Israel said Sunday it may limit the number of Muslim worshippers at a disputed Jerusalem religious site during the upcoming Muslim holy month because part of the biblical-era complex might collapse. A Jordanian expert said there is no such danger.
The announcement, which Palestinians criticized as a scare tactic, threatened to ignite a new controversy at one of the most sensitive sites in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The site known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Haram as-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary is revered by both religions.
Israeli Public Security Minister Gideon Ezra said the eastern wall of the mosque compound is in serious danger of collapse after a moderate earthquake last February worsened existing damage to the ancient structure.
Archaeologists at the Israel Antiquities Authorities fear that if tens of thousands of Muslim worshippers enter the site during Ramadan, which begins next month, it could lead to a collapse, Ezra said.
"The state of Israel cannot take any risk," Ezra told Israel Radio. "If there is no support on the eastern wall, we will have no choice but to decrease the number of worshippers on the Temple Mount in the month of Ramadan, when as you know there are more worshippers than usual."
Palestinian officials at the Waqf, or Islamic Trust, which oversees the site, said there is no danger and accused Israel of trying to prevent Muslims from praying at the shrine.
"It is a policy to make people afraid before Ramadan," said Adnan Husseini, the director of the Waqf in Jerusalem.
On Sunday, a dozen workmen from the Waqf were shoring up walls outside Solomon's Stables, an area under the eastern part of the compound, which was built during the reign of King Herod at the time of Christ. Scaffolding was visible both inside the compound and outside.
The area, at the heart of the Israeli-Arab conflict, is revered by Jews as the site of the biblical temples, while it is Islam's third-holiest site and home to the Al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock mosques.
The current round of fighting between Israel and the Palestinians erupted four years ago after Ariel Sharon, then the opposition leader, visited the site.
Jerusalem Police Chief Ilan Franco traveled last week to Jordan, the country in charge of the Waqf, and asked officials to either put up partitions to prevent worshippers from entering the eastern sector of the compound, or support beams to prevent the wall's collapse.
Raef Nijem, the vice president of the Jordanian Construction Committee, a state body, said he commissioned a Cairo-based engineering team, headed by Saleh Lam'i, to carry out a thorough investigation of the eastern wall earlier this year.
"The team came out with a positive result, and confirmed that there is no danger of collapse," Nijem told The Associated Press.
Palestinian Waqf officials in Jerusalem, including an engineer who works at the ancient site, brushed off the Israeli warnings as "political."
"It is not only that we are not fearing it, but we are dealing with it," said Issam Awad, a Waqf engineer. "We have already restored the southern part of the wall and we are now in the process of restoring the eastern part."
Last year, Israel warned the southern portion of the compound could collapse. Since then, that area has been renovated and restored.
Shimon Gibson, a British archaeologist who is an expert on the more than 45 chambers under the shrine, including Solomon's Stables, said it is unclear if there is a danger.
Describing the area under the shrine as a "Swiss cheese of underground spaces," he said there was a definite need to have a team of professionals survey the damage that may have been caused by the earthquake.
"I'm aware of some dangers that could be in existence due to the ancient age ... of 2,000 years," Gibson said. "At the same time I find that all sides tend to heat things up unnecessarily and they don't deal directly with the problem at hand."