TEMPLE MOUNT WATCH – New decisions on the Mughrabi (Mugrabi) Gate bridge reconstruction project:

Panel nixes expansion at Western Wall
By Akiva Eldar, Haaretz Correspondent
Tags: Mugrabi Gate, Western Wall

The Interior Ministry's Jerusalem District Planning and Construction Committee approved the original plan of the reconstruction project for the Temple Mount's Mugrabi Gate on the condition that certain changes be made in it. At the end of a hearing some two weeks ago, the committee accepted the objections submitted by the Ir Amim organization to the plan for transformation of the area underneath the new bridge into a space for Jewish prayers. In so doing, it rejected an initiative of the Western Wall's rabbi, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, which had gained the support of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, to take advantage of the collapse of the bridge as an opportunity to expand the women's section at the site.

The bridge leading from the Western Wall plaza collapsed in 2004, and the "rescue dig" conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority ahead of construction of a new bridge sparked the anger of the Muslim Waqf, the Arab world and especially Jordan and Turkey. The significance of this latest decision is that it will now be necessary to revise the construction plans according to the committee's directives before a building permit is issued.

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