Settlers braking into the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque

 

Occupied Jerusalem (QNN)- 

Dozens Israeli settlers broke into the courtyards of the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the occupied Jerusalem earlier on Thursday.

Under the occupation forces protection, over 80 Israeli settlers broke into the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque during the morning break-in session.

It is reprehensible that among the intruders was a former Israeli member of the Knesset, Rabbi Yehudah Glick, who had an interview with two journalists identified themselves as from the United States and Britain. Like any lover of God he should know that a person may not desecrate a prayer house. He as a religious man should know that Muslims also pray to the Only One True God and as such come together in the mosque to honour the Elohim Hashem Jehovah. Even when the prayers may not be like the ones a religious group or a certain Jewish denomination may use, does not mean the other prayers would be wrong or even unacceptable.

The setters entered through the Al-Mughrabi Gate, and till now, they are provoking the Palestinian worshipers in the mosque courtyards by performing Talmudic prayers.

Israeli forces always attack and assault Palestinian worshipers at the courtyards of the Mosque with sound grenades, rubber bullets and pepper gas.

The forces also station at the gates of the mosque and detain dozens of Palestinian young men and boys, after assaulting them.

Israeli occupation authorities allow settler incursions to the mosque since 2003, despite repeated objections and warnings by the Palestinian religious authorities as the visits provoke worshippers of the mosque.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is the third holiest site in Islam which located in occupied Jerusalem.

Zionist Attempt to undermine the presence of the Christian community

14 years ago a Zionist organisation called Ateret Cohanim obtained the properties in Christian Jerusalem by using foreign-based third parties as intermediaries to secretly buy the properties from the Greek Orthodox patriarchate.

The attempted sale has been subject to a legal dispute for the past fourteen years but on 10th June the Israeli Supreme Court rubber-stamped the sale in favour of the Zionists.

Getting more Christian properties of which most of them were hotels used by Christians, lesser Christian visitors will be having a place to sleep and visit the city, giving more room to the Zionist settlers.

The Christian Patriarchs of the Holy Land and heads of other churches including the Anglicans and Lutherans have issued a joint statement condemning this deceitful sale of hotels in the Christian quarter of Jerusalem to what the Patriarchs described as an “extremist group” of Zionist settlers.
They warned

“The actions of this radical group do not only mean an assault on the property rights of the Greek Orthodox Church, but an assault on the status quo protections for all Christians in this holy city of Jerusalem and deeply threatens the Christian presence in our beloved Holy Land.”

“An attempt to undermine the presence of one Church here undermines all the Churches and the wider Christian community around the world. We reaffirm our belief that a vibrant Christian community is an essential element in the preservation of Jerusalem’s historically diverse society and a prerequisite for peace in this city.”

WWW on our position 50 years after Israel captured Jerusalem during the Six Day War.

English: Children in the shelter at Kibbutz Dan in the Six Day War עברית: ילדים במקלט בקיבוץ דן במלחמת ששת הימים, Original Image Name:ילדים במקלט, Location:דן (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The 7th of June 1967 was when Israel captured Jerusalem during the Six Day War.
On June 28, 1967 the Knesset (the Israeli government) amended the law of 1950, which proclaimed Jerusalem as Israel's capital, to reflect the newly defined boundaries post the Six Day War. Therefore, for the first time since AD70 Israeli law extended to cover all parts of Jerusalem. This was the exact date therefore when the Jews had sovereign control over ALL of Jerusalem.

Israel was a nation on the verge of extinction 50 years ago today.
She existed in a constant state of siege, surrounded by Arab countries united in one cause: destroying the Jewish state. Her neighbours had more soldiers, more arms, more backing and more, it seemed, of everything. The US was a lukewarm friend; America refused to sell weapons to Israel after its involvement in the Suez Crisis in 1956. The Soviets, on the other hand, armed their Arab allies with billions of dollars of weapons. Many thought it a military miracle that Israel still existed. All that changed with the Six-Day War, which began 50 years ago tomorrow. On June 5, 1967, the Israeli air force launched a pre-emptive strike against Egypt’s airfields and a simultaneous ground invasion of its territory. The Arab states counterattacked, but were swiftly overwhelmed. By June 10, Israel had occupied the Sinai, East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights.

The 50th anniversary from a Hebrew calendar point of view though falls on Weds 14th June 2017. This week Andy Walton did a special public presentation in Bristol on the significance of these events back in 1967 and showed how they are part of the plan of God that is leading to the return of Jesus to this earth.

