J'lem Mayor postpones Temple Mt. construction

[Scurrilous]

<snip>

"Jerusalem mayor Uri Lupolianski announced late Sunday night that he has decided to postpone construction of the walkway at the Mugrabi Ascent until zoning authorities complete plans for the area.

Lupolianski and Western Wall rabbi Shmuel Rabinovich drafted the decision Sunday following conversations with Attorney General Menachem Mazuz, municipal planning authorities, Muslim community leaders and other representatives of the Arab population of East Jerusalem, in order to allow the general public to review plans for the bridge and submit opposition.

Lupolianski announced that the measure reflects a desire for transparency and to foster a sense of cooperation with residents in the construction process. He also wanted to avoid the feeling among the public that the work constitutes some sort of an Israeli ambush.

In practice, the decision means that approval of the plan will be postponed until a hearing of all the letters of opposition filed by city residents. The salvage excavation being conducted by the Antiquities Authority is expected to continue at this stage, parallel to the public discussion of the zoning plan.

Jerusalem municipal sources said Sunday that the decision could in fact be postponed for months, and that there is no certainty the zoning authorities that hear the arguments of those opposed will actually approve the plan in the end."

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/824624.html

[madrchsod]

1. maybe sanity can be restored and what needs to be done

gets done. but that may never happen in the land of abraham

[calzone]

2. The damage is already done....

...sounds to me like the mayor is giving nothing, just stringing the Muslims along with a cynical ploy.

[Violet_Crumble]

3. But isn't it the excavation work that's causing the problems?

From the article: 'The salvage excavation being conducted by the Antiquities Authority is expected to continue at this stage, parallel to the public discussion of the zoning plan.'

[Shaktimaan]

4. This is good.

Because greater transparency is always beneficial. But there has always been a policy of respect towards religious sites of all religions in Israel. They are the only country to give shared access and even shared management of those areas. The whole idea of Israel purposefully damaging Al Aqsa is propaganda that dates back to the 20's when it was put forward by the famously anti-semitic grand mufti of Jerusalem. (Remember him? The one who hung out with Hitler?) There's always some story about how they're planning on blowing it up or destroying it to rebuild a synagogue. Have you heard the story about how the excavations are actually construction of a secret underground temple? Good Lord. I'm not even exaggerating, this stuff is crazy. Fact is the Waqf is well aware and consulted with all of these plans anyway, it isn't some conspiracy.

Can you imagine what would happen if Israel actually destroyed Al Aqsa?

This hysteria has been going on for almost a hundred years. These claims have NEVER, in all that time, been true in the end. Remember, it was claims that Jews had burned down Al Aqsa and were planning to build a temple over it that sparked the Hebron Massacre back in 1929. Seriously... do any of you guys actually believe these statements are accurate? Can you even easily tell which ones are from today's news and which is from 1922?

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said before leaving for unity talks with Fatah in Mecca that Israel was out to cause "direct harm" to al-Aqsa.
"I appeal to all our Palestinian people to be united and to rise up together to protect al-Aqsa and the holy sites on the blessed land of Palestine," Haniyeh said.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/06022007/325/israeli-excavation-jerusalem-stirs-muslim-anger.html

A former aide to Mr. Abbas, Walid M. Awad, issued a long statement on Friday in which he accused Israel of working gradually to “Judaize” the Arab areas of Jerusalem and to take over the Noble Sanctuary, also known as Haram al-Sharif. Mr. Awad is the foreign press spokesman for the Central Media Commission of Fatah, Mr. Abbas’s faction in the Palestinian Authority.
The renovation work, Mr. Awad charged, “is part and parcel of extensive Israeli efforts that began in June 1967 designed to undermine Islamic holy sites and construct the ‘Jewish Temple.’
“The Israeli claim that it is only renovating or maintaining the said road is completely false,” he continued, “for if that was its objective, it could have brought in the Islamic Waqf Authority, and asked them to fix the problem.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/11/world/middleeast/11mideast.html?ex=1328850000&en=2a31b921143758e0&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

In 1922, a Palestinian delegation to the Hajj (pilgrimage) in Mecca had declared:
The Islamic Palestinian Nation that has been guarding al-Aksa Mosque and Holy Rock since 1,300 years declares to the Muslim world that the Holy Places are in great danger on account of the horrible Zionist aggressions... The Zionist Committee, which is endeavoring to establish Jewish rule in Palestine and to rob al-Aksa from the Muslims on the plea that it was built on the ruins of Solomon's Temple, aims at making Palestine a base of Jewish influence over the peninsula and the whole East.

http://www.zionism-israel.com/Palestine_Massacre_riots_of_1929.htm

edit to spelling.