A silly WND headline, complete with ejaculatory cry of dismay:
What? Israel to help Muslims carve Quranic verses on Temple Mount
Islamic writings all over holiest site for Judaism –WND
However, as the inevitable hack Aaron Klein has to admit in the body of his article, this actually means that Israel is allowing the restoration of already-existing Islamic calligraphy on the site:
There are more than 4,000 Quranic quotations written in Arabic calligraphy and carved into various Islamic buildings throughout the Temple Mount, including inside and outside the Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock.
Six hundred of the carved verses are in poor condition, according to the Waqf, the Mount’s Muslim custodians.
This kind of restoration work is unremarkable and goes on at all kinds of monuments around the world. Presumably Klein objects to it here because he shares the hope of Jewish and Christian fundamentalists that the ancient buildings – which date back more than a thousand years – will be destroyed. Needless to say, such an attitude in relation to any other ancient structure, particulary one of such historic and architectral significance, would be derided as ignorant and barbaric. And given that Klein is rightfully angry at the way the current Muslim guardians of the Temple Mount have damaged archaeological remains of the ancient Jewish presence at the site, we can also call him a hypocrite.
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“This kind of restoration work is unremarkable…”
Apparently not? Actually, I disagree for the opposite reason that Klein does: I think one can remark upon the pleasant sanity of this action. Given the history of fundamentalist insanity in Israel’s right wing, it would not have been entirely surprising if they’d chosen to let these carvings rot (erode?) or, worse still, tried to remove them. Given the choice between this kind of thing and real progress towards a respectable peace in the area, I’d take the latter, of course, but at least this doesn’t hurt any.