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<< Our Photo Pages >> Temple Mount - Ancient Temple in Israel

Submitted by Andy B on Monday, 20 December 2010  Page Views: 18134

Roman, Greek and ClassicalSite Name: Temple Mount Alternative Name: Mount Moriah, The Wailing Wall, Western Wall, The Noble Sanctuary
Country: Israel Type: Ancient Temple
Nearest Town: Jerusalem
Latitude: 31.777611N  Longitude: 35.235500E
Condition:
5Perfect
4Almost Perfect
3Reasonable but with some damage
2Ruined but still recognisable as an ancient site
1Pretty much destroyed, possibly visible as crop marks
0No data.
-1Completely destroyed
3 Ambience:
5Superb
4Good
3Ordinary
2Not Good
1Awful
0No data.
4 Access:
5Can be driven to, probably with disabled access
4Short walk on a footpath
3Requiring a bit more of a walk
2A long walk
1In the middle of nowhere, a nightmare to find
0No data.
4 Accuracy:
5co-ordinates taken by GPS or official recorded co-ordinates
4co-ordinates scaled from a detailed map
3co-ordinates scaled from a bad map
2co-ordinates of the nearest village
1co-ordinates of the nearest town
0no data
5

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Average ratings for this site from all visit loggers: Ambience: 4.33 Access: 4

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by davidmorgan : The Temple Mount seen from the Mount of Olives. Photo by PB. (Vote or comment on this photo)
Ancient Temple in Jerusalem. The Temple Mount is a religious site in the Old City of Jerusalem. According to Jewish tradition, it was from here that the world expanded into its present form and from where God gathered the dust used to create the first man, Adam. It was the place God chose to "dwell", hence the construction of two Jewish Temples at the site. Traditionally, it is believed that a Third and final Temple will also be located here. The Mount is considered the holiest site in Judaism and due to this, many Jews will not set foot on the Mount itself.

Among Muslims, the Mount is widely considered to be the third holiest site in Islam. Revered as the Noble Sanctuary and the destination of Muhammad's journey to Jerusalem and ascent to heaven, the site is also associated with Jewish biblical prophets who are also venerated in Islam. The al-Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock, the oldest extant Islamic structure in the world, currently stand on the site.

In light of the dual claims of both the Islamic and Jewish faiths, it is one of the most contested religious sites in the world. Controlled by Israel since 1967, both Israel and the Palestinian Authority claim sovereignty over the site, which remains a major focal point of the Arab-Israeli conflict. A Muslim council, known as the Muslim Waqf, manages the site. The Israeli government enforces a controversial ban on prayer by non-Muslim visitors.

The hill is believed to have been inhabited since the 4th millennium BCE. Its southern section was walled at the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE, in around 1850 BCE, by Canaanites who established a settlement there (or in the vicinity) named Jebus. According to the Bible, it was this city that King David captured in around 1000 BCE and renamed the City of David. David intended to build a sanctuary to God, as the first temple of the Israelites in Jerusalem, outside the city walls on the northern edge of the hill. He purchased the area, which the Bible refers to as Mount Moriah, from Araunah who owned the site. David's son Solomon completed the task of erecting the First Temple at the site in 960 BCE. Solomon’s Temple was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon in 586 BCE.

The Western Wall commonly refers to an 187 feet (57 m) exposed section of ancient wall situated on the western flank of the Temple Mount. This section faces a large plaza and is set aside for prayer. In its entirety, however, the above ground portion of the Western Wall stretches for 1,600 feet (488 m)

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Note: Kings of Controversy. Was the kingdom of David and Solomon a glorious empire, or just a little town? It depends on which archaeologist you ask.
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Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by Megalithic89 : Jerusalem Temple Mount, Dome of the Rocks and Al-Aqsa Mosque, Flight of 1934 (C) ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Bildarchiv/Stiftung Luftbild Schweiz / Fotograf: Mittelholzer, Walter / LBS_MH02-22-0022 / Public Domain Mark (Vote or comment on this photo)

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by durhamnature : Drawing of the temple from archive.org Site in Israel (Vote or comment on this photo)

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by davidmorgan : The Wailing Wall and the Temple Mount. Photo by PB. (Vote or comment on this photo)

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by durhamnature : Drawing of Wilson's Arch, under the Temple, from "Antiquities of the Orient" via archive,org Site in Israel (Vote or comment on this photo)

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by durhamnature : Drawing of The Noble Cave, under the Temple, from "Antiquities of the Orient" via archive,org Site in Israel (Vote or comment on this photo)

