Israeli forces attack Al-Aqsa mosque Temple Mount

JERUSALEM: Intense clashes have erupted around Al-Aqsa mosque after numerous Israeli settlers, along with the Israeli forces have stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque compound repeatedly over last two days, and on Thursday even climbed the Dome of the Rock mosque. The Israeli forces fired gas grenades at the worshipers inside the mosque. The imam of the Al-Aqsa mosque, Mohamed Hussian has condemned the attack on, what considered as, Islam’s holiest places. Al-Aqsa mosque is known to Jews as ‘Temple Mount.’

The settlers were led by the Rabbi Yehuda Glick, who is the former head of the Temple Institute. The Muslim worshipers gathered to defend the mosque and threw stones in retaliation of the gas grenades fired by the Israeli army. The Muslims chanted “We sacrifice our blood and souls for you, Aqsa!”
“It is a violation against Al-Aqsa mosque and the Israeli authorities are responsible, because they order their soldiers to raid the mosque violently, they are responsible for all what is happening in Al-Aqsa mosque,” said Hussian, the imam of the Al-Aqsa mosque.
On Friday, Israeli forces forcefully cleared the week long protest carried out by Palestinians at protest camp in the Jordan valley near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah against Israel’s refusal to pull out of the area in any future peace deal.
Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld claimed that the Israeli security forces responded to provocative stone throwing at them by the Muslim worshipers inside the mosque. However, General Director of Muslim Endowments and Al-Aqsa Mosque Affairs, Sheikh Azzam Al-Khatib has rejected these claims and said that the historical evidences show that Israeli forces have always tried to irk the Muslims and have mercilessly killed thousands of Palestinians.

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Temple Mount: Oldest Artifact Ever Found!

     Working near the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, Hebrew University of Jerusalem archaeologist Dr. Eilat Mazar has unearthed the earliest alphabetical written text ever uncovered in the city.    

    The inscription is engraved on a large pithos, a neckless ceramic jar found with six others at the Ophel excavation site. According to Dr. Mazar, the inscription, in the Canaanite language, is the only one of its kind discovered in Jerusalem and an important addition to the city’s history.

  Dated to the tenth century BCE, the artifact predates by two hundred and fifty years the earliest known Hebrew inscription from Jerusalem, which is from the period of King Hezekiah at the end of the eighth century BCE.

  A third-generation archaeologist working at the Hebrew University’s Institute of Archaeology, Dr. Mazar directs archaeological excavations on the summit of the City of David and at the southern wall of the Temple Mount.

   The discovery will be announced in a paper by Dr. Mazar, Prof. Shmuel Ahituv of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, and Dr. David Ben-Shlomo of the Hebrew University, following their extensive research on the artifact. Prof. Ahituv studied the inscription and Dr. Ben-Shlomo studied the composition of the ceramic materials.

   The press release issued Wednesday did not specify what the inscription actually says.
Archaeological finds in Jerusalem, and specifically in the Temple Mount region, are also of political significance. Some of the finds, like the recent discovery of evidence corroborating contemporary accounts of the Roman seige of the Second Temple, or the possible site of the Tabernacle at Shilo, fly in the face of Arab attempts to deny that the Jewish Temple ever existed.

   While the anti-Israeli propaganda machine is sophisticated and heavily funded, the Israeli counter-effort has been relatively ineffective. However, every few weeks or months, it appears that the Jews' ancestors, along with modern archaeologists, are there to lend a hand in the campaign to prove that Zion was indeed the historical homeland of the Jews, long before Mohammed was born in Arabia.

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/169787#.Utk1LT3nawk