Former Israel Chief Rabbi accused of wanting Jerusalem mosque blown up

An Israeli newspaper has quoted the army commander who captured the Jerusalem Old City in 1967 - and who died two weeks ago - as saying that the chief army rabbi at the time urged him to blow up the Dome of the Rock Mosque.

The Ha'aretz newspaper quotes the late General Uzi Narkiss as saying in an interview in May that he told Rabbi Shlomo Goren he would put him in prison if he didn't desist.

Rabbi Goren, who later became Israel's Chief Rabbi and died in 1994, then walked away in silence.

The paper says General Narkiss stipulated that the interview was not to be published until after his death.The site of the mosque - known to Jews as the Temple Mount - is sacred to Muslims and Jews alike.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service