US embassy cable - 02AMMAN7313

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 AMMAN 007313 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/12/2012 
TAGS: KPAL, PREL, KWBG, PBTS, IS, JO 
SUBJECT: THE BULGE: JORDANIANS SET TO BEGIN WORK ON 
SOUTHERN WALL 
 
REF: JERUSALEM 3629 
 
Classified By: AMBASSADOR EDWARD W. GNEHM FOR REASON 1.5 (B) 
 
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SUMMARY 
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1. (C) Raif Nijem, Vice-President of the GOJ's Restoration 
Committee for Al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock and the 
leader of a Jordanian team sent to study the bulge in the 
southern wall of Haram al-Sharif (see Ref), is optimistic 
that work can begin the week of December 22 to shore up the 
southern wall of the Haram al-Sharif.  The real issue, 
according to Nijem, is not the bulge, but a number of 
cavities in the wall that were detected after five core 
samples were taken during the committee's October trip to 
Jerusalem.  Nijem also expressed frustration with the Israeli 
insistence on bypassing the Jerusalem-based Awqaf employees 
for a Jordanian-based team to conduct the samples and 
restoration.  End Summary. 
 
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WALL WILL BE FIXED, POLITICS ASIDE 
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2. (C) On December 12, Poloff visited Raif Nijem at his Amman 
office and queried him on the results of his study of the 
southern wall of Haram al-Sharif.  Nijem said his team had 
conducted five successful core samples that were roughly 2.4 
meters long with a six inch diameter.  Nijem was less worried 
about the estimated 36cm bulge in the wall than the large 
cavities between the inner wall and outer skin where the 
binding materials used--mostly lime, coal, and quartz--had 
been leeched out by water erosion over the centuries.  Of the 
five core samples taken, three had cavities, the largest one 
being 30 cm deep. 
 
3. (C) Nijem anticipates that work on the wall will begin as 
early as the week of December 22 with the initial stage of 
injecting a new binding material between the inner and outer 
walls.  That work, he said, will be done by the Swiss firm 
Hilti and will take only about a week to finish.  After the 
binding material has stabilized the wall, the plan is to 
repair the individual stones of a section of the southern 
wall that would likely take 1-2 months.  Nijem told Poloff 
that the Israeli side had agreed to the restoration plan and 
the use of Hilti to complete the first part of the 
restoration. 
 
4. (C) While Nijem complimented the Israelis at the working 
level--specifically mentioning the cooperation of Col. Nisso 
Shacha and Yoran Oahyon--he urged Poloff to intercede with 
the Israelis on behalf of the Jerusalem-based Awqaf team, 
whom the Israelis would not allow to work on the survey. 
Nijem was concerned that the Israelis would not allow the 
team to work on the restoration of the wall, which will 
require painstaking stone by stone repairs.  He argued the 
Jerusalem team had many years of work experience on the Haram 
al-Sharif and was best suited and situated for the work. 
 
5. (C) Nijem was also frustrated by the politicization of the 
issue, criticizing mostly the Israeli press for blowing the 
issue of the bulge out of proportion.  "One article claimed 
the bulge was one meter and blamed the Awqaf for it" 
according to Nijem.  As reftel noted, Nijem told Poloff about 
the Israeli attempts to monitor work on the wall via a video 
camera mounted about 100 meters away.  Nijem also dismissed 
Palestinian claims that Israeli excavations conducted in 1968 
had caused the bulge.  However, he did point out that the 
excavations had exposed more of the wall to weather and will 
necessitate more restoration work in the future. 
 
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COMMENT 
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6. (C) Per reftel, Nijem alluded to no dispute between the PA 
and the GOJ for control of the Waqf, but reaffirmed that the 
Hashemites--as descendants of Mohammad--have divine 
authority, so to speak, over Jerusalem's holy sites.  "The 
Saudis oversee Mecca and Medina, but the Hashemites oversee 
al-Aqsa."  (Note: Article 9, para 2, of the 1994 
Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty also specifies that "Israel 
respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of 
Jordan in the Muslim Holy Shrines in Jerusalem.  When 
negotiating on the permanent status will take place, Israel 
will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in the 
shrines." End Note.)  More engineer than politician, Nijem 
would like to see the Jerusalem-based Waqf more actively 
involved in the wall's many restoration needs, primarily for 
technical and logistical reasons, but clearly decisions on 
the wall and its environs will continue to be made from 
Amman, not Ramallah. 
GNEHM