Temple Mount Tunnel Tales
The Palestinians are hard at work digging tunnels in Gaza. Simultaneously, they are making accusations about Israeli tunnel digging under — where else? — the Temple Mount.
As reported today in Ha’aretz:
The Islamic Movement’s southern branch accused Israel yesterday of carrying out excavations beneath Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.
MK Ibrahim Sarsour, who heads both the movement’s southern branch and the Ra’am-Ta’al party, also claimed that the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) paid a Palestinian vendor $60,000 for his store near the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. The IAA denied the accusation.
Earlier yesterday, the Islamic Movement’s northern branch presented pictures taken two weeks ago that allegedly document excavations near the Temple Mount. Northern branch leader Sheikh Ra’ad Salah said that the excavations were meant to “create a stranglehold around Al-Aqsa Mosque, in order for the Israeli establishment to fulfill its darkest dreams of building a Jewish Temple [in its place].”
Ha’aretz points out that the Muslim authorities have a history of making such claims, almost always false:
Since 1967, Muslim organizations have often accused Israel of digging tunnels underneath Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to destabilize its foundations.
All these claims turned out to be false, with one exception: In 1981, the Religious Affairs Ministry carried out excavations in a preexisting tunnel that led beneath the Temple Mount. The excavations were brought to a halt by order of then prime minister Menachem Begin and then police minister Dr. Yosef Burg, and the tunnel’s entrance was permanently sealed.
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