AL QUDS (Occupied), Aug 28: Could a bulge in the ancient wall at Al Quds’s holiest site bring it tumbling down?

Israel says yes and political sources said on Wednesday Prime Minister Ariel Sharon would convene a special session of ministers and experts soon to consider how to prevent it.

Arabs say no and accuse Israel of another bid to assert control over the elevated plaza of grand old mosques supported in part by the Western Wall, also known as the Wailing Wall.

The degree of risk to the southern section of the wall of the Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif, is a matter of dispute freighted with religious politics at the core of the Middle East conflict.

An Israeli interest group, the Committee to Prevent the Destruction of Antiquities on the Temple Mount, wrote to Israel’s prime minister and the president this week saying the southern retaining wall was in danger of collapse.

It cited a protuberance of up to 70 centimetres on a 190 square metre section covered by scaffolding near the top of the wall that dates to Roman rule 2,000 years ago.

The bulge has been visible for decades. But the group said it had grown markedly in recent months because of construction work.

“There are serious grounds for apprehension that the wall could collapse. In my view, we have reached the moment of truth. The government of Israel has no alternative but to exercise our natural authority with regard to the Temple Mount,” said right-wing Mayor Ehud Olmert.

But government sources said a solution agreeable to the Waqf would be sought, indicating there would be no attempt to occupy the mosque plaza for fear major violence would erupt.

The passions of two world religions collide at the site.

“One of the options will be to give external support to the wall, perhaps by embedding steel columns. That way there would not be internal intervention on the Temple Mount, to avoid confrontation with the Waqf,” one Jewish source said.

“We don’t want an explosion,” he said. He feared that could inflame Palestinian militants, just as attacks on Israelis have been subsiding after an Israeli military clampdown, which has spawned a security dialogue aimed at a truce. —Reuters