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by durhamnature : Drawing of fountain, from "Antiquities of the Orient" via archive,org Site in Israel

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by durhamnature : Drawing of the Temple Mount 'in King Solomon's days', from "Antiquities of the Orient" via archive.org Site in Israel

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by motist : Temple Mount Rare First Temple-era scroll exposes earliest Hebrew mention of Jerusalem

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by durhamnature : Photo of the Golden Gate from archive.org Site in Israel

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by durhamnature : Drawing of the Great Quarry, under the Temple, from "Antiquities of the Orient" via archive,org Site in Israel

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by durhamnature : Plan drawing of the Great Quarry, under the City, from "Antiquities of the Orient" via archive,org Site in Israel

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by durhamnature : Drawing of King Solomon's Cisterns, from "Antiquities of the Orient" via archive,org Site in Israel

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by durhamnature : 1872 painting of the Temple Mount, from "Antiquities of the Orient" via archive.org Site in Israel

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by durhamnature : Drawing of the 'Wailing Wall' from "History of Egypt" via archive.org Site in Israel

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by durhamnature : Old plan drawing, from "Cyclopedia of..." via archive.org Site in Israel

Temple Mount
Temple Mount submitted by Andy B : Aerial photo captured from a WW2 reconnaissance flight. From the forthcoming book by Col. Roy M. Stanley II By kind permission of Col. Stanley

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 404m S 173° City of David* Ancient Village or Settlement
 584m S 178° Hezekiah's Tunnel* Ancient Mine, Quarry or other Industry
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 3.5km SSW 210° Talpiot Tomb Rock Cut Tomb
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"Temple Mount" | Login/Create an Account | 7 News and Comments
  
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Sifting for Temple Mount artifacts halts as funding dries up by motist on Wednesday, 05 April 2017
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Temple Mount Sifting Project announces it’s ‘on the verge of closure’ after 13 years of operations; seeks state, public assistance after City of David pulls support
Efforts to find artifacts buried in soil removed from Jerusalem’s Temple Mount in the 1990s have ground to a halt following financial cutbacks, the project’s directors announced Sunday.
The Temple Mount Sifting Project said it was “on the verge of closure” after the Ir David Foundation pulled its financial support after 12 years. “In the absence of funding we won’t be able to continue searching for archaeological fragments,” it said.
The Temple Mount Sifting Project said it was “on the verge of closure” after the Ir David Foundation pulled its financial support after 12 years. “In the absence of funding we won’t be able to continue searching for archaeological fragments,” it said.
Over a quarter of a million volunteers from around the world have taken part in hosing down bucketfuls of soil from the Temple Mount and picking out minute objects since the project began.

Most of the tens of thousands of items found in the pans by volunteers are small — an abundance of coins, innumerable fragments of clay, figurines, brightly colored mosaic tiles and beads, arrowheads, inscribed stones and bits of bone. Barkay has highlighted clay figurines smashed during the time of the just kings of Judah, seal impressions with the names of priests mentioned in the book of Jeremiah, and coins minted during the rein of King Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who fought the Maccabees.
Other finds include rare coins, like a half-shekel minted in the first year of the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome in 66 CE; a seal impression left in clay, from the 6th century BCE bearing the name of a Judean official; and golden mosaic tiles from the early Islamic period which once decorated the Dome of the Rock’s exterior before it was renovated. Last year, it was announced that an ancient Egyptian amulet had been found in the soil.

The Temple Mount Sifting Project issued a statement on Sunday announcing the halt of operations, citing “lack of funding and differences between the directors of the Sifting Project and the Ir David Foundation.”

A year after sifting began, the Temple Mount Sifting Project was adopted by the Ir David Foundation. Ir David agreed to cover the expenses of operating the sifting project, while Barkay’s research lab remained financed by private donations.

Ir David, also known by its Hebrew acronym Elad, has been criticized for supposedly having an agenda of Judaizing areas of East Jerusalem with historic Jewish links and emphasizing Jewish historical narratives at the expense of over 1,300 years of Islamic history.

The Ir David Foundation halted the sifting a fortnight ago, and we cannot continue our relationship with them,” the Temple Mount Sifting Project said. “We will not resume the sifting until the publication of research on the finds that we have already recovered has been fully funded and completed. We do plan to do so later on and we are aiming to have it under the auspices of the state.”

At the same time, the organization’s staff said that “Ir David will continue to sift archaeological material at Emek Tzurim through the Antiquities Authority, but it will not be related to our project in any way.”
A spokesman for Ir David confirmed that the organization was no longer funding the sifting project.

