CAIRO: The Arab League is to convene an urgent meeting of permanent delegates on Saturday to discuss Israeli works near Islam s third holiest site in Jerusalem, league sources said.
Delegates from the 22-member body are expected to meet at the league s headquarters in Cairo to discuss Israel s continued violations against the holy Al-Aqsa mosque , the source told AFP on Thursday.
This Israeli aggression is part of repeated Israeli attempts to impose a status quo in Jerusalem, said the Palestinian Authority s representative at the league, Hussein Abdel Khaleq.
The Palestinian Authority called for the meeting to examine this critical situation which threatens the Al-Aqsa mosque and the possibility of a joint Arab position in the face of this danger, he told reporters.
The Israeli Antiquities Authority said the work, expected to take months, is to strengthen an access ramp to Dung Gate for the benefit and safety of visitors after damage caused by an earthquake and snowstorms in 2004.
But the Muslim trust that oversees the compound charges that the Israelis are leveling a mound which contains two underground rooms connected to the mosque complex, and whose destruction risks undermining its foundations.
The compound, which houses both the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, is where the second Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000 after a controversial visit by then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon.
