Jordan: Israel must stop excavations in Old City

Jordan: Israel must stop excavations in Old City
May. 30, 2007 20:15
By ASSOCIATED PRESS

A Jordanian official called on Israel Wednesday to stop archaeological excavations in the Old City of Jerusalem, the official Petra news agency reported.

Israel has been carrying out excavations on a ramp leading up to a disputed holy site. The digging has sparked clashes between police and Muslims in Jerusalem and touched off fierce criticism throughout the Muslim world.

"Israel must stop its continuos practices and measures to Judaize the city and change its Arab and Islamic characteristics,"

said Abdullah Kanaan, the head of Jordan's Royal Committee for Jerusalem's Affairs.

Muslims fear the work will harm Islamic shrines on the hilltop compound, which is known as the Temple Mount to Jews and the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims, and whose fate is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict

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Al-Aqsa Mosque (English: The Farthest mosque) is the general and oldest name for the compound of Islamic religious buildings in Jerusalem that includes al-Aqsa congregation mosque and the Dome of the Rock. It is almost universally considered the third holiest site in Islam. The term Al-Aqsa Mosque was coined in the Quran:

Dome of the Rock

The Dome of the Rock is an Islamic shrine in what Muslims call the Noble Sanctuary or the Temple Mount — it remains one of the best known landmarks of Jerusalem. It was built between 687 and 691 by the 9^th Caliph, Abd al-Malik. For centuries, European travellers have called it the Mosque of Umar.