“About 12 years ago the Ir David organization helped save the earth that was excavated from the Temple Mount,” Ze’ev Orenstein said. “Since that time the group voluntarily funded the sifting, processing and research of the earth to the tune of millions of shekels. We hope that a way will be found for this national and international project to continue.”

He gave no reason for ending the funding.

Despite efforts to gain governmental funding, the proj

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Rare First Temple-era scroll exposes earliest Hebrew mention of Jerusalem by motist on Wednesday, 26 October 2016
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IAA announces finding of extra-biblical document, written in ancient Hebrew script dated back to the 7th Century BCE
On the same day UNESCO ignoring Jewish ties to the Temple Mount, the Israel Antiquities Authority on Wednesday displayed an unprecedented document containing a reference to Jerusalem from the First Temple period.
Written in ancient Hebrew script, and dating back to the Kingdom of Judah during the 7th century BCE, the rare relic made of papyrus is the earliest extra-Biblical source to mention Jerusalem in Hebrew writing.
Plundered from one of the Judean Desert caves by a band of antiquities robbers, the document was seized in a complex operation by the IAA’s Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery.

According to IAA Director Israel Hasson, two lines of ancient Hebrew were preserved on the document made from the pith of the papyrus plant. (The Jerusalem Post)
“A paleographic examination of the letters and a C14 analysis determined that the artifact should be dated to the 7th century BCE, to the end of the First Temple period,” said Hasson.

“Most of the letters are clearly legible, and the proposed reading of the text appears as follows: .ירשלמה[מא]מת. המלך. מנערתה. נבלים. יין. (“From the king’s maidservant, from Naʽarat, jars of wine, to Jerusalem.”)
It was subsequently determined that the antiquity is an original shipping document from the time of the First Temple, indicating the payment of taxes or transfer of goods to storehouses in Jerusalem, Hasson said.
“The document specifies the status of the sender of the shipment (the king’s maidservant); the name of the settlement from which the shipment was dispatched (Naʽarat); the contents of the vessels (wine); their number or amount (jars) and their destination (Jerusalem),” said Hasson.

“Naʽartah, which is mentioned in the text, is the same Naʽarat that is referred to in the description of the border between Ephraim and Benjamin in Joshua 16:7: ‘And it went down from Janohah to Ataroth, and to Naʽarat, and came to Jericho, and went out at Jordan,’” he added.

Dr. Eitan Klein, deputy director of the IAA’s Unit for the Prevention of Antiquities Robbery, said the document represents extremely rare evidence of the existence of an organized administration in the Kingdom of Judah.

“It underscores the centrality of Jerusalem as the economic capital of the kingdom in the second half of the 7th century BCE,” he said.“According to the Bible, the kings Menashe, Amon, or Josiah ruled in Jerusalem at this time; however, it is not possible to know for certain which of the kings of Jerusalem was the recipient of the shipment of wine.”

Hasson said the discovery of the papyrus shows “that there are other artifacts of tremendous importance to our heritage that are waiting to be found in the Judean Desert caves.”

Still, he warned that thieves selling such findings on the black market are extricating them at an alarming rate.

“The world’s heritage assets are being plundered on a daily basis by antiquities robbers solely for greed,” cautioned Hasson.

“The State has to mobilize and allocate the necessary resources in order to embark upon a historic operation together with the public, and carry out systematic excavations in all of the Judean Desert caves.”

Preliminary results of the research findings will be presented Thursday at the Innovations in the Archaeology of Jerusalem and its Region Conference, which will be held on the Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

The event is open to the public.
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Seal bearing name of Judean king found in Jerusalem by Andy B on Wednesday, 02 December 2015
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A seal impressed with ‘Hezekiah [son of] Ahaz, king of Judah,’ has been unearthed next to Temple Mount, and is decorated with Egyptian motifs.

More details here
http://www.megalithic.co.uk/article.php?sid=2146414257
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Temple Mount authority accused of dumping antiquities by bat400 on Wednesday, 02 October 2013
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The Muslim authority managing the Temple Mount on Sunday dumped tons of unexamined earth and stones excavated from the holy site into a municipal dump, in violation of a High Court injunction, Maariv reported on Monday.

Israel’s top court in September 2004 prohibited removal of earth from the Temple Mount and ruled that, should it be necessary, the Antiquities Authority must be notified a month in advance so it may examine the earth for artifacts.

Jews regard the Temple Mount as their holiest site, where the First and Second Temple were located. Muslims call it the Noble Sanctuary and regard it as their third holiest site after Mecca and Medina. According to the existing arrangement, the Jerusalem Islamic Waqf, or trust, administers the Temple Mount complex.

