-Caveat Lector- http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2001/02/02/News/News.20703.html Court Orders Review of Temple Mount Excavations The Jerusalem Post JERUSALEM (February 2) - A government committee established last week to study the situation on the Temple Mount will investigate allegations that the Wakf is conducting new excavations underneath the Mosque of Omar and Al-Aksa Mosque, according to a High Court of Justice ruling yesterday. Justices Tova Strassberg-Cohen, Dalia Dorner and Jacob Turkel gave the Temple Mount Faithful group, which petitioned the High Court demanding that the alleged construction be stopped and its perpetrators punished, one day to submit precise details and evidence to back up their charges. The committee will then have nine days to investigate the matter and submit an affidavit with its findings to the court. State representative Osnat Mandel, who revealed the establishment of the committee in the state's written response to the petition, said it would be headed by a representative of the Internal Security Ministry and include representatives of the police, the General Security Service, the Antiquities Authority, the Prime Minister's Office, and the Justice Ministry. Mandel told the judges the committee would investigate "how matters are handled" on the Temple Mount, including relations between the Wakf and Israeli authorities. Since September 28, 2000, the Wakf has barred Jews from visiting the Temple Mount, including representatives of the Antiquities Authority, which is responsible for supervising and protecting the archeological resources on the site. Recently, the news media have reported allegations that the Wakf is excavating underneath the Mosque of Omar and digging a tunnel to link the ancient Al-Aksa Mosque and the Solomon's Stables Mosques, thus destroying archeological remnants from the period of the Jewish holy temples. After several days of embarrassed silence, the police and the Antiquities Authority denied the charges and announced that the Wakf had dug two separate tunnels, each 40 centimeters deep, beneath the Omar and Al-Aksa mosques to replace faulty water pipes. Despite the denials, the Temple Mount Faithful movement petitioned the High Court on January 24, demanding that the state enforce the law and punish those responsible for the alleged illegal construction. Mandel charged that the petition was baseless. "We know all the facts," she told the judges. "We have an affidavit from the head of the Jerusalem District Police, who personally examined the site. The petitioners do not have an affidavit. They have nothing. They have no concrete information." The court told the petitioner, represented by attorney Naftali Wurzberger, that it had not given the state enough time to reply to the allegations of illegal construction and asked the committee established by Prime Minister Ehud Barak to look into the charges. However, it did not accept the state's response at face value. "The public receives its information from the press, and there is a sense that there are excavations," said Dorner. "What you say is not precise," Turkel told Mandel. "The petitioners have included press clippings including charges by highly respectable figures." He was referring to a letter written last month by senior archaeologists and others, including S. Yizhar, A.B. Yehoshua, Haim Guri, Avi Ravitzki, Yitzhak Hofi, and Shlomo Lahat, demanding that Barak stop the alleged excavations. Wurzberger told the court that he did not accept the police affidavit because the district commander was not an archeologist. "I demand that the Antiquities Authority see what is going on there," he said. "If they say there are no excavations, we will withdraw the petition." Strassberg-Cohen said the court would reconvene within about two weeks. ================================================================= Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT FROM THE DESK OF: *Michael Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends ================================================================= <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis- directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. 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