microscope

GIL ZOHAR

For the first time ever, the Israel Antiquities Authority has installed a webcam at an archeological site in an effort to diffuse religious tensions caused by a salvage dig.

Three cameras installed at the Mughrabi Gate Reconstruction Project – which adjoins both the Western Wall plaza and the Haram ash-Sharif (Temple Mount) in the Old City – went online Feb. 15. Every 10 seconds, the view switches from the upper part of the controversial ramp to the lower part, and then into the excavation tent.

"We have nothing to hide. Whoever wants to come to the website can see what is going on in the excavation area," Liat Eizenkot of the IAA told In Jerusalem. The unprecedented installation of the cameras came about at the request of the Prime Minister's Office, she explained.

The site, www.antiquities.org.il/home_eng.asp, has received nearly 200,000 hits since its webcam went live two weeks ago, said IAA spokesman Osnat Goaz. A third of the cyber visitors came from the United States, and half that many from Israel. Among the digital viewers were 1,451 people from Egypt, 945 from Saudi Arabia and two from the Vatican.

As well, the IAA English-language website includes two essays about the salvage project by IAA director of surveys and excavations Dr. Gideon Avni, entitled "The Real Story behind the Mughrabi Ramp" and "Why Must Excavations be Conducted next to the Temple Mount?"

While the webcam has contributed to transparency about what is happening at the site and helped belie the claim that the dig will undermine or destabilize the al-Aqsa Mosque, work there continues to be a source of controversy. On Monday, MK Abbas Zakur (Ra'am-Ta'al) asked Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to halt the excavations. Zakur toured the dig with IAA officials, and was shown a mihrab – a niche facing south to Mecca to indicate the direction Muslims should face when praying – unearthed in the excavation under the ramp.

The Temple Mount reopened Feb. 22 to Jewish visitors for the first time in more than three weeks, and a number of groups visited the site.

In a related matter, the Google Earth Internet site recently designated the Temple Mount as "occupied Palestinian territory."

In 2004, municipal engineers ordered the Mughrabi Gate ramp closed for fears of collapse caused by a recent earthquake. The temporary bridge built at that point subsequently also become unstable. The current salvage dig is being carried out before construction can begin on a new and permanent bridge, which will allow visitors to ascend to the holy precinct from a walkway beginning just inside the Dung Gate.

While the Haram ash-Sharif has nine historic gates that are not blocked in, the Waqf [caretaker of the Temple Mount] only permits non-Muslims to enter through the Mughrabi Gate. The gate takes its name from the former Moroccan or Mughrabi Quarter which was bulldozed in June 1967 shortly after the Israel Defence Forces reunited Jerusalem during the Six Day War.

Gil Zohar is a Jerusalem freelance writer.

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