Gabriel Barkey Censored on Temple Mount on January 1, 2017

Archaeologist Gabriel Barkay (right) talks with American university students from UCLA on the Temple Mount on January 1, 2017. (Ilan Ben Zion/Times of Israel)

I took this picture this summer while in Israel (2017).  It is the south east corner of the Temple Mount where 400 truckloads of earth where taken in order to build the Marwani Mosque.  The mosque is located behind the smooth portion of the wall with windows.   

9 Months Ago 

While Dr. Gabriel Barkay was speaking to a group of American students from the University of California, Los Angeles, Islamic authorities attempted to have him removed for simply using the term “Temple Mount.”  Barkay is an archeologist who was giving a historical lecture on the site.  The Wafq authorities brought him before the Israeli police standing near a group of cedar trees.  Although the Israeli police said there were no legal grounds to prevent him, they encouraged Barkay to continue his lecture without using the term.  Gabriel Barkay is an Israeli archaeologist who with fellow archaeologist Zachi Zewig established the Temple Mount Sifting Project in 2005 in order to recover lost artifacts removed from the Temple Mount by the Waqf and others during 1996-2001, when 400 truckloads of earth were removed from the site during the construction of the Marwani Mosque.