NEWS RELEASE
Zionist Organization of America
Jacob & Libby Goodman ZOA House, 4 East 34th Street, New York, N.Y. 10016
(212) 481-1500 Fax: (212) 481-1515 email@zoa.org www.zoa.org

September 7, 2007
Contact Morton A. Klein at: (212) 481-1500
Attn: NEWS EDITOR

ZOA writes to Olmert

ZOA: OLMERT GOVERNMENT MUST STOP DESTRUCTION
OF JEWISH ANTIQUITIES ON JERUSALEM'S
TEMPLE MOUNT BY MUSLIM AUTHORITIES

New York -- The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has written to
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert urging him to immediately take action to
stop the wanton destruction of priceless Jewish antiquities on Jerusalem's
Temple Mount by the Waqf, the Muslim religious authorities who control the
Temple Mount area. The Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, but of
lesser significance to Muslims than Mecca and Medina. Jerusalem is mentioned
hundreds of times in the Bible, but not even once in Quran. When Jordan
controlled the Temple Mount between 1948 and 1967, no Arab leader other than
King Hussein of Jordan visited the mosques there; 58 synagogues, however,
were destroyed. In recent days, reports indicate that the Islamic Waqf's
desecration and destruction of the Temple Mount has intensified. The Waqf,
which is digging a trench five feet deep and some 150 yards long for the
laying of electrical cables and water pipes, is using a mechanical digger,
cutting through the subsoil and piling it up beside the trench. Israeli
archaeologists say such material should be carefully sifted and documented,
as it would be even at sites of far lesser significance than this most
sensitive Jewish religious and cultural location.

New photographs of the work zone show carved stones casually dumped in a
pile that appear to be a section of the outer wall of the Second Temple,
according to archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar . Mazar, a member of the faculty
at Hebrew University and a member of the Public Committee for Prevention of
the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, says it is "crucial this
wall is inspected." She explains that the current ground level of the
Temple Mount is slightly above the original Temple Mount platform, "meaning
anything found is likely from the Temple itself." Mazar insists that she
must personally inspect the stones to confirm their status, and attempted to
inspect the site last week. She was stopped by Israeli police who are
protecting the construction.

The Israel Antiquities Authority approved the construction despite
archaeologists' concern that precious artifacts are being destroyed. The
Authority, which digs for religious artifacts across the State of Israel,
has not inspected construction on Judaism's holiest site even once since the
work began, despite continuous calls for the construction to be supervised
and halted. English spokesman for the Israeli Police, Mickey Rosenfeld,
asserts that the police stationed on the Temple Mount will not prevent the
construction because the Antiquities Authority approved the dig. The Waqf
denies any wrong-doing and says that the Temple Mount is in "occupied
territory."

Dr. Gabriel Barkai, of the Committee Against the Destruction of Antiquities
on the Temple Mount calls it an act of barbarism. "They are digging in the
most crucial and delicate point of the Temple Mount - of the whole country.
They should be using a toothbrush, not a bulldozer." Dr Barkai identifies
the area currently under excavation as the outer courts of the Second
Temple, built by Herod the Great in the First Century BCE. He maintains it
is where the best preservation of antiquities was anticipated, since other
parts of the compound are built on exposed bedrock ( BBC News, August 28).

According to Rabbi Chaim Richman, International Director of the Temple
Institute, the Waqf is intentionally digging in areas where "undoubtedly the
Temple once stood . For the first time since the Temple's destruction, a
section of the Temple Wall itself has been exposed and the Waqf under the
guise of laying down electrical pipes has dug a trench, destroying the most
important holy artifact ever found to date" (One Jerusalem, September 2).

This is but the latest episode in archeological vandalism beneath Temple
Mount committed by the Waqf:

In 1970, the Waqf excavated a pit without supervision that exposed a
16-foot-long, six-foot-thick wall that scholars believe may well be the
eastern wall of the Herodian Temple complex. An inspector from the
antiquities department saw it and composed a handwritten report (still
unpublished) before the wall was dismantled, destroyed and covered up.

In 1993, Israel's Supreme Court found that the Waqf had violated Israel's
antiquities laws on 35 occasions, many involving irreversible destruction of
important archaeological remains. The court declined to enter an injunction,
however, expressing its confidence that in the future Israeli authorities
would correct their past errors.

In 1999, to accommodate a major expansion of an underground mosque into what
is known popularly as Solomon's Stables in the southeastern part of the
Temple Mount, the Waqf dug an enormous stairway down to the mosque. Hundreds
of truckloads of archaeologically rich dirt were dug with mechanical
equipment and then dumped into the adjacent Kidron Valley. When archaeology
student Zachi Zweig began to explore the mounds of dirt for antiquities, he
was arrested at the behest of the Israel Antiquities Authority -- for
excavating without a permit. Since then, a major legal sifting operation of
this dirt by Professor Gabriel Barkai of Bar Ilan University (together with
Mr. Zweig) has uncovered thousands of artifacts from all periods going back
more than 3,000 years. They include a seal impression of a probable brother
of someone mentioned in the Bible, Babylonian arrowheads dating to the
destruction of Jerusalem in the 6th century B.C. (as well as other
arrowheads from battles on the Temple Mount), thousands of coins (many
dating to the Great Revolt against Rome), beautiful jewelry and even an
ancient Egyptian scarab.

