The Israeli Antiquities Authority has allocated 40 million shekels to implement a massive landmark change as part of a wider plan to forge history and tampering with the Bab al-Khalil castle tower, one of the most important landmarks in the Old City of Jerusalem, as part of a Judaizing project to change ancient Islamic monuments.
The educational project will be implemented at the initiative of "Clore Israel" and with the support of the occupation municipality in Jerusalem and the Israeli government.
The castle tower is located on the northwestern side of the old city, inside Bab al-Khalil.
It is considered one of the most important landmarks of Jerusalem, and it is called the Citadel, the Bab al-Khalil Citadel, or the Jerusalem Citadel.
The Israeli authorities had previously turned the castle into an Israeli museum in the beginning of the year 2000 and carried out a restoration process that lasted 3 years.
The tower was used in the past as part of the huge fortifications represented by three huge towers to fortify the entrance to Jerusalem.
The castle in its form today is a Mamluk building of Nasser Muhammad bin Qalawun, with many Ottoman additions and restorations, the most important of which is the fortification that Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent built during his reign, and the most prominent features of the castle are the Mamluk Mosque, the summer mosque built by Suleiman the Magnificent, and a minaret from the Ottoman period, which was built during the time of Sultan Muhammad Pasha in 1655 AD, specifically in the year 1310.
As for Bab al-Khalil, it is the main western entrance to the Old City, and is built in the form of a right angle, to prevent the entry of enemies and intruders.
Judaization of the Jerusalem Wall
Since the occupation of Jerusalem, the occupation authorities have worked to link the Jewish neighborhood with the western part of the city by controlling Bab al-Khalil, and after the defeat in 1967 AD, the occupation carried out extensive excavations in the region to falsify Islamic history, as it turned the castle and its mosque into a museum called the "Castle of David" museum.
The walls of Jerusalem are subjected to continuous Judaization operations and the theft of its historic stones, under the pretext of restoration work within the occupation projects to change the features of Jerusalem and the names of its neighborhoods and streets.
Sheikh Ikrimah Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Authority in Jerusalem, accused the occupation authorities of working to Judaize the history of the holy city by installing inscriptions of the Star of David and inscriptions of the alleged temple and other Jewish symbols over the old gates of Jerusalem.
The preacher of Al-Aqsa Mosque pointed out that the walls of Jerusalem are Islamic, and they were rebuilt during the time of the leader Salah al-Din al-Ayyubi after he liberated the city from the Crusaders in the Battle of Hattin in 1187 AD, and during the reign of the Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent they were restored and rebuilt again, and this indicates that the Jews have no relation to the walls of Jerusalem.
Sheikh Ikrimah indicated that the occupation tried to search for Jewish antiquities, but did not find a single stone related to it, pointing out that in 1967 he dug in the Western Wall Square at a depth of more than ten meters, and they found nothing but Roman stones in the foundations of the wall.
The Jerusalem Wall surrounds the Old City, which extends over an area of ​​about one square kilometer, is 3.8 km long, about 10 meters high, and has 15 gates.
