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The ancient footprints of the artisans who built a stunning 1,700-year-old mosaic floor in Lod were discovered recently, when conservators from the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) were in the process of detaching the huge work of art from the ground. As the conservation experts worked on the plaster bedding to be done before detaching the mosaic, they were surprised to notice there were ancient foot and sandal prints beneath it. Clearly, the builders that had worked on the floor sometimes wore their sandals, and sometimes worked in their bare feet...

While they may not have been the markings of a pair of Naot sandals, Israel Antiquities Authority conservators discovered footprints over 1,700 years-old, under the Lod Mosaic and at least one print resembling a modern sandal. Head of the Israel Antiquities AuthorityArt Conservation Branch Jacques Neguer said that when removing a section of a mosaic it is customary to clean its bedding, and study the material from which it is made and the construction stages and during that process, they found the footprints under the mosaic. "We look for drawings and sketches that the artists made in the plaster and...

1,700 year old Footprints of the Builders of the Lod Mosaic Exposed Press Release Wednesday, October 14, 2009 www.antiquities.org.il/about_eng.asp?Modul_id=14 The Footprints of the Builders of the Lod Mosaic were Exposed While removing the mosaic from the ground, Israel Antiquities Authority conservators were surprised to discover 1,700 year old foot and sandal prints beneath it Head of the Israel Antiquities Authority Art Conservation Branch, "It's exciting. This is the first time I have ever encountered personal evidence such as this under a mosaic". Step by step, piece by piece, the conservation experts of the Israel Antiquities Authority detached the Lod mosaic...

One of the oldest surviving complete Roman mosaics dating from 1,700 years ago, a spectacular discovery made in Lod in Israel, will go on show at Waddesdon Manor in Buckinghamshire, UK... from 5 June – 2 November 2014. Measuring eight metres long and four metres wide, and in exceptional condition, the Lod mosaic depicts a paradise of birds, animals, shells and fishes, including one of the earliest images of a rhinoceros and a giraffe, richly decorated with geometric patterns and set in lush landscapes.Ancient city of LyddaThe mosaic was accidentally discovered in 1996, during highway construction work in the Israeli...

Some of the 11 Jewish ossuaries from Second Temple period still held bones, featured Hebrew script listing names of those interred. The Antiquities Authority and police cooperated last Friday to arrest suspects who allegedly stole ornate stone ossuary burial chests, which were used by Jews in Israel during the Second Temple period roughly 2,000 years ago. The suspects were caught while in possession of eleven ossuaries, some of them still containing skeletal remains. The suspected grave robbers, who were arrested and brought in for questioning, came from the Arab village of Abadiyah in Judea, located near Bethlehem, as well as...

My ostentatious being is what you must become, The nectar of my spirit attracting others to My kingdom, For you are my lilies out in the field, Sobriety to the weak so my spirit may harvest as they yield, Now a light in the darkness just as you, Release "my" wisdom my children for you are my morning dew, Just as My tribes harvested The Manna early each day, You are my hidden Manna revealed in a new way, For now the veils are lifted for through my spirit you shall have breakthrough, Both to the Gentile and the Jew,...

White House: The White House press secretary, Jay Carney, did not say that Tel Aviv was the capital. But he also would not say it was not, in this semi-comical exchange with reporters: First Reporter: What city does this Administration consider to be the capital of Israel? Jerusalem or Tel Aviv? Carney: Um . . . I haven’t had that question in a while. Our position has not changed. Can we, uh . . . First Reporter: What is the capital? Carney: You know our position. First Reporter: I don’t. Second Reporter: No, no. She doesn’t know, that’s why she...

Yaakov Berg, CEO of Psagot Winery, revealed to Arutz Sheva that the international boycotts of Israel products began precisely in Tel Aviv. There, the discrimination by Israelis against domestic produce from over the 1949 Armistice line opened the international floodgates. “Today everyone is attacking the countries that boycott us, but I want to say that the true boycott began from among us,” emphasizes Berg. […] Berg noted that he is convinced the Tel Aviv boycotters will in the end be boycotted as well, a prediction borne out by reports that US Secretary of State John Kerry is manipulating the EU...

The Fatah party of Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has posted threats to bomb Tel Aviv on its official Facebook page. The threats came in the form of a video by Fatah’s armed wing—the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade—which threatened to turn Tel Aviv “into a ball of fire”, as well as escalated rocket fire on Israeli civilians. […] The threats come despite the fact that the Palestinian Authority is engaged in “peace negotiations” with Israel, and bolster claims by Israeli leaders that the PA is not really serious about finding a peaceful political solution to the conflict. …

Shin Bet officials announced on Wednesday that they have arrested three Palestinians, two of them East Jerusalem residents with Israeli identification cards, for alleged involvement in an Al-Qaida plan to carry out terror attacks in Israel. The group had planned two simultaneous suicide attacks, the Shin Bet said, one at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem and the other at the United States embassy in Tel Aviv. The three men were arrested on December 25, a gag order on the case lifted Wednesday revealed. A high-ranking Shin Bet official told reporters in Tel Aviv that a member of one of...

