The incident began on Wednesday morning last week, when a group of six archeologists ascended the Temple Mount as tourists. Tourists, as opposed from Jewish visitors, are not escorted by the police and supervised by Waqf guards.
Tzachi Davira said the group sometimes carry out professional visits on the Temple Mount. “There was never a problem. Then one of the participants picked something up from the ground that looked like an archeological artifact. One of the Waqf administrators thought it was an olive and they asked us to leave without any authority.”
The attack against the archaeologists quickly unfolded: “Seven or eight of them came and they wanted us to leave the Mount immediately. They blocked the way so we couldn’t call the police. They put Yuval Marcus on the ground and started hitting him.”
Marcus, a known tour guide was injured in the attack.
The archeologists made it to the police station near the Jaffa Gate where they reported the attack.
“It was almost a lynch. They started punching and kicking. We are still shaken up,” one the archeologists testified.
The suspects, all residents of East Jerusalem, deny the charges leveled against them and claim that the visitors had “provoked” them.