[Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA:

To recall: the idea at the time was that a Turkish team would see with
their own eyes that the Israeli excavations were in no way endangering the
Temple Mount (aka Haram Al-Sharif). That should have been their mandate.

But true to form, PM Ehud Olmert agreed to the Turkish mission after giving
it as much thought as it takes to read these words.

OK. Less time.

And since the mandate of the team was not worked out prior to Olmert's
consent Israel now finds itself with a report that raises points that
shouldn't have been part of the team's mandate.]

Report: Israeli work risks destroying Jerusalem's Islamic assets
EMIN AYDIN Today's Zaman [Turkey] 16.11.2007
www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=127193

A Turkish technical mission sent to Jerusalem to inspect Israeli
archaeological work near the holy Al-Aqsa Mosque has criticized the
excavations and called on Israel to consult with Palestinian and
international authorities on a final plan, the mission's report, obtained by
Today's Zaman, revealed.

The Turkish mission visited Jerusalem in March to inspect the archeological
work being carried out by the Israeli authorities at the Mughrabi ramp,
which climbs to the southwestern gate of the Haram al-Sharif complex, amid
international concerns over the excavations. Its report, which was completed
in the summer but not released to the public, observed that the excavations
are unacceptable by legal and scientific standards and suggested that the
excavation goes beyond scientific purposes. It said even if there is no
actual excavation at Haram Al-Sharif, there are enough indications to give
the impression that it is only a matter of time.

"The archaeological excavation at the Mughrabi pathway, which involves
various traces of the Umayyad, Ayyubid, Mameluke and Ottoman periods, must
be discontinued immediately," the report said, echoing an earlier report by
UNESCO in March. For future reconstruction efforts in the area, the report
recommended a competition open to Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian
architects and the joint work of Israeli and Palestinian experts supervised
by organizations such as UNESCO and the Organization of the Islamic
Conference (OIC).

"The tunneling and excavation work and the large amount of soil extraction
shown to our mission along the Wailing Wall give the impression that this is
an intervention of great scale and depth and that this intervention goes
beyond scientific purpose, even if there is no excavation toward Haram
al-Sharif," it said.
While not openly adopting the Palestinian position labeling Israeli
archeology as a mode of the "Judaization" or "Israelization" of Jerusalem,
the report observed that the ongoing activities are a part of a planned and
systematically implemented effort to destroy values associated with cultural
assets of the Ayyubid, Mameluke and Ottoman periods.

Warning that the archaeological heritage is the common heritage of all
humanity, the report noted that scientific values and approaches should not
be regarded as a matter of hegemony. "History, science and art should not be
made accessory to religion and politics; all actions should respect the
shared values of humanity," the report said.

Titled the "Technical Mission Report on Excavation Work Performed in the
Vicinity of Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem," the report emphasized that the
old city texture of Jerusalem, a blending of the shared values and heritage
produced by mankind throughout history, must be preserved as it is and with
"minimum" intervention. "The texture of this shared sacred city should not
be disturbed," it said.

It identified "distortion of Jerusalem's history by means of highlighting
the Judaic aspect or identifying with being of Arab origin" as the source of
current problems and emphasized Jerusalem was a city where Muslim, Jewish,
Christian and Armenian communities constituted a "heterogeneous population"
living in peace.

The Turkish mission's report criticized the fact that there has been no
dialogue or cooperation between Israeli authorities and the officials of the
Islamic Waqf (religious authorities) for the past seven years and that the
Israelis reject such cooperation on grounds that it disturbs their claims of
sovereignty to the city. The report also criticized Israeli PR efforts
regarding the excavations, claiming that what is being moved with excavators
are earth and rubble. The report claimed that together with earth and rubble
the excavations are actually destroying the last remnants of the Islamic
past in the Wailing Wall plaza.

The Islamic Waqf has called the work illegal, since under international law
no such action should be undertaken in an occupied city. Israel captured the
Old City of Jerusalem in the 1967 war.

The excavations that prompted the Turkish mission's visit had sparked public
protest and unrest among the Muslims of the whole world with fears of secret
Israeli intentions to destroy the third holiest shrine of Islam, Masjid
al-Aqsa, or to change the religious status quo of the city of Jerusalem.
During a state visit by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last February,
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan voiced Turkey's reservations
with regard to the Israeli project to replace the ramp altogether and build
an "ultra-modern glass-roofed tube" passage to the Mughrabi Gate. The two
leaders agreed that a Turkish technical mission should visit the site and
prepare a report as to whether the work is a threat to the existence or
identity of the religious monuments at the site.

As dated in its official version, the report was prepared by July 2007 but
was not released to the public. Unnamed officials from the Prime Ministry
informed Today's Zaman that they did not want to politicize the report and
hence waited for a convenient milieu in which disclosing the report would
not be received as a backlash to any Israeli or Jewish act on the world
political scene.

