24h Jerusalem

On this morning in April, Israeli police officers check on Hagar and Ariel in the streets of Jerusalem's Old City. They are supposed to spot danger before anything happens. A group of German pilgrims has had a good breakfast and is bracing itself for the strenuous march through a city of stairs, walls and hills. History breathes at every meter here, even in Yad Vashem. A young Israeli woman has to file a stack of papers. Papers with names of people whose lives were extinguished. Northeast of the Old City of Jerusalem lies a place that no traveler ever gets to see: the Shuafat refugee camp. That, too, is Jerusalem. Israel and Palestine are the center of the Middle East conflict. And at the center of the center is Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. In the 1st century, the Jewish Temple was destroyed by the Romans. All that remained was the Wailing Wall - today a holy site for Jews. Muslims call the Temple Mount Al-Haram al-Sharif (The Noble Sanctuary). From here Mohammed is said to have ridden to heaven. The Temple Mount with Al-Aksa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock is administered by an Islamic foundation. After Mecca and Medina, these sites are the highest sanctuaries of Muslims.