Date November 29,2011
Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered to halt renovation work at holy site.
Israel s prime minister intervened to halt renovation work on a pedestrian walkway adjacent to the most sensitive holy site in Jerusalem to avoid inflaming public opinion in the Arab world, an Israeli official said Monday.
The renovation is meant to replace a rickety wooden ramp leading up to the enclosure known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as al-Aqsa. The ramp was meant to be temporary when it was constructed in 2004 to replace an earlier one that collapsed in a snowstorm, but fears of sparking Muslim anger have prevented any further work since then.
The dismantling of the temporary walkway, which Jerusalem city officials have deemed potentially unsafe, was supposed to have begun in recent days, but Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the work postponed, Netanyahu told a security and foreign policy committee in Israel s parliament.
He cited the recent anti-government unrest in neighboring Egypt, implying that anger there could be turned against Israel if his government were seen to be endangering a holy site that has repeatedly served as a flashpoint for violence.
"It was my assessment that given the demonstrations in Cairo, on that specific day, that specific week it was not the time," Netanyahu told the committee, according to an official who participated in the closed session. He spoke on condition of anonymity in order to discuss the subject.
The official gave no date for the resumption of work. The Western Wall Heritage Foundation, the Israeli body directly responsible for the ramp, would not provide details on the project, and spokesmen for Netanyahu and Jerusalem City Hall declined to comment.
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