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Last update - 08:11 29/05/2007 Dichter rules area near Temple Mount off-limits to Muslim burial By Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent Police have prevented Muslim burial at the foot of the Temple Mount for several months, as Public Security Minister Avi Dichter responded to pleas to reserve the area as a significant archeological site. The area is one of the most sensitive in Jerusalem's Old City, bordering on the eastern wall of the Temple Mount and running parallel to it. Dichter became convinced recently that a burial area at the southeast foot of the mount, outside the walls, had stretched into an area defined as a national park and an area of great archaeological significance, an area which had not previously been used for burial. Advertisement Dichter rejected the Jerusalem police's initial argument, that halting burials on the site would lead to riots and bloodshed. The police policy changed after an antiquities lobby submitted a petition to the High Court of Justice. The Committee for the Prevention of the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, supported by prominent authors A.B. Yehoshua, the late S. Yizhar, Hebrew University Jewish philosophy professor Avi Ravitzky, defense establishment figures such as former chief of staff Dan Shomron and senior archaeologists including Ehud Netzer, Ronny Reich, Ephraim Stern, Gabriel Barkai and Eilat Mazar, lobbied heavily to ban burials in the area. The area runs 800 meters, 650 meters of which are north and south of of the Lion's Gate and Mercy Gate, and are occupied by Muslim cemeteries. The southern edge of the southern cemetery is marked by an old fence. From that fence to the southeast tip of the Temple Mount is an 80 by 35 meter stretch designated as an antiquities site. Muslims began using the area for burial a few years ago. The police have identified 21 graves, 39 empty graves and 35 plots, which they are unsure are in use. During the High Court hearing, it became evident that Silwan elders had sold plots in an area they didn't own to families of deceased Muslims. The archaeologists persuaded the police that the area "annexed" for the burial ground was tremendously important archaeologically. Barkai says it is a rare contact point between Second Temple-era construction and earlier remnants from the First Temple age. "Muslim burial on the site, which was never a cemetery in the past, could end any possibility of excavating the area in the future, as has been done at the foot of the southern wall and the bottom of part of the Western Wall," Barkai noted in the petition. The court heard that the area had well-preserved 2000 year old construction from Herod's time and a clear seamline between the northern construction, Hasmonean, and the southern construction, Herod's. British archaeologist Charles Warren, who excavated there 140 years ago, found cornerstones for the five lowest layers of construction built into a layer of terra rosa, which includes remains from the First Temple. The first sealing rings stamped "for the King," found in Israel, dated to late 8th Century B.C.E., were found in the red soil. At first, Jerusalem district police chief Ilan Franco told the court he would not prohibit burial on the site due to the likelihood of riots. The police also initially refused to accompany municipal inspectors charged with hanging up injunctions after additional mausoleums were constructed. The police approach changed only after the antiquity committee brought the matter to Dichter. Dichter even noted that the police could learn from its own naivete in 1999 when the Muslims dug a huge pit in the Temple Mount to open an entry into a site known as Solomon's Stables. Tons of earth filled with archaeological finds from many periods were dumped into a riverbed. Police are now preventing further burials on the site, while the committee is demanding that unused burial plots set up there be filled in. Bookmark to del.icio.us   Dude, we're aiding terror A new anti-drug campaign equates smoking pot with terrorism. Bad company A BBC poll says Israel world's most hated country after Iran.   1.   