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 repair work, an official said Thursday.

Muslim leaders ridiculed the idea, and Israeli police were on heightened alert before Friday Muslim prayers at the site, imposing travel restrictions and planning for a helicopter to hover overhead.

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 not harm 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 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."

Adnan Husseini, chairman of the Waqf, the Muslim trust that oversees the complex, rejected the proposal as "ridiculous."

"This is a historical place, and their machines are destroying it," Husseini said. "The Israelis have to stop the work and let the Waqf do the renovations."

The ramp leads to the outer wall of the hilltop compound. But the Waqf claims jurisdiction over it because it touches the mosque complex.

The hilltop _ home to the Al Aqsa mosque and the golden-capped Dome of the Rock shrine _ is Islam's third-holiest shrine. Muslims believe the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven from the site. It also is the site of the original retaining walls of the second Jewish temple, including the Jewish shrine called the Western Wall.

UNESCO criticized the renovation and called on Israel "to suspend any action that could endanger the spirit of mutual respect until such time as the will to dialogue prevails once again."

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.

Police issued a 10-day restraining order barring Salah from entering the Old City.

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 that at least as many officers would be deployed Friday, the Muslim holy day, when mosque attendance is at its highest. Police said they would put up roadblocks in the area and fly over the site in a helicopter.

Rosenfeld said an order barring West Bank Palestinians from the Al Aqsa compound would be extended to Friday 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.