From the southern end of the plaza in front of Jerusalem's Western Wall, a temporary wooden bridge ascends eastward to the Mughrabi Gate, the only one of the 11 gates into the Temple Mount area that is accessible to non-Muslims. Millions of tourists and pilgrims use the bridge and the gate every year. In early December, Jerusalem's municipal engineer warned, yet again, that the wooden Mughrabi Bridge posed an imminent danger of fire and collapse. Municipal authorities ordered it closed. In a normal city this would have been government doing what it should do—protecting the public.
But this is Jerusalem, where every action begets an unequal reaction and no deed, good or bad, goes unpunished. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu swiftly intervened to re-open the bridge and postpone its demolition in favor of a permanent structure. Jerusalem's mayor reacted angrily, decrying the government's "helplessness in dealing with this hazardous and dilapidated nuisance at the heart of the Western Wall." A Hamas spokesman called the bridge closure "a violent act that amounts to a declaration of religious war on the Muslim holy places in Jerusalem." Sheikh Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, made the bridge an issue in Egypt's parliamentary elections. In Jerusalem, municipal affairs regularly beget international crises.
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