diff --git a/src/script/ant b/src/script/ant
index b5ed5be6a..6baf1212b 100644
--- a/src/script/ant
+++ b/src/script/ant
@@ -35,7 +35,8 @@ for arg in "$@" ; do
     if [  my"$arg" = my"-h"  -o  my"$arg" = my"-help" ] ; then
       show_help=true
     fi
-    ant_exec_args="$ant_exec_args \"$arg\""
+    # wrap all arguments as "" strings, escape any internal back-slash or double-quote characters
+    ant_exec_args="$ant_exec_args \"$(printf '%s' "$arg" | sed -e 's@"\|\\@\\\0@g' )\""
   fi
 done
 
@@ -329,8 +330,9 @@ else
     ant_sys_opts="-Djikes.class.path=\"$JIKESPATH\""
   fi
 fi
-ant_exec_command="exec \"$JAVACMD\" $ANT_OPTS -classpath \"$LOCALCLASSPATH\" -Dant.home=\"$ANT_HOME\" -Dant.library.dir=\"$ANT_LIB\" $ant_sys_opts org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher $ANT_ARGS -cp \"$CLASSPATH\""
+ant_exec_command="exec \"\$JAVACMD\" $ANT_OPTS -classpath \"\$LOCALCLASSPATH\" -Dant.home=\"\$ANT_HOME\" -Dant.library.dir=\"\$ANT_LIB\" $ant_sys_opts org.apache.tools.ant.launch.Launcher $ANT_ARGS -cp \"\$CLASSPATH\""
 if $ant_exec_debug ; then
     echo $ant_exec_command $ant_exec_args
 fi
-eval $ant_exec_command "$ant_exec_args"
+
+eval $ant_exec_command $ant_exec_args