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The symbol of allah stealthily carved on Temple Mount Wall The word "Allah" in
Arabic was found hewn into the eastern wall of Jerusalem's Temple
Mount, in one of the worst acts of vandalism at the history-rich site
in the last several years, archaeologists and eyewitnesses said
Wednesday.
The vandalism was discovered late Tuesday night on a half-meter
section of the 2,000 year old wall, which is undergoing repair by a
team of Jordanian engineers.
 The sign of allah was stealthily carved on the Temple Mount Wall by an Arab workman, to scandalize the Jews and to build a false claim of the Muslims on the Temple Mount and Wailing Wall, which were the site of the 2nd Temple destroyed by the Romans and on the ruins of which the Arab invaders built the Al Aqsa Mosque also known as the Dome of the Rock ______________________________________________
Jerusalem police spokesman Shmuel Ben-Ruby said that police suspect
that one of the Arab workers repairing the wall was behind the
vandalism, adding that police had opened an investigation into the
incident.
"This vandalism, coupled with Israel's lack of archaeological
supervision at Judaism's holiest site is simply lawlessness of the
first order on the part of the Government," said Temple Mount expert
and Hebrew University archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar.
Mazar's non-partisan 'Committee Against the Destruction of
Antiquities on the Temple Mount,' which has been decrying the lack of
archaeological supervision at the site for five years now, launched a
complaint with police against the vandalism, which
police said would be removed by mid-morning.
Israel's Antiquities Authority had no immediate comment Wednesday.
According to decades-old arrangements in place at the site, Israel
maintains overall security control of the Temple Mount while the Wakf
or Islamic Trust is in charge of the day-to-day maintenance of the
compound.
In the late 1990's, following the construction of an underground
mosque at the site, Islamic Wakf officials dumped more than 12,000
tons of earth, with history-rich artifacts, at a garbage dump outside
the Old City, an action which Israeli archaeologists called "an
unprecedented archaeological crime."
In contravention of the law, Israeli archaeologists from the
Antiquities Authority have not been carrying out supervision for more
than four years now at the bitterly contested site due to their
concern about renewed Palestinian violence.
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