Despite the High Court of Justice’s ruling, the Waqf has reportedly removed large piles of dirt from the Temple Mount in recent years and dumped them in the valley east of the Old City walls, provoking an outcry from biblical archaeologists and Jewish groups.

Tzachi Dvira, the archaeologist managing the team that sifts through soil excavated from the Temple Mount, told Maariv that mounds of earth containing historic relics were carted off and dumped on Sunday without notification and before archaeologists could investigate them.

Police claimed the removal of the soil was coordinated in advance. Dvira, however, said there were no Antiquities Authority officials on site, and the one police officer monitoring the operation had no idea of its significance.

Dvira claimed Waqf workers exploited a permit for removing construction waste from renovations done at the al-Aqsa Mosque on the site, which also contains the Dome of the Rock, in order to cart off artifact-laden earth from the Temple Mount.

He stated that official oversight of earth removal from the Temple Mount has grown lax in recent years, and said that “the fact that no one has succeeded in stopping the Waqf’s destructive actions raises many doubts about the role of the government in this matter.”

Soil from the Temple Mount that had been removed to the Kidron Valley in recent years has yielded “tens of thousands of finds, including signet rings from the First Temple era, painted floor tiles from the Second Temple era, ancient gold coins, and horseshoe nails and arrowheads belonging to the Knights Templar, who stabled their horses in Solomon’s Stables,” Dvira said.

archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.co.uk
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Building remains from First Temple period exposed west of Temple Mount by Andy B on Tuesday, 19 March 2013
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Submitted by coldrum on Sunday, 23 March 2008

In an excavation being carried out by the Israel Antiquities Authority in partnership with the Western Wall Heritage Foundation in the northwestern part of the Western Wall plaza a rich layer of finds from the latter part of the First Temple period was recently discovered. Also found was a seal that bears an inscription in ancient Hebrew which reads: [belonging] to Netanyahu ben Yaush.

A rich layer of finds from the latter part of the First Temple period (8th-6th centuries BCE) was recently discovered in archaeological salvage excavations that are being carried out in the northwestern part of the Western Wall plaza, c. 100 meters west of the Temple Mount.

In the excavations, which the Israel Antiquties Authority has been conducting for the past two years under the direction of archaeologists Shlomit Wexler-Bdoulah and Alexander Onn, in cooperation with the Western Wall Heritage Foundation, remains of a magnificent colonnaded street from the Late Roman period (2nd century CE) were uncovered that appears on the mosaic Madaba map and is referred to by the name - the Eastern Cardo. The level of the Eastern Cardo is paved with large heavy limestone pavers that were set directly on top of the layer that dates to the end of the First Temple period. Thus the Roman road "seals" beneath it the finds from the First Temple period and has protected them from being plundered in later periods.

This is actually the first time in the history of the archaeological research of Jerusalem that building remains from the First Temple period were exposed so close to the Temple Mount - on the eastern slopes of the Upper City. The walls of the buildings are preserved to a height of more than 2 meters.

Another impressive artifact that was found in the salvage excavations is a that was apparently inlaid in a ring. The scarab-like seal is elliptical and measures c. 1.1 cm x 1.4 cm. The surface of the seal is divided into three strips separated by a double line: in the upper strip is a chain decoration in which there are four pomegranates and in the two bottom strips is the name of the owner of the seal, engraved in ancient Hebrew script. It reads: לנתניהו בן יאש ([belonging] to Netanyahu ben Yaush).

The two names are known in the treasury of biblical names: the name נתניהו (Netanyahu) is mentioned a number of times in the Bible (in the Book of Jeremiah and in Chronicles) and the name יאש (Yaush) appears in the Lachish letters. The name Yaush, like the name יאשיהו (Yoshiyahu) is, in the opinion of Professor Shmuel Ahituv, derived from the root או"ש which means “he gave a present” (based on Arabic and Ugaritic). It is customary to assume that the owners of personal seals were people that held senior governmental positions.

It should nevertheless be emphasized that this combination of names - נתניהו בן יאוש (Netanyahu ben Yaush) - was unknown until now.

In addition to the personal seal, a vast amount of pottery vessels was discovered, among them three jar handles that bear LMLK stamped impressions. An inscription written in ancient Hebrew script is preserved on one these impressions and it reads: למלך חברון ([belonging] to the king of Hebron).

These finds, as well as the numerous fertility and animal figurines, are characteristic of the Kingdom of Judah in the latter part of the First Temple period - the end of the 8th century BCE to the destruction of the Temple in the year 586 BCE.

