JERUSALEM, January 25, 2011 (WAFA) - Deputy director of the Israeli Antiquities Authority Uzi Dahari last night announced the completion of drilling a tunnel which runs from the Jerusalem Arab neighborhood of Silwan to an area near Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Dahari claimed that “there is no political agenda behind the tunnel,” insisting that “it is a result of archaeological excavations, as permitted by law.”

Dimitry Diliani, member of Fatah Revolutionary Council, rejected the Israeli archaeological claims, saying that the invoked law by the Antiquities Authority in Israel “is only an illegal cover for a political scheme that violates international laws and the national, religious and historical rights of the Palestinian people in their occupied homeland.”

He stressed that the digging of tunnels in Silwan and under al-Haram al-Sharif, which includes Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock, “aims to create a structural link between the sites of the so-called City of David and Al-Aqsa Mosque in a step towards building the temple and expelling the residents of Silwan.”

Diliani said the Israeli authority received a large amount of money from settler organizations such as Elad, that aim to fund Jewish projects in Jerusalem, including building tunnels.

The announced completion is only part of a tunnel network which stretches 100 meters below Silwan and moves toward Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Diliani warned that these tunnels constitute a direct threat to Al-Aqsa Mosque due to the cracks made in the western and southern wall of Al-Aqsa near the Israeli excavations. Part of a UN girls’ school located in the vicinity of the southern wall collapsed in February 2009.

The Israeli High Court rejected a petition in September 2009 by the residents of Silwan to stop digging the tunnel and lifted a temporary ban that was imposed on the digging the tunnel for a year.

 Y.Y.