This "rebuilding" the ramp is a farce. Its really about establishing ownership and covering up archeological evidence which supports Muslims claims to this site.
Consider:
If the Dome of the Rock and the Al Aqsa Mosque belong to the Muslim community then why is the Israeli government doing the repairs without consulting the Muslims who worship there???
Aren't "owners" usually responsible for the repairs?
If Israel does repairs, as well as controls who has access to the site, then effectly they own these religious sites.
If Israelis own these structures and denies Muslims access in such a way that they fall into disrepair, then Israel can declare these sites abandoned and/or condemn them. Also Israel appears to be conducting repairs and archeological digs in such a way to speed up this process.
Once these sites have been abandoned and condemned, the next step is to demolish them, which would be legal since Israel has already taken ownership of these "neglected", "abandoned" sites.
Once the land is vacant, Israel is free to construct whatever structure they want on "their" land. Likely they will build the prophesized Third Temple leading to the return of the Messiah....
Muslims will react much the same way Catholics would if Vatican city was conquered by foreigners from the middle east and the Sistine Chapel was demolished to make way for a new Mosque.
When Israel finally does destroy these buildings and build their new temple, someone will bomb it and Israel will retaliate in their typical "measured" way.
In the case of this "ramp", Israel appears to be attempting to rebuild the ramp in such a way that it damages the Muslim structures on the site and/or hides/destroys acheological evidence which doesn't support Jewish claims to the site. If it wasn't for archeologists speaking out about what they found under the ramp, no one would have known about the long buried and recently discovered Muslim prayer room.
This is the story which has been kept secret from the public until now:
The Real Story
Yuval Baruch, Jerusalem Region Archaeologist, Israel Antiquities Authority
The clamor that arose over the reconstruction work on the Mughrabi Ramp has flooded us again with place names and expressions which have served for years as the backdrop for events and issues surrounding the rights of Jews at the Western Wall and the legitimacy of the archaeological excavations around the Temple Mount....
...In 2004, when the Mughrabi Ramp collapsed, a small room was discovered which contained an alcove covered with a dome, a kind of Muslim prayer niche, facing south. Some suggest that these are the remains of a prayer room that was part of a madrasa (a school for Muslim religious studies) which operated near the Mughrabi gate...
Its pretty dry and seems to de-emphasize the Muslim nature of their discovery. If they found evidence of a Jewish temple instead, I'm sure that would have already been announced and the reconstruction work would be proceeding differently.
Here is the al Jazeera version of what Israel is doing to these Muslim holy sites:
Muslim prayer room found near Al-Magharibah Gate, an Evidence that Western Wall Is an Islamic Site
Muslim prayer room found near Al-Magharibah Gate three years ago but was kept secret because it demonstrated that the Western Wall of Al-Aqsa Compound is an Islamic site
By Mohammed Mar'i*
(RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank, 19 February 2007)--
Israeli archeologist Yuval Baruch revealed that remains of an ancient Muslim prayer room was found under the dirt embankment adjacent to Al-Magharibah Gate in 2004. The findings, unearthed after part of the embankment collapsed into the Western Wall compound, were kept secret until now.
The information was withheld from the public but had been known to various Israeli officials. The findings were revealed in an article posted on the Israel Antiquities Authority's internet site by Baruch, who works in the Jerusalem district.
In an article entitled "The real story," Baruch revealed that when the embankment collapsed near the Al-Magharibah Bridge, a small room with a roofed alcove and a dome was unearthed - a type of Muslim prayer alcove facing south. Some have suggested that these are the remains of a prayer room which was originally part of a school for Muslim studies which operated adjacent to the Al-Magharibah Gate.
The remains apparently date back to the 11th century, the Salahuddin era known as the Ayubi Period and which is of great significance to the Muslim world. This important finding was kept secret in fear that the Muslim community would demand that the site, adjacent to the Western Wall compound, be declared sacred.