no way stop all muslim burials there. no more. must go elsewere 04:44  |  ralph 29/05/07   2.   preserve these priceless archeological sites 05:46  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 29/05/07   3.   More Arab Land Theft 07:30  |  Yishai Kohen 29/05/07   4.   Outrageous Muslim Behavior, Once Again: Erasure of Jewish History 07:44  |  Ariel 29/05/07   5.   NO SHAME AT ALL 08:11  |  indrajaya 29/05/07   6.   Just send them all to... 08:24  |  Webster 29/05/07   7.   There is no Jewish history there 09:13  |  KA 29/05/07   8.   Is Ilan Franco is the Amir Peretz of police chiefs? 09:20  |  Dr. L. Brnd 29/05/07   9.   riots near temple mount 09:27  |  granny 29/05/07   10.   what do you mean give in because of possible arab violence 09:28  |  ralph 29/05/07   11.   #7 KA (Khaled Amariyeh 09:30  |  Yonatan 29/05/07   12.   Destroying the ecidence 09:33  |  Yonatan 29/05/07   13.   Time to move their existing graves to Gaza 09:44  |  Joseph 29/05/07   14.   # 7 KA [ROFLMAO!!!!!] ahem... 10:31  |  Adrian de Klerk 29/05/07   15.   In what other democratic country? 10:33  |  JustWondering 29/05/07   16.   #7, KA 10:38  |  Cipora Julianna Kohn 29/05/07   17.   WHILST ON THE SUBJECT OF BURIAL 10:41  |  paul harris 29/05/07   18.   There is a problem here. 10:43  |  Paul 29/05/07   19.   Settlers Build where ever they want 11:00  |  Wael Hendawi 29/05/07   20.   My blood is boiling... 11:05  |  JonathanInTelAviv 29/05/07   21.   Responsibility for holy places 11:37  |  Sherlock Holmes 29/05/07   22.   NoShame-2METERS MUSLIM - 100 METERS JEWISH 11:38  |  Ben 29/05/07   23.   indrajaya #5. Zzzzzzzzzz 13:11  |  Zardos 29/05/07   24.   #15 In other countries 13:36  |  Lynn 29/05/07   25.   Another arab desecration of Jewish Holy Sites 14:35  |  Dr David I.Gross 29/05/07   26.   Lion`s Gate 14:52  |  Nora 29/05/07   27.   to #17 17:19  |  David 29/05/07   28.   Muslim hegemony!!! 19:55  |  Ben Uziel 29/05/07   29.   As Occupying Power, Israel Has No Right to Dig or Block Burials 20:08  |  Fred Farkelsteinman 29/05/07   30.   It`s not been an excavation site... 20:39  |  H50 29/05/07   31.   Dear Fred 21:10  |  Kobi 29/05/07   32.   Fred #29, you are making up "laws" as you go... 21:10  |  Dr. L. Brnd 29/05/07   33.   #32 - UNSCR 242 only calls for Israel`s withdrawal. 22:25  |  Fred Farkelsteinman 29/05/07   34.   Fred - Occupied ? YOU MEAN LIBERATED 22:29  |  Dr David I. Gross 29/05/07   35.   Indra 23:21  |  John Sr 29/05/07   36.   Nope, I Meant Occupied, And That is a Fact. 23:30  |  Fred Farkelsteinman 29/05/07   37.   H50 00:49  |  Lynn 30/05/07   38.   Fred #33 - do you have a law degree from a Cracker Jack box 00:53  |  Dr. L. Brnd 30/05/07   39.   A good and intelligent post, Fred 00:59  |  Victim 30/05/07   40.   Dichter, should show common respect... 01:09  |  Dutch 30/05/07   41.   #36 Fred Fargessenboy 01:12  |  loofkcilc 30/05/07   42.   #36 Fred Fargessenboy 01:12  |  loofkcilc 30/05/07   43.   KA`s response is part of cemetery plot 01:16  |  utagawa 30/05/07   44.   Fred Farkelsteinman # 36 It Depends On Where The Border Is 01:43  |  Jeff Northridge 30/05/07   45.   Cipora Julianna Kohn re: Khalid 01:51  |  Nik Miller 30/05/07   46.   Fred Farkelsteinman #29 and #36 02:01  |  Gee 30/05/07   47.   Non-binding, Fred. Non-binding. 02:29  |  Oddvark 30/05/07   48.   Dutch`s question 02:38  |  Oddvark 30/05/07   49.   Jeff Northridge is exactly right 02:42  |  Hal 30/05/07   50.   Fred-Fred -Fred 04:14  |  Dr David I. Gross 30/05/07   51.   Common Respect as per Dutch 04:45  |  Jackie 30/05/07   52.   what about the big parking lot htey built in the Jewish quarter? 11:17  |  Ernst 30/05/07   53.   Ernst should read his own title! 19:39  |  Rod Wetzig 01/06/07   54.   John Sr 00:04  |  Indra 03/04/08

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