Last update - 00:00 08/03/2007
J'lem city council meets ahead of release of new Mugrabi plan
By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent
The Jerusalem municipal planning and construction council held its first meeting this week ahead of the release of a new plan to construct a bridge to the Mugrabi Gate entrance to the Temple Mount.
The previous plan for construction near the Temple Mount generated a great deal of protest from Muslims. Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski announced several weeks ago that the controversial plan would be put on hold to give city residents a chance to acquaint themselves with the planned structure and submit any objections to the project. He said the move was intended to diminish opposition to the construction, which he said stemmed from ignorance, since the original plan was not presented to the public.
An extensive public debate will succeed in convincing the Muslims that the bridge construction does not damage or annex any Temple Mount land, Lupolianski said.
The bridge is meant to replace a makeshift wooden bridge that engineers have said is in danger of collapse and which was itself a hasty replacement for a ramp that partly caved in during the winter of 2004.
Yehoshua Pollack, head of Jerusalem's municipal planning and construction council, said Wednesday that the exact placement of the bridge might be altered. "The bridge itself is essential, but it could be that we will ask to change its route," said Pollack. "We plan to invite all the relevant experts, from the security fields, the police, preservation and archeology, as well as members of the Waqf [Muslim religious trust], to hear their positions. We decided to renew the basic discussion about the entire subject."
The original plan for the renovations called for constructing the Mugrabi bridge without a proper urban construction plan and without public involvement in the approval of the project, after a legal opinion allowed the bridge to be built with an expedited construction permit.
Meanwhile, opposition to the original plan for the construction and preceding salvage dig has yet to fully die down.
The head of the northern branch of Israel's Islamic Movement, Sheikh Ra'ad Salah, was arrested in East Jerusalem on Wednesday after waving a Syrian flag and delivering speeches described as constituting incitement.
Salah was arrested, along with another demonstrator, while protesting in the Wadi Joz neighborhood against the renovations near the Temple Mount. Druze activists from the Golan Heights and Bedouin sheikhs from the Negev arrived at the protest tent in Wadi Joz to show solidarity with Salah's struggle. Protesters waved Syrian and Palestine Liberation Organization flags, and shouted slogans condemning Israel.