The Work Will Go On

The Jerusalem municipality will submit new plans for the Mughrabi Gate walkway leading to a disputed holy compound in Jerusalem, but the construction work was scheduled to continue at the site, a City Hall spokesman announced Monday morning.

The plans for the new walkway up to the compound known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount were already approved by City Hall, but Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski will now demand a longer and more transparent planning process that will allow residents to see the plans and submit protests, spokesman Gidi Schmerling said.

The usual suspects are out and about complaining about the construction and threatening additional violence, even though none of this construction will affect the structrual integrity of the Temple Mount.

The Palestinians will get violent if there's even the appearance of agitated feelings. The Palestinians respond to everything as though they were petulent two year olds throwing a temper tantrum, albeit with rocks, rockets, mortars, and gunfire, when they do not get their way.

In a press release, GCMHP expressed its full condemnation for this dangerous act that harms holy places and highly inflames Muslims feelings.

“The diggings and destruction to the Mosque is considered a clear provocation to Muslims worldwide and a blatant violation of the principles of the international law, particularly, the fourth Geneva Convention that prohibits the destruction of civilian properties - especially holy places,” according to the press release.

As I've repeatedly pointed out and visually documented, none of the construction affects the mosques on the Temple Mount, and will not destroy any holy places. This is yet another sign of the nonsensical but methodical rantings designed to pressure Israel into ceding yet more control of Jerusalem's holy sites, which include Judaism's holiest shrines - the Temple Mount and Western Wall complex.

However, since this Palestinian group is so concerned about protecting holy sites, perhaps they should look at what Palestinians did to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem when Palestinian terrorists turned it into an armed camp and defiled the church in hiding out from Israeli soldiers, or when they ransacked and heavily damaged Joseph's Tomb. Or, if you want to go back further, consider how the Arab armies destroyed synogogues throughout the Old City, including the Hurva.

UPDATE:
Meryl Yourish weighs in on the coverage of the Mugrabi (Rambam) Gate dig.

UPDATE:
And the ranting and raving of those who seek to stop Israel's actions at all costs continues. This, from Egypt:

The excavations, which aim to salvage artefacts before construction of a pedestrian bridge leading to the complex also sacred to Jews, have angered many Muslims who fear the work will harm the foundations of al-Aqsa mosque. Israel says the holy places will not be harmed.

"That cursed Israel is trying to destroy al-Aqsa mosque," Mohammed el-Katatny of President Hosni Mubarak's National Democratic Party (NDP) told a heated parliament session held to discuss the Israeli digging.

"Nothing will work with Israel except for a nuclear bomb that wipes it out of existence," he said.

Ah, don't you just love the smell of lies, annihilation and apocalyptic visions in the afternoon? Never mind that the excavations are no where near the al Aqsa mosque, this politician spreading lies and thinks the only way to stop Israel is to nuke it out of existence.

Egypt gets $2 billion a year from the US. Egypt is also looking into developing nuclear weapons.

UPDATE:
Clashes continue as Palestinians continue their rock throwing and rioting.

Hundreds of Palestinian protesters clashed with Israeli security forces in the West Bank city of Hebron. Nine people were arrested in various Arab neighborhoods of East Jerusalem after stones were thrown at police officers, Israeli cars and a passenger bus.

But a police spokesman, Micky Rosenfeld, characterized the violence in Jerusalem as “small-scale and sporadic,” and said that a beefed-up police presence of 2,000 officers would be maintained in order to prevent wider disturbances in the city.

The mayor of Jerusalem, Uri Lupolianski, announced on Sunday night that he was postponing construction of a controversial new footbridge to replace one leading up to the religious compound, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount.

A spokesman for the city government said Mr. Lupolianski made the decision together with Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, who is responsible for the Western Wall area below the compound and other Jewish holy places, because of the “sensitivity of the plan.”

The plans for the footbridge itself will now be referred to planning and construction committees and will come under public review. But the digging already underway at the site, meant to salvage anything archaelogically important that may be in the way of the construction, will continue. That digging is what touched off the trouble in the first place, raising ire across the Muslim world.

It doesn't matter how sensitive the Israelis are - they're not nearly sensitive enough for the Islamists who are perpetuating this latest conflict.