By IPS Correspondents
JERUSALEM, Aug 12 2003 (IPS)

Israel will allow Jews to resume visits to a Muslim- controlled religious site in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem as early as next week, a senior government minister said Monday. The announcement came just days after a thousand or so police assembled to prevent a single Israeli MP and a few dozen ultra-nationalist Jews from visiting the compound.

If it was any other location, the minister’s remarks would have drawn considerably less attention, and the massive police deployment at the 35-acre compound might justifiably have been viewed as a gross overreaction. But not when the hilltop site is the most potent religious and national symbol in the Israeli-Arab conflict, and the most explosive stretch of real estate in the Middle East, if not on the globe.

For Jews, it is the Temple Mount – their holiest site, where the First and Second Temples stood until they were destroyed by the Babylonians in 536 BC and the Romans in 70 BC respectively.

For Muslims, it is the al-Haram al-Sharif – their third holiest site after Mecca and Medina. It contains the al Aqsa Mosque and the gold-capped Dome of the Rock built where the temples used to stand. Muslims believe that it is from a rock protruding from the floor of the Dome that Mohammed ascended to heaven 1,400 years ago.

When Israel conquered East Jerusalem on June 7, 1967, the holy site came under Jewish rule for the first time since the Second Temple was destroyed – a state of affairs unacceptable to most Muslims.

Tens of thousands of Muslims pray here every Friday, although during the Intifadah the numbers have often been limited by Israel for fear of clashes between worshippers and police.

Public Security Minister Tzachi Hanegbi said Monday that "the Temple Mount will be open to visits by Jews from next week" even in the absence of an agreement with Waqf (the Islamic trust), which de facto controls the site. Israel agreed to Muslim control of the compound even though it extended its sovereignty over the area shortly after the 1967 war. The move was never recognised by the international community.

Wakf manager Adnan Al Husseini called Hanegbi’s announcement "an unnecessary provocation."

Tension at the compound began mounting several weeks ago when visits by small groups of Jews and tourists to the site resumed. Waqf, acting under orders from Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, had declared the area off- limits to non-Muslims when the Intifadah erupted in September 2000.

News that Jews were again visiting the site brought apocalyptic warnings from Arab leaders. Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa denounced the resumption of visits as "an insult to Muslims everywhere." Arafat, who like Sharon has exploited the site for political ends, called on Arab states to intervene and "prevent dangerous developments…that may affect the peace process."

Fearing the visits would spark violence, police again barred them in late July. That is when Yehiel Hazan of the ruling Likud party insisted on visiting the site. He chose August 6, which on the Jewish calendar was the ninth day of the month of Av when Jews fast and mourn the destruction of the two temples.

"Just as I walk freely throughout Israel, I will go up to the Temple Mount," Hazan vowed, as he confronted police who blocked his advance. To the relief of the police, Hazan finally gave up and left.

Hazan was ignoring intelligence warnings that his presence could spark a confrontation with Muslims. Any violence here would undermine the road map peace plan and almost certainly end the truce declared by Palestinian militants on June 29.

National Infrastructure Minister Yosef Paritzky, who backs the U.S.-led peace initiative, attacked the announcement Monday by Hanegbi: "Apparently there are people on our side, and not just on the Palestinian side, who are looking for every excuse to ignite the region," he said.

Rioting had erupted when Ariel Sharon visited the site in September 2000 as opposition leader to demonstrate Israeli sovereignty. Six Palestinians were killed in clashes with police the next day, and the violence ultimately escalated into the Intifadah uprising.

A lot of blood has been spilled at the shrine. The 1929 riots in Palestine, during which Arabs killed 67 Jews in the West Bank city Hebron, started with a showdown between Jews and Muslims at the Western Wall, the towering supporting wall of the Temple Mount, which has remained intact since the destruction of the Second Temple.

"For Jews, the Temple Mount is the connection between a nation, its religion and its land," Reuven Merhav, fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies told IPS. "It is a microcosm of all of Jewish history. But most Israelis accept that even if they have a right (to the Mount), it cannot be realised."

Jews do not pray at the compound, but rather at the Western Wall. Notes with prayers scribbled on them by worshippers have been pushed into crevices between the huge stones at its base.

But there are some Jews who believe the Temple needs to be rebuilt. In 1984, a group of Jewish extremists who saw the existence of the mosque on the spot where the Temple once stood as a profound religious affront, hatched a plan to blow up the al Aqsa mosque. They were caught just in time.

An attack by Jewish extremists on one of the mosques at the site "is the nightmare of everyone in the (Israeli) security establishment," says Merhav. There would be consequences, diplomatic ones for starters, that would be felt throughout the region and beyond.

The last time the two sides tried to discuss control of the site was at the Camp David summit in the U.S. in July 2000. It was one of the issues over which the talks collapsed.

Merhav, who was flown to Camp David by then prime minister Ehud Barak to advise him on the issue, does not believe the dispute over sovereignty can be solved – at least for now. "The two sides should go back to the status quo prior to the Intifadah, when Jews could visit, but only at a time when Muslims were not praying," he says.

Hanegbi also said he wanted to restore the pre-Intifadah status quo, whereby Waqf would control access to the site, but allow visits by tourists of all faiths.

Hazan says Jews should not only be allowed to visit their holiest site, but also to pray there. "But freedom of worship cannot be at any cost," says Merhav. "Of course this right exists, but what is it worth if the immediate result of exercising freedom of worship is bloodshed."

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