Tunnel Symbolizes Control Of Jerusalem Ancient Corridor Undermines Mideast Peace

Not far from the entrance to the tunnel whose excavation has pushed the Middle East peace process to the brink of collapse, Mary Hamill stood Monday, shading her eyes and looking bemused. “So that’s it?” the British tourist asked, sounding vaguely disappointed as she gazed across at a door in the stone wall. “That’s all?”

As Israeli and Arab leaders headed to Washington to try to salvage the Israeli-Palestinian peace accord, observant Jews crowded onto the plaza near the Western Wall, marking the holiday of Sukkot by waving palm fronds and asking for God’s mercy and protection.

Thousands of others, ranging from reverent, religious Jews to curious, talkative tourists, squeezed into the narrow passage that helped spark the worst explosion of violence between Israelis and Palestinians in years.

Many analysts have warned here that unless the U.S.-sponsored talks show quick, concrete progress, the fighting that left more than 70 dead and hundreds of others injured last week could erupt again.

But if fear were keeping some away from Jerusalem’s Old City and its many holy sites, it was not apparent Monday near the Western Wall, where the controversial 534-yard tunnel begins.

“People are waiting eight months already,” said a breathless employee of the Israeli Ministry of Religious Affairs. “Everyone wants to come in.”

Not everyone. Palestinian and Muslim leaders, as well as thousands of demonstrators in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and predominantly Arab East Jerusalem, reacted with outrage to the news last week.

In the early hours last Wednesday, Israeli workers, under police guard, used heavy equipment to cut through the last few feet of stone to install a metal door that opens onto the Via Dolorosa, where Christian tradition maintains that Jesus took his final steps.

Palestinians argue that the tunnel, which hugs the western foundation of the area known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as Haram al Sharif, could weaken the underpinnings of the two mosques that rise above the mount - Al-Aqsa and the gold-topped Dome of the Rock.

Israeli officials dismiss the claims and point out that the tunnel, which has been all but complete for five years, runs alongside but not under the Islamic sites.

Still, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who personally authorized the work on the tunnel’s final section, could not have chosen a more sensitive spot in this most disputed of cities, where moving a few stones can provoke disputes.

Further, the Temple Mount - with both the mosques and the Western Wallstands at the convergence of the religious and national aspirations of Muslims and Jews.

Israeli officials said the main reason for completing the tunnel was to allow thousands more tourists each year to view its wonders.

But their underlying message was also clear: The Israelis hold sway over Jerusalem, which Israel views as its undivided, eternal capital, and where Palestinians hope one day to place the capital of their own independent state.