Most of what is in this Arutz-7 interview with Dr. Gabriel Barkay is not new, but some things are worth hearing again.

Of the discoveries that have been made in the Temple Mount Sifting Project (unfortunately translated in the article as “Screening the Waste”!):

Barkai explained that despite the conditions, “We have made thousands of amazing finds that have changed the way we understand that period.”
Asked later to elaborate, he told Israel National News, “For instance, we have found many small floor tiles, of different colors, which confirm the Talmud’s description of the floor of the Second Temple as being reminiscent of the ocean.”
Other finds have included fragments of stone decorated with ornaments known to be from the Second Temple Period, arrowheads from Nebuchadnezzar’s army and also from the Romans, as well as coins and decorations from many periods. Among the most exciting finds were bullae (seal rings), ostracons written in ancient Hebrew script, seals, and more.

Of the agenda to rewrite history in order to eliminate a Jewish connection to the Temple Mount:

Barkai explained that in addition to building mosques on the site, the Moslems clearly have the goal of detaching Israel from its past and Holy Temple connections: “They wish to undermine Jewish ownership and bonds to the Temple Mount. They’ve built a giant mosque there in Solomon’s Stables [under the Temple Mount] and another one nearby – but aside from that, they have an ideological goal which is even making inroads to naïve circles in the west, and it is called ‘Holy Temple denial.’ They act as if there never was a Holy Temple. This is very very grave; regarding the Holocaust, there are living people who still remember it, but the same cannot be said regarding the Temple…”
“We must demand that Israeli law and sovereignty be enforced on the Temple Mount,” Barkai concluded.

The full article is here.

From the Jerusalem Post:

Fifteen policemen were lightly wounded in their attempt to restore order on the Temple Mount after Arab youths emerging from Friday prayers started hurling rocks down onto those worshiping at the Western Wall. Having restored calm with the use of stun grenades, police left the Temple Mount compound in cooperation with the waqf to allow older worshipers to leave. […] The repeated clashes in Jerusalem follow Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s announcement incorporating the Cave of the Patriarch’s in Hebron and Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem onto Israel’s list of national heritage sites.

The full article is here.  The Haaretz article is similar, but adds this statement:

The clashes later calmed when adult Muslim worshippers dispersed the young stone throwers.

I want to return to a recent post on the 360 degree views in Jerusalem.  There are some images here that I did not notice or note carefully before, including Solomon’s Stables, the Well of the Souls, and the passageway of the Double Gate. 

First, go to the Al Aqsa tour.  Counting the images from the left, #6-8 show Al-Marwani Mosque, built a decade ago inside the area known traditionally as “Solomon’s Stables.”  You can see the Herodian masonry in the columns. 

#9 is the Well of the Souls, the cave underneath the Dome of the Rock. 

#10-11 were taken inside the passageway of the “Double Gate.”  If you look up you can see the beautifully carved (but now plastered over) domes from Herod’s time. 

These are really extraordinary images of places that are very difficult for non-Muslims to access.  The limited captions on the website do not explain what you’re seeing.  Leen Ritmeyer has a nice screenshot showing the domes.