 If you would like to watch this presentation please Click Here to view.
Find the Weekly World Watch for the beginning of June 2017

In this weeks WWW

* Wounded May vows to stay as UK Prime Minister

* Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE  & Bahrain cut ties to Qatar

* Iran offers Qatar use of its ports as Gulf blockade bites

* Iran accuses US, Saudis of supporting Tehran attacks

* US sends B-52 bombers for exercises near Russia

* Fifty year anniversary of the Six-Day War 

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1967 Six Day War Fifty years later in view

Find Andy Walton focusing on the city of Jerusalem and the Jewish people their temple of Solomon and on the root place of Christianity. 

June 1967 6 day war is still in our mind. We were called from the class to watch television because it was thought at that time the third world war had started.

So we present first the docudrama by Gordon Robertson, son of the outspoken conservative televangelist Pat Robertson, who remembers being nine years old when his Southern Baptist pastor father sat the family down, Bibles at their side, to read and understand the ramifications of Israel’s recent victory in the 1967 Six Day War.

“He wanted to emphasize that not too many times in your life do you get to say, a prophecy just got fulfilled,”

 he said.

 “This isn’t just a prophecy from the Old Testament, this is a prophecy from the New Testament as well, that just happened.”

Robertson has been sharing these personal anecdotes with the press as he publicizes his latest Christian Broadcasting Network project, “In Our Hands,” a 108-minute docudrama created by CBN Documentaries to mark the 50th anniversary of the Six Day War.

Robertson, a Yale graduate and attorney who is now CEO of the Christian Broadcasting Network and a co-host on the long-running Christian talk show “The 700 Club” created by his father, was in Israel this week to screen the film after showing it in the US and then at the EU in Brussels.

The docudrama is interspersed with filmed scenes of Israeli actors playing the roles of paratroopers, IDF generals and political leaders in a panoply of scenes that are heavy on drama and virtual drumrolls. 

A filmed scene from ‘In Our Hands,’ a Christian Broadcasting Network docudrama about the Six Day War (Courtesy CBN)

However, it’s the recorded interviews with IDF veterans, somewhat reminiscent of “The Gatekeepers,” Dror Moreh’s award-winning 2012 film about Shin Bet directors, that offer the most impact, as the veterans, now older men, describe the events of that fateful week and relate what the experience felt like for them.

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Collapse of the proposed compromise over the Kotel

Women of the Wall and liberal Orthodox circles have not let up in their battle to hold prayers at the wall as they wish in the main Western Wall plaza, which is under the auspices of the chief rabbi of the Western Wall, and which a government plan defines as following Orthodox custom.

On Thursday morning a group of women held a prayer service in the women’s section of the main Kotel area. Their attempts to smuggle in a Torah scroll into the area were stopped, and police detained a man who attempted to remove a Torah scroll from the men’s section and hand it to the women on their side of the gender divider.

Read more:

With Western Wall Prayer Deal Dead, Orthodox Stake Brazen Claim to Egalitarian Area

As the government ignores the question of opening the Western Wall to non-Orthodox denominations dozens of Orthodox Jewish worshippers are establishing facts on the ground by holding festive holiday prayer services everyday in the section of the Western Wall, or Kotel, that had been intended for non-Orthodox prayer.

Demonstrative Orthodox services are being held at the Robinson’s Arch compound a few times daily, as a result of a public relations campaign by religious Zionist bodies.

These prayer sessions are perfectly legal and violate no rules, as long as no “local custom” has been established for the new compound.

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Shuafat and Arad Judahite literate places

Though in the Chalcolithic period humans were still using stone tools, they also began to create high-level ceramics and for the first time, copper tools as well, plus from findings found at the old Arad showed that there might have been a high literacy rate in Judah at the end of the First Temple period

The Chalcolithic period is by some considered a bridge between antiquity and modern human communal existence.

While scholars agree that key biblical texts were written starting in the 7th century BCE, the exact date of the compilation of these books remains in question.

A profusion of literate individuals in Judah may have set the stage for the compilation of biblical works that constitute the basis of Judahite history and theology, such as the early version of the books of Deuteronomy to Second Kings, according to the researchers of the Tel Aviv University who published some new resutls from excavations in the old city of Arad.

As far back as 7,000 years ago there were settlements in Jerusalem.
A dig in the annexed east Jerusalem neighbourhood Shuafat revealed two homes with parts of walls and floors intact, as well as “pottery vessels, flint tools, and a basalt bowl” characteristic of the Chalcolithic era, the Israel Antiquities Authority said at the beginning of this year.

A section of Israel’s separation barrier in east Jerusalem divides the Palestinian Shuafat refugee camp (right) from the Jewish settlement Pisgat Zeev.
© Provided by AFP

Putting the results together we may assume that literacy by certain groups existed at all levels of the administrative, military and priestly systems of Judah and that reading and writing were not limited to a tiny elite.

This handout photo released by the Israel Antiquities Authority on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2016, shows work on uncovering of an ancient settlement in Jerusalem. Israeli archeologists have discovered a 7,000-year-old settlement in northern Jerusalem in what they say is the oldest discovery of its kind in the area. (Israel Antiquities Authority via AP

> Read more about it in:

Old Arad and Widespread literacy in Judah in 600 BCE

Arad

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Temple Mount Project Unearths Rare Seal Dating Back to King David Era

JNS.org – A rare stone seal that is believed to date back to the periods of King David and Solomon in the 10th century BCE was recently uncovered by a 10-year-old Russian boy and deciphered by experts.

The rare seal uncovered by the Temple Mount Sifting Project. Photo: Temple Mount Sifting Project.

The limestone seal features two crude engravings of animals possibly representing a predator and prey, according to Dr. Gabriel Barkay, one of the co-founders of the Temple Mount Sifting Project, which sorts through rubble that was illegally excavated during the construction of the Marwani mosque in 1999.

Barkay said the seal highlights

 “the administrative activity which took place upon the Temple Mount during those times.”

“The dating of the seal corresponds to the historical period of the Jebusites and the conquest of Jerusalem by King David, as well as the construction of the Temple and the royal official compound by his son, King Solomon,”

said Barkay.

 “What makes this discovery particularly significant is that it originated from upon the Temple Mount itself.”

The Temple Mount Sifting Project, which operates under Bar-Ilan University and is supported financially by the City of David Foundation, has also uncovered hundreds of pottery shards dating back to the 10th century BCE, including a rare arrowhead made of bronze.

“Since the Temple Mount has never been excavated, the ancient artifacts retrieved in the Sifting Project provide valuable and previously inaccessible information,”

 Barkay said.

 “The many categories of finds are among the largest and most varied ever found in Jerusalem.”

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Monumental Podium Discovered in City of David

English: Jerusalem Model, The city of David, the Pool of Siloam and the southern wall of Mount Moriah Deutsch: Jerusalem Modell, Davidstadt, im Vordergrund der Teich von Siloah und die Südmauer des Tempelberges Français : Maquette de Jérusalem, la Ville de David. Au premier plan, la piscine de Siloé et la muraille sud du Mont du Temple (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

      Monumental Podium Discovered in City of David

Excavations in the City of David have revealed a pyramid-shaped staircase believed to belong to a first-century podium. The discovery was made along the street that runs from the Pool of Siloam up to the Temple Mount.

From the Israel Antiquities Authority:

According to archaeologists Nahshon Szanton and Dr. Joe Uziel, who direct of the excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority,

"The structure exposed is unique. To date such a structure has yet to be found along the street in the numerous excavations that have taken place in Jerusalem and to the best of our knowledge outside of it. For this reason, its exact use remains enigmatic. The structure is built along the street in a place that is clearly visible from afar by passers-by making their way to the Temple. We believe the structure was a kind of monumental podium that attracted the public’s attention when walking on the city’s main street. It would be very interesting to know what was said there 2,000 years ago. Were messages announced here on behalf of the government? Perhaps news or gossip, or admonitions and street preaching – unfortunately we do not know. Bliss and Dickie, two British archaeologists who discovered a small portion of this structure about 100 years ago, mistakenly thought these were steps that led into a house that was destroyed. They would certainly be excited if they could come back today and see it completely revealed”.
We know from rabbinic sources there were “stones” that were used for public purposes during the Second Temple period. For example, one source cites the “auction block” in connection with the street: “[a master] will not set up a market stand and put them (slaves) on the auction block” (Sifra, BeHar 6). In the Mishnah and Talmud the “Stone of Claims” is mentioned as a place that existed in Jerusalem during the Second Temple period:

“Our Rabbis taught: There was a Stone of Claims in Jerusalem: whoever lost an article repaired thither, and whoever found an article did likewise. The latter stood and proclaimed, and the former submitted his identification marks and received it back. And in reference to this we learnt: Go forth and see whether the Stone of Claims is covered” (Bava Metzia 28:B).

On Thursday (3.9), at the City of David Studies of Ancient Jerusalem’s 16^th Annual Conference that will be open to the public, Nahshon Szanton and Dr. Joe Uziel will present their findings from the excavation and the different interpretations regarding the nature of the podium. According to them, “Given the lack of a clear archaeological parallel to the stepped-structure, the purpose of the staircase remains a mystery. It is certainly possible the rabbinical sources provide valuable information about structures, such as this, although for the time being there is no definitive proof.”

Information about the conference can be found on the City of David website: www.cityofdavid.org.il.

The story can also be read at the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz, and the Times of Israel.
HT: Joseph Lauer

Photo by Gil Mezuman, courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority

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