One of the Muslim arguments who protest the Israeli excavations taking place near Al-Magharibah Bridge is that the destruction of the embankment would damage Al-Aqsa Mosque. The findings published by the Antiquities Authority are likely to support this argument.
The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and the Holy Land Sheikh Muhammad Hussein said that "this indicates that the Israeli excavations at Al-Magharibah Gate aren't coincidental"," this is an attempt to hide Islamic evidence from the site"...
http://www.aljazeerah.info/News arc...ence that Western Wall Is an Islamic Site.htm
Meanwhile the Judaization of Jerusalem continues unabated. This article describe life of non-Jews in Jerusalem. Its pretty pathetic and is as bad as what White South Africans did to Black South Africans during apartheid:
THE POLITICS OF URBAN PLANNING
Jerusalem: whose very own and golden city?
by Philippe Rekacewicz and Dominique Vidal
February 19, 2007
On 8 February violence broke out at the Al-Aksa mosque, revealing underlying tensions. Jerusalem is the holy city ofthree religions, but Israeli government policy has always beento preserve its control over the city to prevent its division, so that East Jerusalem can never be the capital of a Palestinianstate.
THE main road from Tel Aviv runs fairly straight until past Ben Gurion airport. Then it starts to wind up towards Jerusalem, through hills captured by the Jewish forces in 1948 at the cost of much bloodshed. It enters the thrice-holy city from the west, at a height of over 700m above sea level. Israelis, like foreigners, have a wide choice of access routes. They can reach the city centre by many other roads to the north and south.
For Palestinians from the West Bank, access to the city is another matter. If they get through the internal checkpoints, they encounter the most brutal obstacle ever invented to control and restrict movement in the occupied territories: a 10m high wall that will soon completely surround the eastern part of the city, blotting out the landscape and blocking the traditional access roads. It cuts straight across historic highways from Jerusalem to Amman (Route 417) and from Jenin to Hebron (Route 60). For West Bank Palestinians, the monstrous concrete serpent is broken only at four points: Qalandiya in the north, Shuafat in the northeast, Ras Abu Sbeitan in the west and Gilo in the south. To reach these they have to make many detours, leave their cars and cross on foot. Palestinian vehicles, with green licence plates, are strictly forbidden in Jerusalem.
Colonel Danny Tirza, a settler from Kfar Adumim, was the Israeli defence ministry's man in charge of planning and erecting what is officially known as the security fence. The Palestinians call him the "second nakba" (1). Tirza promised his grandiose plan would include 11 Jerusalem checkpoints, rather like airport terminals. That was not our impression from a brief passage through Gilo checkpoint. Everywhere there were signs: "enter one at a time", "wait your turn", "leave this place clean", "take off your coat", "obey instructions". The corridors were enclosed by wire mesh on the sides and top, like tunnels through which animals enter a circus ring. No ringmaster, though.
The gate was fitted with a small light showing when to pass. A metallic voice instructed us to put luggage through a screening machine. A vague form could just be made out behind the tinted, reinforced glass panels. Finally, a human being: a slovenly soldier, with his feet on the table and an Uzi machine pistol across his lap, who checked identity cards, whispering or barking depending on their owners' faces. At the exit were signs in three languages reading "Welcome to Jerusalem" (still 4km away) and "Peace be with you"
A separate body
The 1947 United Nations partition plan declared Jerusalem a corpus separatum, a separate body, to be run under an international UN administration. That is still its only internationally recognised status. But after the 1948 war the city was divided between Jordan and Israel, which established its capital in West Jerusalem. In 1967 Israel conquered the eastern part of the city and subsequently annexed it. In 1980 a Basic Law proclaimed Jerusalem "complete and united", the capital of Israel....
http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=107&ItemID=12156
I recommend reading the entire story to see how bad its gotten for non-Jews who live in Jerusalen and non-Jews to visit their holy sites.
