Jerusalem (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A team of experts from UNESCO has carried out an onsite mission of Israeli archeological excavations under way outside the mosque compound. The excavations – held by the Israelis to be necessary to rebuild a walkway – drew hard reactions from the Muslim world, which feared that the safety of the compound, 50 metres away, could be at risk. The Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, Islam’s third holiest site, are situated in the compound.
UNESCO announced last week that it was sending a "technical mission" in a bid to help “alleviate tensions” surrounding the works, which started on 7 February. The tension erupted in protest rallies and clashes with police. A spokesman for UNESCO in Jerusalem yesterday said the experts visited the excavations but gave no further details. Opposing concerns about the outcome of the assessment of works by the UN agency may account for the scarce attention paid the onsite visit by Arab and Israeli media.
Israeli Antiquities Authority spokeswoman, Osnat Goaz, said Israel invited the group of experts as part of its efforts to display "full transparency" over the dig. For the same reason, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to a visit to the site by a delegation from Turkey when he was in that country recently. But no date has been announced. The excavations are being filmed and broadcast on the internet.
Meanwhile the Arab press has reported that Israeli police banned a news conference at a hotel in East Jerusalem by the Israeli Islamic Movement, to which Christian leaders were invited. The head of the movement, Raed Salah, indicted by police as the main fomenter of unrest at the compound, has been banned by a Jerusalem court order from going within 150 metres of the area for 60 days. Yesterday a police spokesman, said the meeting had been prevented because it was “linked to Hamas”, whose activities are banned in Israel. The Muslim movement has denied any connection to the event.