Jordan has asked Israel to allow it to build a fifth minaret on the Temple Mount, on the eastern wall of the Mount, facing the Mount of Olives. The Jordanian request is not new, and as far as it is known, at least at this stage, Israel does not intend to allow it. This issue has again been put on the public agenda, along with other matters relating to the ties between Jordan and Israel on the Temple Mount, in light of Jordan’s decision not to renew the lease agreement for land in Naharayim and the Arava, which Israeli farmers have been working for the past 25 years.As I have said many times, I oppose any construction or excavation on the Temple Mount until we have non-invasive and non-destructive technologies to do the work.
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That said, I am a political realist. It does not sound as though this request has any traction. I doubt it will come to anything. But if for some reason it were approved, I would expect Jordan to fund generously a scientific archaeological excavation of the construction site.
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