Israel considering real-time Webcast from contentious Old City repair operation

(AP) The Israel Antiquities Authority is considering broadcasting real-time, 24-hour video from a contentious Jerusalem holy site in a bid to allay Muslim fears the shrine will be harmed by recently launched repair work, an authority spokeswoman said Thursday.

Israel says it needs to replace a centuries-old earthen ramp leading to the hilltop compound known to Jews as Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, which was damaged heavily in a 2004 snowstorm. It has promised the work would cause no harm to Islamic shrines at the site, some 60 yards away, but those assurances have not calmed Muslim outrage over the project.

Lawmaker Israel Hasson said he proposed installing cameras at the site so "all the Arab world would be able to see everything that goes on there."

The Antiquities Authority said it was looking into how much the Webcast would cost.

"The Antiquities Authority is looking into the possibility of installing Internet cameras ... to show that we are working with full transparency, and to show that we aren't digging _ not under Temple Mount, not on the way to Temple Mount and far from Temple Mount."

The hilltop is home to the Al Aqsa mosque and the golden-capped Dome of the Rock shrine, as well as to the original retaining walls of the second Jewish temple, including the Jewish shrine called the Western Wall.

The eight-month construction project has provoked small-scale protests since it began Tuesday.

On Thursday, about 100 Palestinians briefly blocked an entrance to the Old City, police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said. The protesters dispersed peacefully after police ordered them to do so, Rosenfeld said.

But Raed Salah, a leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel, warned of a religious war as he scuffled with police outside the shrine Wednesday. Salah, who was briefly detained for police questioning, declared Friday "Al Aqsa Day" and called on Israeli Muslims and Palestinians to attend weekly prayers at the shrine.

Israeli police remained on heightened alert Thursday, with about 2,000 officers deployed throughout the Old City and nearby areas in Arab east Jerusalem. Rosenfeld said police would decide later in the day whether to allow West Bank Palestinians to attend Friday's prayers.

Since construction began, access has been restricted to Israeli Arabs and east Jerusalem residents over 45.

Israel has controlled the compound since 1967, when it captured east Jerusalem from Jordan, but has left its administration largely to Jordan and the Palestinians.

When Israel opened a tunnel alongside the compound in 1996, it touched off clashes that killed 80 people. In 2000, when then-opposition leader Ariel Sharon visited the site, the ensuing riots were followed by years of violence.