UNESCO to send delegation to examine work near Temple Mount

Last update - 14:19 24/02/2007   

 

UNESCO to send delegation to examine work near Temple Mount

 

By Amiram Barkat, Haaretz Correspondent, and Haaretz Service

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/829681.html

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will send a delegation next week to Jerusalem's Old City to examine the excavation work being conducted under the Mugrabi ramp leading to the Temple Mount.

 

Francesco Bandarin, a leading official in the organization and its supervisor of the repair of historical sites, will lead the group.

 

The head of UNESCO said he hopes that the delegation's findings will help to ameliorate the tension between Jews and Arabs.

 

Muslims fear the work may harm the structure of the nearby Al-Aqsa Mosque.

 

On a visit to Turkey last week, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to let a Turkish team inspect the construction site.

 

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Olmert had shown him photographs of the construction work, but had failed to convince him that it would not harm the holy sites there. Olmert agreed to a Turkish suggestion for a technical team from Turkey to inspect the site, Erdogan said.

 

Olmert said he agreed to the inspection because "Israel has nothing to hide." He added that the matter of the construction on the site had been misconstrued and presented in a tendentious way in the international media.

 

"The construction of this bridge next to the Western Wall has been taken out of context, but we will cooperate with everyone and will be happy to host the delegation in order to show that the Israeli story is correct and exact," he said.

 

Earlier last week, Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski announced that he had decided to postpone construction of the walkway at the Mugrabi Ascent until zoning authorities complete plans for the area.