In 1964, the Intercontinental Hotel was built at the summit of the mount. During this period, a road was paved through the cemetery, in the process destroying graves including those of famous persons. īy the end of 1949, and throughout the Jordanian rule of the site, some Arab residents uprooted tombstones and plowed the land in the cemeteries, and an estimated 38,000 tombstones were damaged in total. Non-Israeli Christian pilgrims were allowed to visit the mount, but Jews of all countries and most non-Jewish Israeli citizens were barred from entering Jordan and therefore were unable to travel to the area. However, during the 19 years the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank lasted, the committee was not formed. The armistice agreement signed by Israel and Jordan following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War called for the establishment of a Special Committee to negotiate developments including "free access to the holy sites and cultural institutions and use of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives". Prime Minister of Israel Menachem Begin asked to be buried on the Mount of Olives near the graves of Etzel members Meir Feinstein and Moshe Barazani, rather than Mount Herzl national cemetery. From there they see the whole Temple (the Temple Mount) and there they weep and lament the destruction of this House." In the mid-1850s, the villagers of Silwan were paid £100 annually by the Jews in an effort to prevent the desecration of graves on the mount. In 1481, an Italian Jewish pilgrim, Meshullam of Volterra, wrote: "And all the community of Jews, every year, goes up to Mount Zion on the day of Tisha B'Av to fast and mourn, and from there they move down along Yoshafat Valley and up to Mount of Olives. It became a traditional place for lamenting the Temple's destruction, especially on Tisha B'Av. They made pilgrimages to the Mount of Olives because it was 80 meters higher than the Temple Mount and offered a panoramic view of the Temple site. After the destruction of the Second Temple, Jews celebrated the festival of Sukkot on the Mount of Olives. Roman soldiers from the 10th Legion camped on the mount during the Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD. The religious ceremony marking the start of a new month was held on the Mount of Olives in the days of the Second Temple. The necropolis on the southern ridge, the location of the modern village of Silwan, was the burial place of Jerusalem's most important citizens in the period of the Biblical kings. The map, from 1858, considered the most accurate in existence at the time, marks the Jewish graves clearly on the bottom left.The aerial photo, from 2013, is taken from the south.įrom Biblical times until the present, Jews have been buried on the Mount of Olives. The Jewish Cemetery on the Mount of Olives, 155 years apart. Much of the top of the hill is occupied by At-Tur, a former village that is now a neighbourhood of East Jerusalem. Because of its association with both Jesus and Mary, the mount has been a site of Christian worship since ancient times and is today a major site of pilgrimage for Catholics, the Eastern Orthodox, and Protestants. Several key events in the life of Jesus, as related in the Gospels, took place on the Mount of Olives, and in the Acts of the Apostles it is described as the place from which Jesus ascended to heaven. The mount has been used as a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years and holds approximately 150,000 graves, making it central in the tradition of Jewish cemeteries. The southern part of the mount was the Silwan necropolis, attributed to the elite of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. It is named for the olive groves that once covered its slopes. 'Mount of Olives' in Arabic also الطور, Aṭ-Ṭūr, 'the Mountain') is a mountain ridge east of and adjacent to Jerusalem's Old City. Operational – may receive further mortal remains burials or ash interments, or may only be providing services for persons already holding a right of burial, or with a direct family connection to the cemetery.The Mount of Olives or Mount Olivet ( Hebrew: הַר הַזֵּיתִים, romanized: Har ha-Zeitim Arabic: جبل الزيتون, romanized: Jabal az-Zaytūn both lit.
Date extracted from register: 20 June 2022