Last update - 00:00 20/02/2007
Palestinians urge Arab states to cut Israel ties over J'lem dig
By Reuters
The Palestinian parliament urged Arab states on Tuesday to cut ties with Israel in protest at excavation work near Islam's third holiest site which has triggered Muslim protests.
The Palestinian Legislative Council, controlled by Hamas, also called on the United Nations Security Council to pressure Israel to safeguard Islamic and Christian sites in Jerusalem.
The council said Arab states should "sever diplomatic and economic ties [with Israel] and not establish new ones" in response to the excavation near Al-Aqsa Mosque.
Few Arab countries have formal ties with Israel. Egypt and Jordan signed peace treaties with Israel and have diplomatic relations, while some Gulf Arab states have lower level contacts.
Israel says the work near Al-Aqsa aims to salvage artefacts before construction of a pedestrian bridge leading up to a religious compound sacred to both Muslims and Jews.
But the work has angered Arabs and Muslims who fear it could damage foundations of the 1,300-year-old mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East War.
The legislative council said Arab and Muslim leaders should take measures to protect sacred Muslim sites and called for urgent summit meetings of the Arab League and Organization of the Islamic Conference to pressure Israel.
More than 30 people were wounded in clashes near Al-Aqsa earlier this month between Israeli police and stone-throwing protesters angered by the excavation works.
Muslim suspicion over Israeli actions intensified this week when Antiquities Authority archaeologist Yuval Baruch said storm and earthquake damage in 2004 had exposed remains at the site that could be from an ancient Muslim school.
The director of the Waqf, a Jordanian-backed body that oversees Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, said the fact the discovery was not announced at the time showed Israel wanted to "destroy the Islamic character of the city".
Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement of Israel's northenr branch, called for a new uprising to protest against what he called an "Israeli crime".
"This program will include local and international activities. All of them are part of our attempt to stop this Israeli crime, which continues until now," Salah told Reuters. He called for protests in the Arab and Islamic world.