The Moslem Waqf is now beginning to take control not only over the Temple Mount, but also over areas adjacent to it. So says Nadav Shragai, author of a book on the topic of the struggle over the Mount.

Shragai told Arutz-7 yesterday that the Muslims are expanding the cemetery outside the eastern wall of the Temple Mount, and are now using area near the southeastern corner for burial. “The Nature and Parks Authority is trying to fight the Waqf on this,” Shragai said, “and has enlisted the help of the Jerusalem Municipality, but they are having trouble. For one thing, the Prime Minister has ordered that everything having to do with the Temple Mount must go through his office, and also because in general the Waqf does whatever it wants…”

Shragai estimates that the Waqf’s consent to allow Jews to visit the Temple Mount came at the price of being allowed a relatively free hand regarding matters such as digging and construction on the Mount – “and possibly adjacent to it, as well.”

Shragai said that the media take interest in the Temple Mount only when a catastrophe occurs: “If there is a violent clash on the Mount or near it, all the press would rush to the site, and then there would be news about whatever it was that sparked the clash: the Moslem cemetery that is being expanded, or the digging on the Mount, etc. But when everything is quiet, the press takes no interest.”

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 6th, 2004 and is filed under ourjerusalem.