Israeli authorities today announced the arrest of three global jihadists who were allegedly preparing to carry out terror attacks after being recruited by an al-Qaeda-linked operative in the Gaza Strip. The three terrorists were identified as Iyad Mahmoud Khalil Abu Sara, Rubin Abu Nagma, and Ala Yasin Mohammed Anam. The arrested Palestinians from the West Bank and Jerusalem area were recruited online and planned to carry out kidnappings and bombings at the International Convention Centre in Jerusalem as well as the US Embassy in Tel Aviv, among other attacks. Israeli authorities kept their counterparts in the "US and elsewhere" updated...

JERUSALEM – Israel's internal security agency says it has foiled an Al Qaeda plan to attack the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv and hit other targets in the country.

Tel-Aviv Yafo's mayor, Ron Hulda'i, reacted Sunday to the demonstration by tens of thousands of infiltrators from Africa, who assembled at Rabin Square and demanded that the government allow them to stay in Israel and work legally. "The demonstration today is only the beginning of a process that unfortunately will only escalate,” he predicted, “and I regret to say that we will see violence in the streets.” Hulda'i accused the government of ignoring the difficulties that the infiltrators face, as well as the difficulties faced by residents who suffer from the immigrants. He demanded that a clear government policy be...

Cyndi Lauper let her true colors shine through on Saturday night at the Nokia Arena in Tel Aviv. Foul-mouthed, big-hearted and still quirky as hell after all these years, the bright-red haired, combat boot-wearing 60-year-old entertainer revisited her landmark debut album She's So Unusual, performing it in its entirety upon its 30th anniversary. Whether spinning like a dervish, climbing onto speaker stacks, roaming out into the audience, or getting down on her knees to sing, Lauper has lost none of her spunky spirit, nor her powerful lung capacity. Her crack band, anchored by bassist William Wittman who performed and acted...

Several thousand African infiltrators who entered Israel illegally via Egypt staged a peaceful protest in Tel Aviv on Saturday, police said to AFP. The demonstrators denounced the refusal of the authorities to grant them refugee status, as well as holding several hundred in detention centers. They marched, some holding candles and others placards bearing the slogan "We are refugees", to cries of "Freedom!" Israeli left-wing activists also joined the march from a southern neighborhood to Yitzhak Rabin Square, where they gathered outside the municipality. Earlier this month, over 250 inmates marched from the Holot detention center to Jerusalem in protest...

Dozens of residents of south Tel Aviv on Tuesday demonstrated, after the High Court on Monday declared the government’s policy on detaining illegal immigrants—under which illegals could be detained for up to three years—violated several Basic Laws. Some 2,000 illegal Africans are to be freed from an encampment in the Negev in the next 90 days, most likely heading to Tel Aviv, where there is already a large illegal African community. The government has the option to attempt to deport the illegals, but many of them claim that they are genuine refugees from political repression, so deporting them would likely...

A senior official in the Syrian army warned the United States and its partners on Tuesday that waging a full-scale war on Syria would be reciprocated with an immediate attack on Tel Aviv. "If Damascus comes under attack, Tel Aviv will be targeted too and a full-scale war against Syria will actually issue a license for attacking Israel," the Syrian army source told the Iranian Fars news agency. "Rest assured that if Syria is attacked, Israel will also be set on fire and such an attack will, in turn, engage Syria's neighbors," he added. The source also warned the U.S....

In exactly one month, singer Tom Jones is expected to take the stage at Tel Aviv’s Nokia Arena. But behind the scenes, an online battle is being waged between anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists, who are pressuring the Welsh singer to cancel his performance in Israel, and Israel supporters who express their encouragement and love for the singer. A group of British BDS activists are circulating a petition calling on Jones to boycott Israel and cancel his show. The petition was already signed by more than 1,000 internet users. … As of now, Jones is not caving to...

Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein on Monday evening toured southern Tel Aviv’s neighborhoods, which have been literally taken over by illegal infiltrators from Africa, and was shocked by what he saw and heard. Weinstein was accompanied by the Deputy Attorney General, Raz Nizri, and Dr. Roy Schondorf, who heads a special task force charged with handling international legal proceedings against Israelis. Residents of southern Tel Aviv have been suffering from endless harassment, fear and violence perpetrated by the many illegal Eritrean and Sudanese infiltrators who enter Israel to find employment and come to live in their working class neighborhood. The residents,...

Activists from the Bayit Yehudi (Jewish Home) party’s Young Leadership movement spent the Sabbath in one of the neighborhoods of southern Tel Aviv, and were shocked at what they found. The young visitors were horrified to hear that the synagogue they visited, Etz Chaim, had been left nearly empty due to violence from illegal infiltrators living in the area. The gabbai of the synagogue, who coordinates the prayers, told them that infiltrators would hit worshipers in the area of the synagogue, until many were afraid to come. Until the young activists’ visit, it had been three years since the synagogue...