[Ynet News] Yehuda Litani - In 1992 King Hussein of Jordan financed renovations of the golden dome of the Dome of the Rock Muslim shrine on the Temple Mount. On a visit to the site during those renovations I discovered an iron panel inscribed in French. The foreman of the Irish construction company said the panel had been found on top of the mosque and was temporarily dismantled so that the dome could be coated in gold. The words in French revealed that the shrine had been renovated in 1899 during Turkish rule, assisted by the Jewish community in Jerusalem. The inscription noted that five acclaimed Jewish artists had been invited to Jerusalem to help renovate the mosques on the Temple Mount, including stone carvers, wood carvers and iron mongers. The inscription also noted that all the students at the "Kol Israel Haverim" school in Jerusalem were given a three-month leave in order to assist in the renovation work on the Temple Mount. The foreman apparently told Waqf representatives about the panel, and when we came back to the site the next day the panel was no longer there.
2007-02-23 01:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive