The Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel this week rejected a compromise proposal by the High Court of Justice on the conversion of a mosque in Be'er Sheva into a museum of Islamic culture.

"The building is holy to all Muslims," Adalah told the High Court. "The petitioners cannot agree to any other use of the building other than its original purpose as a mosque."

The Adalah response is the latest stage in an ongoing struggle by Muslims in southern Israel against Be'er Sheva city council. Local Muslim residents want the old city mosque to be reopened, and made available for public prayer.

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The mosque was originally constructed in 1906 and converted into the Negev Museum in the 1950s. The museum has been abandoned since 1994, when the city's engineers determined it was unsafe for use.

The current public struggle over the fate of the mosque began in July 1997, when local Muslims and activists from the Islamic Movement began praying at the site. In response, a member of Be'er Sheva's city council dumped bovine manure at the entrance to the mosque.

The city continued to oppose use of the building as a mosque, and had planned to reopen it as a museum.

In 2002, the Adalah Center and other Muslim and Bedouin organizations petitioned the High Court, asking it to allow Muslims to use the mosque as a place of prayer once again.

Last July, the High Court proposed a compromise in which the mosque would be converted into "the Museum of Islamic Culture and the Peoples of the East."

On Sunday, however, the Adalah Center decided to oppose the court's proposal, arguing that there is a need to uphold the right of local Muslims to practice their religion freely and openly.

Adalah said that the building is a holy site and called on the city to keep it as a mosque.

The group's response also noted that there is one synagogue for every 700 Be'er Sheva residents, adding that there are more than 5,000 Muslim residents of the city, as well as some 180,000 Bedouins in the surrounding areas.

The Be'er Sheva municipality has said in the past that opening the mosque for prayer would harm relations between the local residents. Adalah believes, however, that the city's motives are political, and that keeping the structure closed would cause more damage to the social fabric.