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Cairo (Agenzia Fides) - Palm Sunday, celebrated the day before yesterday by the Churches that follow the Julian calendar, saw an exponential increase of Egyptian Coptic pilgrims who have come to celebrate the rites of Holy Week in Jerusalem. According to the Egyptian media, in the current year already at least 5,700 Coptic Orthodox Christians have reached the Holy City, an increase of more than a thousand units compared to the Coptic pilgrims who had carried out a pilgrimage to the Holy Places of Jerusalem in 2015. The growing presence of the Egyptian Coptic Orthodox in the Holy City marks...

Sunday, April 24, 2016 From Slavery to Freedom Posted by Daniel Greenfield As another Passover begins, the echoes of "Once we were slaves and now we are free" and "Next year in Jerusalem" resound briefly and then fade into the background noise of everyday life. We can board a plane tomorrow and fly off to Jerusalem. Some of us are already there now. But will that make us free? Since Egypt we have become slaves again, lived under the rule of iron-fisted tyrants and forgotten what the very idea of freedom means. And that will likely happen again and again...

A provocative $4-million documentary by Toronto filmmaker Simcha Jacobovici claims to have found archeological evidence verifying the story of the biblical Exodus from Egypt, 3,500 years ago. Religious Jews consider the biblical account incontrovertible — the foundation story of the creation of the nation of Israel. Indeed, they celebrated the Exodus Wednesday night and last night with the annual Passover recitation of the Haggadah. But among scholars, the question of if and when Moses led an estimated two million Israelite slaves out of pharaonic Egypt, miraculously crossed the Red Sea ahead of the pursuing Egyptian army and received the Ten...

The eviction of Israeli families from Migron on Sunday brought back painful memories for many of the 9,000 citizens expelled from Gush Katif in 2005. Now Katif expellees are asking the government for just one thing: leave the synagogue standing. “We, who seven years ago felt on our flesh the Israeli government’s decision to uproot our lives and our towns in Gush Katif, are pained and shocked today at the fact that the Israeli government is repeating the terrible mistake, and crime, of demolishing settlement and uprooting homes in Migron,” wrote Eliezer Orbach of the Gush Katif Residents’ Committee, in...

The caves in which the purification baths were found were 'caves of refuge,' where Jews who lived in the area sought shelter under Roman rule. A fifth mikveh has been found in the caves on the Galilee's Cliffs of Arbel, indicating that the people who lived there under Roman rule were most likely kohanim, Jews of the priestly class, said Yinon Shivtiel, one of the researchers who found the ritual bath... The caves in which the purification baths were found were "caves of refuge," where Jews who lived in the area sought shelter under Roman rule, particularly during the Jewish...

The Israeli government and Jewish groups have expressed outrage at a resolution adopted by the U.N. cultural agency that put the Western Wall Plaza in quotation marks, described Jewish sites as “so-called” and even claimed that some Jewish graves were bogus. The resolution, sponsored by several Arab countries and adopted by UNESCO’s 58-nation executive board last week, condemned the Israeli government’s stewardship of east Jerusalem, home to the city’s most sensitive holy sites. The April 15 document also decried the renovation of “so-called Jewish ritual baths” and the alleged creation of “Jewish fake graves.” Sites were either referred to by...

The amulet was discovered by Neshama Spielman, a twelve year-old girl from Jerusalem who came with her family to participate in the Temple Mount Sifting Project. “While I was sifting, I came across a piece of pottery that was different from others I had seen, and I immediately thought that maybe I had found something special,” said Spielman. “It’s amazing to find something thousands of years old from ancient Egypt all the way here in Jerusalem! Celebrating Passover this year is going to be extra meaningful to me.” The Passover festival, commemorating the Biblical account of the ancient Israelites Exodus...

[IMRA: The State Information Service (SIS) is the public information organ of the government of the Arab Republic of Egypt. It is not clear where the Egyptians think the Second Temple was built.] http://www.sis.gov.eg/jerusalem/html/jintro.htm   Introduction Jerusalem in history     All along human history, Jerusalem has always been an Arab Palestinian city. There is no clearer evidence than the events and incidents of history that prove this Arab right with documents and scientific facts. Thus, all relevant UN resolutions, especially Resolutions no. 181/1947 and no. 194/1949, which called for preserving Jerusalem and its international status under the UN Mandate Council...

The terrorist behind Monday's Jerusalem bus bombing has died of his wounds Wednesday night, in Sha'arei Tzedek Medical Center. Palestinian news sites have identified him as a resident of the Palestinian Authority (PA). A bomb exploded on the #12 bus in the capital Monday afternoon, injuring 16 people - mostly bystanders and passengers on an adjacent bus. .....

The Jewish People will begin celebrating the Jubilee of Jerusalem's liberation and reunification next month, marking the 50th year after the Six Day War – but pro-war Israelis and other Jews plan to take advantage of the yearlong festivities to call worldwide for a unilateral Israeli withdrawal from Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem. Previous unilateral withdrawals in favor of the Palestinian Authority have led to many Israeli deaths at the hands of Palestinian terrorists. This includes the disengagement/expulsion from Gaza. The government decided last year to appoint a steering committee to set the tone of Jerusalem's Jubilee festivities. Its conclusions...