The Palestinian Arabs, including the Palestinian Authority (PA), have a long
record of desecrating and destroying Jewish religious sites and denying the
Jewish historical and religious connection to Jerusalem and Israel.

Statement on Jewish holy sites by PA leaders:

Yasser Arafat: "That is not the Western Wall at all, but a Moslem shrine"
(Ma'ariv, October. 11, 1996).

Then PA Minister of Religious Affairs, Hassan Tahboub, "The Western Wall is
Muslim property. It is part of the al-Aqsa Mosque. Once we control it, Jews
must remain six feet away from our holy wall" (November 23, 1997).

PA Ministry of Information: Thirty years of Israeli excavation has revealed
Islamic holy places, Roman ruins, Armenian ruins, but no tangible evidence
of anything Jewish was revealed in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Jews have
implanted a biblical myth in the mind of the world," (December 12, 1997).

Walid M. Awad, Director of Foreign Publications for the PLO's Palestine
Ministry of Information: " Jerusalem was never a Jewish city" (IMRA news
agency, December. 25, 1996).

Jarid al-Kidwa, a Palestinian 'historian' broadcast in the PA media, has
stated, "The stories of the Torah and the Bible did not take place in the
Land of Israel - they occurred in the Arabian peninsula, primarily in Yemen"
(Ha'aretz, July 6, 1997).

Jewish holy sites have been destroyed, vandalized or left in disrepair by
the Palestinians whenever PA control has been extended, even temporarily, to
localities containing them:

In September 1996, widespread Arab rioting broke out in response to false
rumors circulated about alleged Jewish efforts to undermine the structure of
the Dome of the Rock atop the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. Palestinian rioters
set upon and destroyed the Od Yosef Chai Yeshiva at Joseph Tomb in Nablus,
also killing Israeli soldiers trying to guard it. 500 Arabs also stormed
Rachel's Tomb, the third holiest Jewish site, firing weapons and hurling
Molotov cocktails and torching the scaffolding of new construction on the
site, which was saved only due to determined efforts under fire by
fire-fighting units.
October 2000: During the first days of the Palestinian terrorist campaign,
Joseph's Tomb in Nablus was entirely destroyed by a Palestinian mob of 5,000
and its contents incinerated after the Israeli garrison guarding it was
temporarily withdrawn during fighting. It has since been rebuilt by the PA -
as a mosque supposedly honoring a Muslim figure. Muslims assert exclusive
right to the site and Jews have been unable to re-enter it.

October 2000: The ancient Shalom Al Yisrael synagogue in Jericho,
rediscovered only after the 1967 war, was completely and deliberately
destroyed, though its Torah scrolls were saved. The Na'aran synagogue in
Jericho, which is believed to have been built in the 5th or 6th century, and
which contains a mosaic floor, is now abandoned and derelict.

Moreover, Jewish worshippers at Jerusalem's Western Wall have more than once
been the target of stones and other projectiles from the Temple Mount in
recent years, most recently in February 2007, when Palestinians rioted on
the fabricated pretext that Israeli excavation work taking place nearly 100
yards from the mosques on Temple Mount for the purpose of replacing a bridge
in danger of collapse were threatening the mosques. Also, sporadic gunfire
is routinely directed today at Rachel's Tomb, where a special fortification
with guard towers has had to be constructed around it for its protection.
Several soldiers guarding the site have been killed over the years.

In its letter, signed by ZOA National President Morton A. Klein, Chairman of
the Board Dr. Michael Goldblatt, Chairman of Executive Committee Dr. Alan
Mazurek, and Treasurer Henry Schwartz, Executive Director Stanley Kessock
and Director of the ZOA's Center for Middle East Policy Dr. Daniel Mandel,
the ZOA said, "It is imperative for the preservation of literally the
holiest site in the world to Judaism and of world significance to
civilization, as well as for the long term interests of Israel, that the
government put an immediate stop to the desecration and destruction of
priceless Jewish antiquities on the Temple Mount. No digging with heavy
machinery should ever be taking place at such a site, which surely demands,
at a minimum, the usual safeguards, care and archeological supervision that
would be applied in excavating any other site of even minor archeological
significance. It is an act of sacrilege and archeological vandalism that
irreversible destruction is proceeding at this very moment at Judaism's
holiest site. We urge you most earnestly to intervene while there is still
time to prevent this historic loss to Israel, the Jewish people and indeed
the world."

In addition, the ZOA has made the following public statement: "The ZOA urges
every rabbis of every synagogue in America and around the world, and every
Jewish organization, to speak out forcefully and repeatedly to urge Israel's
Prime Minister and all Muslims of goodwill to stop this destruction of holy
and priceless Jewish artifacts under the Temple Mount where Judaism's two
holy temples once existed."