Cameras will track excavations

Hasson: Move will prove to Arab world that no damage done to Temple Mount.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
raed salah 248.88 (photo credit: Associated Press)
raed salah 248.88
(photo credit: Associated Press)
Israel plans to install security cameras at the Mughrabi excavation site which will broadcast real-time footage of the controversial construction outside the Temple Mount, Army Radio reported on Thursday. Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed to the initiative, proposed by Israel Beiteinu MK Yisrael Hasson, who said the move would "prove to the countries in the Arab world that no damage is being done to [the] mosques as a result of the excavation."
  • Salah insists he'll visit Temple Mount Meanwhile, prayers at the Temple Mount ended without incident, despite ongoing protests by Islamic groups and hundreds of Muslim demonstrators who gathered at the site on Thursday morning. Sheikh Raed Salah, the Islamic Movement leader who was ordered to stay 150 meters outside the walled Old City for the next 10 days after trying to force his way into the excavation site on Wednesday, carried through on his vow to return for Thursday's protests. Salah did, however, keep his distance from the Old City itself as per the court order, and no violent disturbances occurred during the demonstrations. The Islamic leader was one of seven Israeli Arabs detained by police near the Dung Gate on Wednesday morning after scuffling with police who were guarding the excavation workers. Salah, who heads the northern branch of the extremist Islamic Movement, had called on Tuesday for an intifada over the archeological dig, which he and other Islamic leaders have claimed is endangering the nearby Al Aksa Mosque. He was joined in his exhortations by numerous Islamic leaders and groups, including Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, who have called on the Muslim world to retaliate - violently if necessary - for Israel's actions near the Temple Mount. The Aksa Martyrs' Brigades declared Wednesday that they would attack synagogues if any damage were done to the Muslim holy site. Etgar Lefkovits contributed to this report.