dirt and setting of fears of religious violence, BosNewsLife monitored Saturday, September 27.
No injuries were reported in the area, which was the scene of riots between Jews and Muslims earlier this month.
It looks terrible," WorldNetDaily.com, an independent Internet news website, quoted Israeli archaeologist Eliat Mazar as saying. "This collapse might cause a terrific series of collapses," added Mazar who is also leading the committee for preventing destruction of antiquities at the site.
"UNSUPERVISED WORK"
She charged the Waqf (an Islamic trust) with directing "unsupervised" work in and around the Temple Mount resulting in the loss of archaeological treasures.
The damaged wall, which belongs to the Islamic Museum on the Temple Mount and is of a recent origin was seen crumbling on Tuesday.
However Adnan al-Husseini of the Waqf said the failure was the result of "the Israeli intervention in our work and preventing us from maintaining it after we stated it was in urgent need for a rapid action to prevent its collapse," news reports from Israel said.
HUGE BULGE
Last December, WorldNetDaily.com reported a huge bulge had developed in an outer southern wall on the 37-acre Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism. Israel waited for Jordanian engineers to repair it.
The Temple Mount is the foundation of the Jewish Temple that was destroyed in 70 A.D. by the Romans.
Because it is the only remnant of the foundation, it is considered the holiest site for observant Jews. Muslims claim it is the third holiest in their faith because two mosques were constructed on the site hundreds of years later.
YASSER ARAFAT
Despite the fact the Temple Mount is the only real estate in the world revered by Jews, Israel has turned over day-to-day administration of the area to the Waqf, with close ties to Yasser Arafat’s Palestinian Authority.
"It is frightening to think of this collapse, and of what could happen in the future when many tens of thousands of people visit the Temple Mount," the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem (ICEJ) News Service quoted Mazar as saying.
"This collapse should be a warning bell. If a catastrophe occurs, the whole world will blame Israel."
UNITED NATIONS
News about the latest incident emerged after a week in which Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom expressed alarm about world opinion at the United Nations in New York.
He urged the world body to "move away from the partisan hostility that has taken over the Middle East agenda."
Holding a 175-page thick sheaf of anti-Israel resolutions adopted by the UN General Assembly last year he noted that "no country has suffered such unjustified attack and consistent discrimination within the UN system. The time has come to end this campaign of diplomatic incitement."
NEW PRESSURE
But the troubles on Temple Mount was likely to put new international pressure on Israel, Mazar suggested. The Mount has only recently been reopened to non- Muslim visitors after almost three years of it being closed to non-Muslim visitors.
Since it was reopened in June, more than 1000 people have toured the site, the well informed ICEJ News Service reported.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat ordered the Temple Mount closed to non-Muslims after riots erupted between police and Muslim worshippers the day after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon visited the site in September 2000.
This month there were fears of a similar decision, after Israeli riot police stormed the Temple Mount to expel stone throwing Arabic youth.
