Israel starts excavation work near Al-Aqsa

Israeli authorities on Wednesday started excavation work in and around Jerusalem's old city, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said Thursday. Israeli bulldozers started digging in the Moroccan quarter, adjacent to the Haram al-Sharif compound, the foundation said in a statement. Construction work to create new pools was also seen taking place south of the Al-Aqsa mosque, the foundation added, noting that the work is part of Israeli plans to Judaize Palestinian neighborhoods in the city. The Israeli Interior Ministry gave initial approval to a tourist center in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan on Monday. The 9,000-square-meter Kedem Center, which will contain exhibition areas, an events hall, underground parking and other facilities for tourists, was slammed by the Arab Studies Society as part of the government's efforts to Judaize the city. Also Monday, Israel's Interior Ministry granted a right-wing settler organization control of a spring in the neighborhood of Silwan. "It is unfortunate that in East Jerusalem tourism and archaeology are being used as a tool of settlements and the control of Palestinian neighborhoods," Hagit Ofran, settlement director at Israeli NGO Peace Now, told Ma'an. Silwan -- adjacent to the Old City's Dome of the Rock compound and Western Wall -- is populated by a number of settler homes under heavy Israeli guard, and the site of frequent clashes with forces on arrest raids targeting the Palestinian population. Israel annexed East Jerusalem -- regarded as the capital of a future Palestinian state -- after a 1967 war, a move never recognized by the international community.