Israeli excavation in Jerusalem stirs Muslim anger

JERUSALEM, Feb 6 (Reuters) Israeli excavation work today near an entrance to a compound in Jerusalem that houses the al-Aqsa mosque drew Palestinian protests and Israeli assurances the dig would not harm Islam's third holiest shrine.

Israeli police stationed reinforcements in the alleyways of Jerusalem's walled Old City to head off feared Palestinian violence at a flashpoint site at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Israel's Antiquities Authority said it was searching for artefacts at the base of the compound known to Muslims as Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount before construction of a pedestrian bridge to replace a ramp leading up to the complex.

Two bulldozers began breaking up parts of the pavement at the foot of the ramp, damaged by a snowstorm and an earthquake in 2004, to clear the way for what the authority called a ''salvage excavation.'' After an all-clear from the authority that no artefacts remain, plans can be finalised for the 100-metre pedestrian bridge to the Mughrabi Gate entrance to Haram al-Sharif, which overlooks Judaism's Western Wall.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said before leaving for unity talks with the rival Fatah movement in Mecca that Israel was out to cause ''direct harm'' to the silver-domed al-Aqsa.

''I appeal to all our Palestinian people to be united and to rise up together to protect al-Aqsa and the holy sites on the blessed land of Palestine,'' Haniyeh said.

Israeli officials said the excavation work, some 50 metres (yards) from the existing ramp, would do no harm to al-Aqsa or the Dome of the Rock mosque which is also located on the hilltop compound where the two biblical Jewish temples once stood.

''Nothing in the work touches the wall of the Temple Mount. The wall is firmly embedded in the rock and there is no way that such work can cause damage to the Roman walls of the Temple Mount,'' said Gideon Avni, the Antiquities Authority's director of excavations.

NO COOPERATION Avni said the project had not been coordinated with the Islamic trust, or Waqf, that administers Haram al-Sharif.

''The excavations site is open to archaeologists, engineeers, professionals. We are not hiding anything. Everything will be displayed to the pucblic. The Waqf is invited to come and look at the results and give their comments,'' he said.

Taysir Tamimi, head of the Islamic courts in the occupied West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, called on ''all Palestinians to go and protect al-Aqsa against Israeli plans that aim to destroy the mosque.'' In Bethlehem, crowds of Palestinians threw stones at Israeli soldiers outside Rachel's Tomb, a holy site at the entrance to the West Bank city. The soldiers responded with tear gas.

''There is no doubt that violence will not be preventable if not today, then tomorrow or next week,'' said Abu Mohammed, a 29-year-old Palestinian taxi driver from East Jerusalem.

''Why do they need to do this, to create the chance for blood to be spilled,'' he asked. ''All we want is to live in peace without anything like this.'' Israel's opening of an entrance to an archaeological tunnel near Haram al-Sharif in 1996 touched off violent Palestinian protests and led to clashes in which 61 Arabs and 15 Israeli soldiers were killed.

A Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 after then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon toured the compound.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem after the 1967 conflict in a step that has not been recognised internationally. Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future state.

REUTERS SY BD1725