Fears Israel won’t preserve Arab quarter’s traces

Jerusalem – At Jerusalem’s Western Wall plaza, a recent excavation has alarmed some heritage specialists who fear the traces of a centuries-old Arab neighbourhood razed by Israel may disappear.

There are no signs on the expansive plaza to recall the history of the Mughrabi neighbourhood, or Moroccan quarter, which was demolished by Israeli forces after they captured east Jerusalem in the 1967 Six-Day War.

The area now bustles with tourists and worshippers who cross the stone square to the Western Wall, which marks the holiest site where Jews can pray.

The only indication of its North African heritage is a Moroccan flag, flying discreetly in a nearby private garden.

Last month, excavations which the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) said aimed “to strengthen, stabilise and improve infrastructure” at the site “revealed parts” of the Mughrabi quarter and uncovered the remains of homes.

French historian Vincent Lemire said the discoveries included walls nearly a metre high, traces of paint, a cobbled courtyard and a system to drain rainwater.

“No-one expected to discover so many remains of the Mughrabi quarter, so well preserved,” said Lemire, who has authored a book about the neighbourhood’s destruction.

For a brief time, “we could literally walk in the middle of the ancient Mughrabi quarter – in its streets, in its courtyards, in its houses,” said Lemire, who also heads Jerusalem’s French Research Centre.

Within days, AFP journalists saw that some stone remains appeared to have been removed and the area was covered up once more.

The district was initially founded in the 12th century by Saladin, who defeated the Crusader kingdom in Jerusalem.

It was established for Muslim pilgrims from North Africa as it stood below the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third-holiest site in Islam.

The mosque compound is above the Western Wall and is also holy to Jews, who refer to the site as the Temple Mount.

After Israeli forces seized east Jerusalem and its Old City in June 1967, Mughrabi residents were forcibly evicted and the neighbourhood was demolished overnight.

“From previous archaeological activities in the Old City and its surroundings, we are deeply concerned” about the recent findings, said Alon Arad, director of Israeli organisation Emek Shaveh, which fights against the politicisation of archaeology.

He said the IAA’s priority was to create a vast archaeological site which celebrates only the Jewish heritage of Jerusalem.

The IAA has been involved in numerous controversial digs in east Jerusalem, which Israel annexed years after the 1967 war.

Arad accused Israel of “silencing any other heritage” and of using excavations for the “Judaisation” of the Old City. –