|
Source : Royal Jordanian Committee on Jerusalem Dec.2002
Historic Background
The southern wall of al-Aqsa Mosque is associated partially with the
wall of Old Jerusalem. It is of 280 m long and 5 m width toward its
bottom and 1.73m at the top.
The Romans who invaded Jerusalem on 63 BC, presumably, built the
original wall of Jerusalem in the first century AD. Nothing has
remained of it except the bottom foundations.
The first restoration, or let say rebuilding, of the wall was done
by the Umayyad in the seventh century following the construction of
al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.
But the present wall of Jerusalem was built 1536-1540 by the Ottoman
Sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, and its stones were relatively
small.
The wall collapsed on 1016, and rebuilt by the Fatimayyad on 1022.
Other earthquake hit again on 1067, and restored by the Fatimayyad
too.
Salah El-Deen al-Ayyoubi (Saladin) rebuilt it and consolidated on
1191. His successors continued on 1214 the works of consolidati0n
and enforcement of the wall, but King Al-Muazzam Eisa, fearing the
Crusaders, sabotaged it on 1217.
During the Ottoman era the wall was renovated on 1694 as indicated
by documents 88 and 91 of Jerusalem’s Sharia Court’s records.
In the 1920s, the Supreme Muslim Council conducted another
renovation on the wall.
Finally, the last renovation on the wall was conducted 1996 by the
Department of the Islamic Waqf of Jordan’s Ministry of Awqaf,
starting with the western southern corner, but when the work moved
to the eastern southern part Israel halted it on 2001.
The Beginning of the Problem:
Since the beginning of the year 2000,an archeological Jewish
committee concerned of archeology on what it calls the “ Temple
Mount”, backed by the Israeli government has stirred a whirlwind of
invalid claims on alleged ‘damages’, caused by the works of
renovation on Al Marwani mosque and other parts of al-Haram
A’Shareef (the Noble Sanctuary). Halting the renovation lay behind
the Israeli campaign, in a bid to gain what it calls its ‘right’ to
control the works within al-Haram as a first step to wield a full
authority over it.
A bulge (swelling) exists at 3o m west of the eastern south part of
al-Haram, 15 m above the southern wall, and 9.5 m down from its top
behind Al Marwani mosque. The defacement covers 190-sq.m areas.
Israel claimed that the size of the swelling at the wall had
increased between 2001 and 2002 from 70 cm to 100cm.
The Jews claim it is probable that the bulge appeared on 1996, but w
the engineer of what is called Jerusalem’s Municipality at the
Israel’s Authority of Archeology (IAA) say that he had noticed the
bulge ten years ago i.e. before the renovation of Al Marwani mosque,
which prove that the renovation has nothing to do with the bulge.
The Director of the IAA say that the bulge dates back to the
beginning of the 20th century, which provide a complete disavowal of
the other Israeli claims regarding the causes of the bulge.
But the engineers of the Islamic Waqf say it has begun to appear at
the outset of the 20th century and was noticed in 1970s.
The Causes of the Bulge:
According to the Jewish Claims:
- The Jews claim that the cause was the works of the renovations on
Al Marwani mosque, climaxed in the wake of Al Aqsa uprising of
[1996], which broke out as a result of the opening [by the
Netanyahu’s government] of the tunnel near Al Omariya’s School. The
said tunnel stretched from al-Buraq courtyard all along the western
wall. They claim also that the works of restorations were conducted
without ‘appropriate supervision’.
- They claim that Netanyahu had overlooked the works of renovations
at the time because of the bloody happenings then in which scores of
Muslims were killed.
But according to the officials of the Islamic Waqf, the cause was
something different completely:
- The erosion in the façade of the wall had caused the
disintegration of the fronts of the stones, which made it easier for
the seepage of water into the concrete-less interior, as a result of
the discrepancies of the temperatures over long years.
- Renovations on Marwani have nothing to do with the bulge; as such
works were conducted with high degree of accumulated expertise and
efficiency, as well as full coordination with the UNESCO.
- The Jews started their misleading campaign since 2000 on the
pretext that the works causes the destruction of what they call the
ruins of the alleged Temple.
- The Israeli excavations around the foundations of the wall
constitute the danger, which may lead to the collapse.
- Israel excavated a 12 meters tunnel near the southern wall beneath
the mosque before it was discovered by the waqf’s officials. |