Source (with photo): MFA
http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/History/Early+History+-+Archaeology/Building+remains+from+First+Temple+period+exposed+west+of+Temple+Mount+13-Mar-2008.htm?DisplayMode
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David and Solomon - Kings of Controversy by Andy B on Monday, 20 December 2010
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Was the Kingdom of David and Solomon a glorious empire—or just a little cow town? It depends on which archaeologist you ask.

The woman sitting on a bench in the Old City of Jerusalem, round-faced and bundled up against the autumn chill, chews on an apple while studying the building that has brought her both fame and aggravation. It doesn't really look like a building—just some low stone walls abutting an ancient terraced retaining wall 60 feet high. But because the woman is an archaeologist, and because this is her discovery, her eyes see what others might not. She sees the building's position, on a northern escarpment of the ancient city overlooking Jerusalem's Kidron Valley, and she imagines an ideal perch from which to survey a kingdom. She imagines the Phoenician carpenters and stonemasons who erected it in the tenth century B.C. She imagines as well the Babylonians who destroyed it four centuries later. Most of all, she imagines the man she believes commissioned and occupied the building. His name was David. This, she has declared to the world, is most likely the building described in the Second Book of Samuel: "King Hiram of Tyre sent … carpenters and masons, and they built a house for David. And David realized that the Lord had established him as king over Israel, and that He had exalted his kingdom for the sake of His people Israel."

The woman's name is Eilat Mazar. Munching and gazing, she is the picture of equanimity—until a tour guide shows up. He's a young Israeli man accompanied by a half dozen tourists who assemble in front of the bench so they can view the building. The moment he opens his mouth, Mazar knows what's coming. The tour guide is a former archaeology student of hers. She's heard how he brings tourists to this spot and informs them that this is NOT the palace of David and that all the archaeological work at the City of David is a way for right-wing Israelis to expand the country's territorial claims and displace Palestinians.

Mazar jumps up from the bench and marches over to the tour guide. She chews him out in a staccato of Hebrew, while he stares passively at her. The gaping tourists watch her stalk off.

"You really need to be strong," she mutters as she walks. "It's like everyone wants to destroy what you do." And then, more plaintively: "Why? What did we do wrong?"

Read more at
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2010/12/david-and-solomon/draper-text
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Israeli police clash with Palestinians in Jerusalem's Old City by Andy B on Sunday, 28 February 2010
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The most serious unrest in Jerusalem's sacred Old City in five months came after days of disturbances in the West Bank triggered by a declaration that two Jewish shrines on Palestinian territory would be declared Israeli heritage sites.

At least 14 protestors and four policemen were hurt during the clashes as battles raged both in the winding alleyways of Jerusalem's walled Old City and at the hilltop compound of the al-Aqsa mosque where the trouble first started.

According to Israeli police, Palestinian protesters inside the al-Aqsa mosque, held by Muslims to mark the spot that the Prophet Mohammed ascended into Heaven, threw stones at a group of tourists visiting the compound.

The youths believed the tourists to be Jewish radicals intent on reclaiming the compound, which also houses the Dome of the Rock, for Israel.

Marking the spot where the two Hebrew temples of antiquity once stood, the compound is venerated by both the Jews, who call it the Temple Mount, and by Muslims, for whom it is the Haram al-Sharif, or Noble Sanctuary.

The clashes erupted on the Jewish holiday of Purim, which commemorates the deliverance of the Israelites from the Persian vizier Haman.

Some Jewish spiritual leaders have called on their followers to increase their presence on the compound on festival days as part of a campaign one day to rebuild the Temple. Such calls have been condemned by most Israeli religious and political leaders.

The entry of Israeli forces into the compound to quell the disturbances was condemned both by Palestinian leaders and by the Jordanian monarch, Abdullah II.

"Israel's unilateral measures are very provocative and seek to change the identity of Jerusalem, threatening peace efforts in the region," the king said.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader in the West Bank, last week warned Israel that it risked sparking a "religious war" after Benjamin Netanyahu, its prime minister, placed the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron and Bethlehem's tomb of Rachel on a list of Israeli protected sites.

Partitioned into Muslim and Jewish sections, the building housing the Tomb of the Patriarchs is a historical flashpoint between Israelis and Palestinians. On the Purim holiday 16 years ago, a Jewish settler entered the Muslim side and shot dead 29 Palestinians at prayer.

Source:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/7339128/Israeli-police-clash-with-Palestinians-in-Jerusalems-Old-City.html
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