Wakf Okays Proposed Turkish Memorial, City Debates It

reprinted from Arutz 7
23 Cheshvan 5768, 04 November 07 12:42

(IsraelNN.com) The Waqf Islamic Trust granted land at the foot of the Temple Mount to the Turkish government for a memorial to those who died fighting for the Ottoman Empire, even before the Israeli government approved Turkey's request to build the monument.

The Turkish government recently submitted a request to the Jerusalem municipality for the planned 3-meter high memorial that would be located close to the Golden Gate and be topped by the Turkish flag.

Turkey Seeks Right to Build Monument In Jerusalem's Old City

reprinted from Haaretz
04/11/2007

by Nadav Shragai, Haaretz Correspondent

Turkey would like to build a monument to those who died fighting for the Ottoman Empire at the foot of the Temple Mount's eastern wall, not far from the Golden Gate.

The proposal, which the Prime Minister's Office supports, was recently submitted to the Jerusalem Municipality for approval. The Waqf, or Islamic religious trust, which controls the Temple Mount, has already given Turkey land for the monument, which would be about three meters high and fly a Turkish flag.

While the municipality has not yet discussed the proposal, rightist councilmen have already expressed opposition. Councilman Yair Gabbay (National Religious Party) has asked the city's legal adviser to nix the project on the grounds that according to the city's master plan, all construction is forbidden within 70 meters of the Temple Mount. The plot the Waqf has allocated to Turkey is a mere five meters from the mount.

Sources in the Jerusalem Municipality said that the proposal would be examined according to the usual legal criteria, but the stance of the Prime Minister's Office and the diplomatic sensitivities entailed would be taken into consideration.

Turkey controlled this area until 1917, when it was ousted by the British during World War I. Today, it has good relations with Israel, but during the war, it deported many Jews because a Jewish group known as Nili had been providing intelligence to the British.

The last time a similar issue arose was immediately after the 1967 Six-Day War, when the Waqf and Arab residents of East Jerusalem sought permission to erect several monuments to soldiers of the Jordanian Legion who were killed in the battles for Jerusalem. Those proposals aroused fierce public debate, but eventually a compromise was reached, under which one central monument for all the battles was erected.

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