Mon 01 July 2019:
US envoys have wielded hammers to break open a new tunnel at a Jewish heritage site in East Jerusalem, signalling Washington’s support for Israel’s hold over parts of the city that Palestinians seek for a future state. Palestinians – who view the project and settlement activities in the Silwan district as moves by Israel to further cement control over areas it captured in the 1967 Middle East war – called the US presence at the event a hostile act.
Two of President Donald Trump’s top Middle East advisers – peace envoy Jason Greenblatt and ambassador to Israel David Friedman – on Sunday came to the opening of an excavated road that Israeli archaeologists say was used by Jewish pilgrims to Jerusalem two millennia ago. The “Pilgrims’ Road” site is part of the City of David, an open-air Jewish archaeological attraction built within Silwan through purchases of Palestinian-owned property that have at times been contested in court.
After his speech, Friedman, along with Greenblatt, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s wife Sara and donors to the project, enthusiastically hammered through a wall to open the subterranean path to the holy site revered by Jews as the Temple Mount and by Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary. “This is not a US ambassador, (it) is an extremist Israeli settler, with Greenblatt also there, digging underneath Silwan, a Palestinian town,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat wrote on Twitter. The project is co-sponsored by a Jewish settlement group and Israel’s Antiquities and Nature and Parks authorities.
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