The driver of the bus, however, has stated that the man was indeed the terrorist, and that security officials at the hospital confirmed as much. The driver, Moshe Levy, spoke with BeHadrei Haredim on Tuesday, and recalled the incident and his encounter with the alleged terrorist. “The [bus] ride was normal; I saw the terrorist get on the bus at one of the stations. The terrorist boarded and paid just like everyone else. He didn’t look suspicious to me, and he wasn’t carrying a strange bag or something. No, I didn’t suspect him.” “Then all of the sudden, on Baram...

Leading Jewish groups harshly denounced CNN on Monday for failing to refer to a major bus bombing in Jerusalem as a terrorist attack. “There’s no excuse for this; hopefully it’s not part of a pattern,” Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of Jewish human rights group the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Algemeiner. Cooper was responding to CNN‘s coverage of an explosion on the number 12 bus as it drove through Jerusalem’s Talpiot neighborhood during rush hour. At least 21 people were wounded in the incident, two of them critically. Although the cause of the incident was initially unclear, Jerusalem Police...

On Wednesday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party paid homage to a young woman who killed six people and wounded dozens more, when she detonated the homemade bomb in her handbag at the Mahane Yehuda outdoor market in Jerusalem 14 years ago. As was reported by Palestinian Media Watch, Fatah posted this tribute to the suicide terrorist on its official Facebook page. The post reads: “Today is the anniversary of the death as a martyr (shahida) of the martyrdom-seeker (istish’hadiya), the hero Andalib Takatka from the town of Beit Fajjar, daughter of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades — Fatah’s military...

A Jerusalem court has convicted Yosef Haim Ben-David of murdering Mohammed Abu Khder, as well as a number of other crimes. The judge accepted prosecutors' claims that Ben-David led his two nephews, aged 17 and 16, in kidnapping 16-year-old Abu Khder, dousing him in gasoline and burning him to death in 2014. They then attempted to destroy any evidence of their crimes. One of the nephews received a life sentence, while the second was given 21 years in prison. While the judge rejected Ben-David's plea of insanity, he put off the sentencing in light of the defendant's mental state. Ben-David...

Twenty-one people were wounded in an explosion on Monday, which hit Egged bus line 12 on Derekh Hevron and Moshe Baram Street in the southeast of Jerusalem, not far from Kibbutz Ramat Rachel. Police later confirmed it was indeed a bombing attack. Large Magen David Adom (MDA) and police forces rushed to the site. Police say 21 people were wounded in the attack, at least two of them seriously and seven moderately with the rest lightly wounded. Rescue forces evacuated the wounded to the hospital. One of the victims reportedly is in critical condition. While police had backtracked on their...

"Thus saith the LORD: I return unto Tzion and will dwell in the midst of Yerushalayim; and Yerushalayim shall be called the city of truth; and the mountain of the LORD of hosts the holy mountain." Zechariah 8:3 (The Israel BibleTM) On Friday, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) Executive Board in Paris adopted a resolution erasing Israel's ties to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall. The UNESCO resolution referred to the Temple Mount area solely as the Al-Aqsa Mosque or Al-Haram Al Sharif, ignoring the Jewish claim to the site. The resolution called Israel "the...

UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Association, announced a number of resolutions just before the weekend started. One, submitted by the Russian Federation, called for defining UNESCO’s role in safeguarding and preserving Palmyra and other Syrian World Heritage sites. Another was about “Enhancing UNESCO’s contributions to promote a culture of mutual respect and tolerance.” A third was simply entitled “Occupied Palestine” and addressed the Jerusalem Old City hotspot that Jews refer to as the Temple Mount and Muslims call Haram Al-Sharif, the Noble Sanctuary. Except that the Jewish link to the site, considered the holiest place for Jews,...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu blasted a UNESCO decision divorcing Judaism from the Temple Mount Saturday night, after a motion over the weekend only referred to the site with Arabic terminology. "This is yet another absurd UN decision," Netanyahu stated late Saturday. "UNESCO ignores the unique historic connection of Judaism to the Temple Mount, where the two temples stood for a thousand years and to which every Jew in the world has prayed for thousands of years." "The UN is rewriting a basic part of human history and has again proven that there is no low to which it will not...

Certain texts of the Bible may have been written earlier than previously believed, according to a new research based on the handwriting analysis of ancient inscriptions. It is dated to be at least 600 B.C. and the presumption is that literacy was prevalent and the texts were composed in the kingdom of Judah, a city with biblical reverence, according to researchers from the Tel Aviv University. They suggest that the educational infrastructure to support Bible writing presumably existed at that time.

An archaeological excavation in northern Israel has unearthed glass-making kilns that date back 1,600 years, proving that ancient Israel was one of the most important centers of glass making in the world during the late Roman period. Yael Gorin-Rosen, head curator of the Israel Antiquities Authority’s Glass Department, said. “This is a very important discovery with implications regarding the history of the glass industry both in Israel and in the entire ancient world. We know from historical sources dating to the Roman period that the Valley of Acre was renowned for the excellent quality sand located there, which was highly...