Tit for Tat…

Greek Orthodox style:

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate in Jerusalem said Tuesday that it will not allow the Israeli municipality of West Jerusalem to use church property in the Old City for a lights festival because of Israeli police mistreatment of Christians during their holidays.

A statement by the church spokesman Issa Musleh said the Greek Orthodox Patriarch Theophilos III has told the municipality of its objections to the use of its property in any way for the festival, which he said “does not reflect in any way the true identity of Jerusalem.”

Musleh said that at the time Israeli police attack worshippers and religious men during Christian holidays, particularly during the Saturday Holy Fire, close roads in the face of worshippers, deny freedom of worship in Jerusalem for Christians from Gaza and West Bank, Israeli fanatics attack churches, cemeteries and religious people, monks are held for interrogation as was the case with the spiritual leader for Ramallah Elias Awwad who was held and interrogated at Tel Aviv airport, and other measures against the Christian and Muslim holy places, “It would not be sensible that anyone should expect any cooperation to make successful festivities not related to us or Jerusalem, which are also sources of big annoyance to the residents of the holy city through the behavior of the visitors and participants based on extreme nationalist reasons and their attacks on the residents of the city, which mostly go unpunished or without accountability.”

 

 

Church of the Dormition in Jerusalem Vandalised

Holy Virgin Mary site defaced with graffiti used by Jewish extremists:

Israel police say an investigation is underway to find vandals who defaced one of Jerusalem’s best known churches.

Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said the vandalism was discovered on the Church of the Dormition in Jerusalem’s Old City early Friday.  The church is built on the site where many Christians believe the Virgin Mary died.

Rosenfeld said that along with anti-Christian slurs, the words “price tag” were found scrawled on the church’s exterior. He said police are searching for the perpetrators.

That phrase is usually used by a fringe minority of Jewish extremists to protest what they perceive as the Israeli government’s pro-Palestinian policies and retaliation for Palestinian attacks.

Mosques, churches, dovish Israeli groups and even Israeli military bases have been vandalized with “price tag” damage in recent years.

 

City of David

 

Jerusalem in 30 Seconds

 

Ancient Quarry, Key Unearthed in Jerusalem

The Times of Israel reports:

Archaeologists working in Jerusalem have discovered a 2,000-year-old stone quarry, along with an iron key and masonry tools dating to the same period, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Wednesday.

The large quarry adjacent to the modern-day neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo dates to the first century CE and would have been active around the time of the Second Temple in Jerusalem, archaeologists say.

Some of the stones cut from the rock were more than two yards long. They were likely transported downhill, on an ancient road discovered nearby, to the walled city to the south, where they would have been used in the construction of monumental buildings.

The quarry, seen here from above, is located adjacent to the north Jerusalem neighborhood of Ramat Shlomo (photo credit: Skyview/Courtesy of the Israel Antiquities Authority)

Also unearthed at the site was an iron key.

“The key that was found, and which was probably used to open a door some 2,000 years ago, is curved and has teeth. What was it doing there? We can only surmise that it might have fallen from the pocket of one of the quarrymen,” archaeologist Irina Zilberbod, the excavation director, said in the statement from the Antiquities Authority.

The excavators also found pickaxes and metal wedges used to sever the cut stones from the surrounding rock.

The excavation is a salvage dig meant to allow the construction of a new road.

Ramat Shlomo, an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood, was built in a part of the West Bank annexed to the Jerusalem municipality after the 1967 war.

The IAA press release is here.

 

Holy Fire!

Celebrated by Orthodox Christian in the Holy Sepulchre. RT has this stunning video:

Thousands of Orthodox Christian braved hours of waiting to witness the Holy Fire ceremony in Jerusalem’s Church of the Holy Sepulchre – an important annual rite for the Church’s eastern denominations.

In what believers regard as a miracle, every year the day before Orthodox Easter, an unlit blue fire from a stone in the Church descends from the dome and ignites a candle held by the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church in Jerusalem.

Around 10,000 people squeezed into the Church of the Holy Sepulchre– regarded by many as the place where Jesus was laid to rest and resurrected – with about as many waiting outside.
As the Patriarch received the fire, he passed it around, to other clergymen from other denominations (six of them share the church and consider it a holy site) and onto the gathered pilgrims.

The appearance of the flame is symbolic of Jesus’ rise from the dead three days after his funeral.

More photos here.

 

Virtual Walking Tour Available for Mount Temple in Jerusalem

 

Old Videos of Ancient Sites

The Mount of Olives, Wailing wall, and Dome on the Rock, 1920s:


 
HT:  And some more at PhDiva

 

Seeking the Peace of Jerusalem—or a Piece of Jerusalem?

There is no end of controversy about Jerusalem, old and new.  Archeology has become a full-fledged battlefield in the dispute over who has the superior claim to the city, Jews or Muslims…

Read on here.

 

Whiter Than Snow