ARABS FIGHT ISRAELIS OVER TUNNEL UNDER HOLY SITES
Mr. Death-By-Diversity...
...Says, "Hello,my brothers."Israel Completes Controversial Tunnel Near Holy Sites
MOSLEMS & JEWS CLASH OVER ETHNIC TERRITORIAL DISPUTES
Tue 09/24/96
...Says, "Hello,my brothers."By Said Ghazali Associated Press Writer JERUSALEM (AP) - Palestinianshurled stones at Israeli police today after Israel secretly broke throughthe last stretch of a tunnel that runs along the Western Wall and the AlAqsa Mosque compound - the fault line of the Israeli-Arab conflict.
The 500-yard tunnel, which connects Christian and Jewish religious sites,was completed after midnight Monday, the end of the Jewish holiday of YomKippur, Israel radio reported today.
Palestinians have opposed the project for years because they feel it violatesthe compound Muslims call Haram as-Sharif, which is the third holiest sitefor Muslims and includes the Al Aqsa Mosque. The area is known to Jews asthe Temple Mount.
When news of the midnight tunnel work spread, hundreds of Palestinians ralliedat the compound.
Officers on foot and in jeeps chased Palestinian stone-throwers as clasheserupted in several areas of east Jerusalem, including the Al Aqsa compoundand the Salah Edin shopping street.
Troops ringed Al Aqsa where hundreds of angry Palestinians gathered whenword spread of the work on the tunnel. Police deployed reinforcements throughouteast Jerusalem.
The work was ordered personally by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,and Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert looked on as workers, guarded by police,broke through the last 1.5 feet of stone.
An angry Yasser Arafat said today the tunnel work was a ``crime againstour religious and holy places and is completely against the peace process.''
Arafat warned that the Palestinians ``will not stand by quietly.''
Islamic clergy ordered Jerusalem merchants to close their shops in protestfor four hours Wednesday.
For 12 years, Israel has been working to complete the tunnel connectingthe Western Wall - Judaism's holiest site - with the Via Dolorosa, whereJesus was said to have walked before his crucifixion.
The tunnel would be a major tourist attraction, running past religious andhistoric sites, including a Hasmonean water system carved in the 2nd centuryB.C. and a Herodian street.
Tourism Ministry officials estimated the new exit will allow them to increasethe number of visitors to the underground sites from 70,000 to 400,000 ayear.
Tourists enter the tunnel at the Western Wall plaza, and until now had toreturn the same way because there was no exit at the other side.
Earlier today, hundreds of Palestinians marched through the Old City's cobblestonealleys to the tunnel's new exit.
Israeli workers, guarded by dozens of border police, welded into place agray iron door.
When a Muslim prayer leader, Sheik Jamal Rifai, walked through the new irondoor to inspect the tunnel, a police officer shouted at him: ``You can'tgo in there.''
Rifai, wearing a white turban and carrying a wooden walking stick, glaredat the policeman. ``This is theft,'' Rifai said of the secret digging. ``Thosewho destroy what is underneath (the compound) will eventually destroy whatis above.''
Muslims complain that the tunnel violates their rights to the holy sites,and many fear Israel will eventually try to force them out.
Muslim clergy have been autonomous in running the Al Aqsa and Dome of theRock mosques since Israel captured the compound, along with the rest ofeast Jerusalem, from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast War.
Under an arrangement struck by then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan, Jews arenot allowed to pray in the compound, but only at the Western Wall that runsalongside it.
The Western Wall, the last remains of the Jewish Temple destroyed by theRomans in 70 A.D., is Judaism's most sacred site. The Al Aqsa compound isthe third holiest shrine of Islam, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
Copyright 1996 Associated Press.
AmericanCivil Rights Review -- A Fabulous Link!