US envoy poses with doctored image of east Jerusalem
May 23, 2018
The US embassy in Jerusalem has said Ambassador David Friedman was duped into posing with a controversial photo. The picture had been photoshopped to replace the revered Al-Aqsa mosque with a Jewish temple.
Advertisement
The US ambassador to Israel was at the center of a controversy on Tuesday after he was photographed receiving a doctored image of east Jerusalem in which the revered Al-Aqsa Mosque had been erased.
The picture, published Tuesday night by ultra-Orthodox Jewish news site Kikar Hashabbat, showed the mosque replaced by a simulation of a Jewish temple.
The newly opened US Embassy in Jerusalem said Ambassador David Friedman was tricked into being pictured with the photoshopped image.
The embassy said the image was "thrust" in front of the diplomat without his consent during a visit to a charity in Bnei Brak, near Tel Aviv.
The Al-Aqsa Mosque is one of Islam's holiest sites; Muslims believe the Prophet Mohammed ascended to heaven from the structure.
Known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif ("Noble Sanctuary") and as Temple Mount to Jews, the larger compound surrounding the mosque sits on land sacred to both religions. It is considered the holiest site in Judaism.
The controversial picture was published by several Palestinian newspapers on Wednesday.
Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat was quoted in Palestinian daily Al-Quds as saying that the United States was turning the Israeli-Palestinian dispute "into a religious conflict."
Jerusalem is one of the oldest and most contested cities in the world. Jerusalem is revered as a sacred city by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike. For this reason, there has been controversy over the city to this day.
Image: picture-alliance/Zumapress/S. Qaq
Jerusalem, the city of David
According to the Old Testament, David, king of the two partial kingdoms of Judah and Israel, won Jerusalem from the Jebusites around 1000 BC. He moved his seat of government to Jerusalem, making it the capital and religious center of his kingdom. The Bible says David's son Solomon built the first temple for Yahweh, the God of Israel. Jerusalem became the center of Judaism.
Image: Imago/Leemage
Under Persian rule
The Neo-Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II (3rd from the left) conquered Jerusalem in 597 and again in 586 BC, as the Bible says. He took King Jehoiakim (5th from the right) and the Jewish upper class into captivity, sent them to Babylon and destroyed the temple. After Persian king Cyrus the Great seized Babylon, he allowed the exiled Jews to return home to Jerusalem and to rebuild their temple.
The Roman Empire ruled Jerusalem from the year 63 AD. Resistance movements rapidly formed among the population, so that in 66 AD, the First Jewish–Roman War broke out. The war ended 4 years later, with a Roman victory and another destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. The Romans and Byzantines ruled Palestine for approximately 600 years.
Image: Historical Picture Archive/COR
Conquest by the Arabs
Over the course of the Islamic conquest of Greater Syria, Muslim armies also reached Palestine. By order of the Caliph Umar (in the picture), Jerusalem was besieged and captured in the year 637 AD. In the following era of Muslim rule, various, mutually hostile and religiously divided rulers presided over the city. Jerusalem was often besieged and changed hands several times.
Image: Selva/Leemage
The Crusades
From 1070 AD onward, the Muslim Seljuk rulers increasingly threatened the Christian world. Pope Urban II called for the First Crusade, which took Jerusalem in 1099 AD. Over a period of 200 years a total of nine crusades set out to conquer the city as it changed hands between Muslim and Christian rule. In 1244 AD the crusaders finally lost control of the city and it once again became Muslim.