"The unfortunate declarations made by the Anti-Defamation League [ADL] about
the so-called Armenian genocide issue delayed the disclosure for an extra
period of time. The Palestinians were curious as to why the report was not
published, but we didn't want to disturb the objectivity of the report by
disclosing it at a heated time. Had we published it during the ADL's
genocide declarations it would have been regarded as retaliation, whereas
the report is purely scientific and technical," the Today's Zaman's source
explained.

The report has been sent to the OIC, UNESCO, the United Nations, the
European Union Council, EU member states and relevant international
archeological organizations. The report was also presented to the Israeli
and Palestinian Presidents Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas during their
recent visit to Ankara. Sources in the Prime Ministry informed Today's Zaman
that the report was first presented to Ehud Olmert by Erdogan during their
meeting in London at the end of last September. "Being informed about the
content of the report, Ehud Olmert promised Prime Minister [Erdogan] to
study the report and act accordingly," sources said.

As is also mentioned in the report, Turkey's historical commitment to the
city of Jerusalem is not new. Turkey was involved in the restoration project
carried out after a 1926 earthquake, when neither Israel nor the state of
Palestine was on the scene of history yet. Recently, Turkish woodworkers
reproduced the minbar (pulpit) of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was totally
burnt in a fire set by an Israeli in 1969.

[IMRA: "on August 29,1969 when a deranged Australian tourist,
twenty-eight-year-old Denis Michael Rohan, a fundamentalist Christian, set
fire to the al-Aksa Mosque." Martin Gilbert in "Jerusalem in the Twentieth
Century" p.308.
- that's "Australian" - not "Israeli"]

The city's history in general

The report begins with a brief study of the city's religious importance to
the three Abrahamic religions, Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It then
provides an overview of the city's history in general, and the Haram
al-Sharif area in particular, with specific reference to historical eras
that host archeological remains or have shaped the scene of the present day.

The Haram al-Sharif area, which includes Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Dome of the
Rock and over a hundred religious and historical shrines, buildings and
fountains,
is holy to all three Abrahamic religions. According to the report, "The
texture and the surroundings of these holy places are the shared values and
heritage of humanity in that they are semantically connected to the worlds
of the people belonging to the three [Abrahamic] religions. . They are part
of the history of world civilization."

The report also commented on the implications of the excavations on the
Western Wall itself. Warning that the region is located on a geological
fault line, the report suggested that a possible earthquake in the future
may pose a threat to the plaza. The report pointed out that the Wailing Wall
is visually examined semiannually to assure that there has been no
deformation or other threats to the wall's integrity. However, the report
said that mere visual examination is not sufficient and does not guarantee
protection in itself.

A special section in the report was dedicated to the Wailing Wall. It
claimed that the importance of the area for the Jews is a fairly new
phenomenon as it had no religious connotations in the period of King Herod
(first century B.C.), when the courtyard was a market, and that it had no
religious importance until the end of the Mameluke period (early 16th
century). Explaining that the Ottoman Empire had been decisive in shaping
the importance of the wall, the report said: "In the last years of the
Mamelukes, the Jews probably started using the Western Wall for prayers
since it was not safe outside the city due to the imminent danger of
possible Bedouin raids. It is reported that when Mimar Sinan was in the city
working on the Damascus Gate, Suleyman the Magnificent issued an order
designating this part of the Western Wall as a place of prayer for Jews.
Upon receiving this order, Mimar Sinan first raised the area by deepening
the section in front of the wall, after which he built another wall to
separate the Mughrabi neighborhood and the Wailing Wall, defining the place
of prayer by turning it into a venue between the two walls."

The report suggested that the excavations should not be viewed as a distinct
event but as a part of a continual effort by the Israeli authorities to
reshape the area, starting with the 1967 invasion of East Jerusalem. Quoting
from a March 12, 2007 UNESCO report on the excavations, the report pointed
out that the pathway extending from the Western Wall square to the Mughrabi
Gate of Haram al-Sharif is the last remaining part of the Mughrabi
neighborhood, which was destroyed by Israel during the Six Day War in June
1967, and that its destruction will represent the completion of a 40-year
project.

The root of the present conflict is the distortion of Jerusalem's history

The report also mentioned signboards reading "Nearest Point to the Holy of
Holies," which are placed at some sites discovered in the tunneling and
excavation performed along the Wailing Wall, and said that these signboards
give the impression that it is only a matter of time before an excavation is
made beneath Haram al-Sharif, creating distress among all Muslim countries,
especially among the Palestinians. The Holy of Holies is said to be the
resting place of the Ark, the holiest part of the Temple of Solomon. The
history of archeology in Jerusalem is filled with countless efforts by
European "archeologists" to get beneath the Haram area in order to find the
relics of the Ark, or of the Second Temple.

Observing the religious dimension of the excavations, the report suggested
that at the root of the present conflict is the distortion of Jerusalem's
history and centuries-old character by highlighting the Judaic or Arabic
aspects and origins of the structures. "It is clearly seen that if
appropriate measures are not taken in the excavations performed by the
Israeli authorities, no data or remains belonging to the Ayyubid, Mameluke
or Ottoman periods, which are the most recent cultural structural remains of
the Mughrabi neighborhood, will survive. The ongoing activities give the
impression that they are a planned and systematically implemented effort
which aims to destroy the values associated with cultural assets and the
sources of information of these cultures. Yet, respect for culture requires
the consideration and evaluation of values to determine the cultural
ownership of historical works belonging to all periods," the report said.

The report also gave extensive information about the domed structure that
was found by an Israeli archaeologist beneath a ramp which connects to the
Mughrabi Gate. "The architectural characteristics of these rooms and arches
indicate that these are the remains of the two-storey Afdaliyyah Madrasah,
which was built in 1196. To the north of the pathway, just near the western
wall is where the 'mihrab niche' of the classroom masjid of the Afdaliyyah
Madrasah still stands today. Cracks have formed on the flanking walls of the
mihrab, and the floor of the mihrab has been made hollow in parts and left
unpreserved," the report stated. In its concluding remarks the report said
the surviving parts of the Afdaliyyah Madrasah must be consolidated and
preserved. The report called for immediate and special care for Barclay's
Gate, also known as the Gate of Buraq, which is the entrance of the Al-Burak
Mosque on the Haram Al-Sharif side, and is used by Jewish women as a prayer
room. It also called for immediate attention for the mihrab outside the
Haram Al-Sharif, which is adjacent to the room.

The report referred to the 1954 Leigh Convention Concerning the Preservation
of Cultural Assets, the 1972 World Heritage Convention, Article 53 of the
1977 Geneva Protocol Concerning the Preservation of Cultural Assets and
Temples, the 1994 Israel-Jordan bilateral agreement, the Washington
declaration which ratifies Jordan's role on the holy places in Jerusalem,
the Athens Charter for the Restoration of Historic Monuments (1931), the
Venice Charter of May 1964, the Convention Concerning the Protection of
World Cultural and Natural Heritage, the Paris 1972 Recommendations on
Safeguarding and the Contemporary Role of Historic Areas, the ICOMOS Charter
for the Protection and Management of the Archaeological Heritage, the Nara
Document (Nov. 1-6, 1994 Nara/Japan -- UNESCO, ICCROM and ICOMOS) on
protection of diversity of cultures and heritage, and finally UN Resolution
No. 252 dated May 21, 1968, on the "Status of Jerusalem," as internationally
binding legal documents about any archeological excavation, and found one or
two articles of all these documents to be in complete opposition to what
Israel is doing with the Mughrabi ramp.

History, science and art should not be made accessories to religion and
politics

The report extracted from these documents certain principles with regard to
archeology and common historical heritage of the world and called on all
involved parties to observe them. Accordingly the report suggested that "the
protection of archaeological heritage should be considered as a moral
obligation upon all human beings and a collective public responsibility.
Legislation should be based on the concept of archaeological heritage as the
heritage of all humanity and of groups of peoples, and not restricted to any
individual person or nation. Archaeological heritage is the common heritage
of all humanity. International cooperation is therefore essential in
developing and maintaining standards in its management. Scientific values
and approaches should not be regarded as a matter of hegemony and
distinguished from one another. History, science and art should not be made
accessories to religion and politics; all actions should respect the shared
values of humanity."

The report of the mission concluded in concordance with the UNESCO Technical
Mission Report that the archaeological excavation at the Mughrabi pathway,
which involves various traces of Umayyad, Ayyubid, Mameluke and Ottoman
periods, must be halted immediately. Complaining about lack of full Israeli
cooperation, obvious in their failure to present the Turkish mission with
the two architectural drafts of the Mughrabi Gate and pathway that were
submitted to the UNESCO Mission and failure to make an unambiguous statement
as to what would happen after the excavations, the report called for a joint
action plan which will give due respect to dialogue and communication with
all related parties. The report also suggested that an international project
contest, which would be open to the participation of Israeli, Jordanian and
Palestinian architects, should be held and the work of rearrangement in the
Mughrabi area should be carried out by Israeli and Palestinian experts under
an observer committee of international experts and organizations like
UNESCO, ICOMOS, OIC and the Jerusalem Committee. "Such a concerted effort
will end the historical dispute, and will constitute an important milestone
on the path to mutual cooperation and reconciliation. There is no doubt that
reconciliation and peace on this matter will pave the way for a prosperous
bi-national community," the report concluded.

Members of the Turkish mission included Turkish Consul General to Jerusalem
Ercan Özer, ambassador architect Muharrem Hilmi Senalp, archeologist Sait
Basaran and geological and geophysical engineering professor O. Metin
Ilkisik. During the preparation of the report the mission received
consultancy from eminent historians, art historians, restorers and civil
engineers. The mission worked in close cooperation with Palestinian and
Jordanian representatives and received extensive briefings from the Israeli
archeological, municipal and religious authorities. The report of the
Turkish mission was prepared in accordance with the many meetings they held
in Ankara and the following visit to Jerusalem from March 20-23.