Furthermore, since your city is regarded with affection by the adherents
of three of the great religions of mankind and its soil has been
consecrated by the prayers and pilgrimages of multitudes of devout
people of these three religions for many centuries, therefore, do I make
it known to you that every sacred building, monument, holy spot, shrine,
traditional site, endowment, pious bequest, or customary place of prayer
of whatsoever form of the three religions will be maintained and
protected according to the existing customs and beliefs of those to
whose faith they are sacred.
Guardians have been established at Bethlehem and on Rachel's Tomb. The
tomb at Hebron has been placed under exclusive Moslem control.
The hereditary custodians at the gates of the Holy Sepulchre have been
requested to take up their accustomed duties in remembrance of the
magnanimous act of the Caliph Omar, who protected that church.
Jerusalem was now made the center of the British operations against the
Turks in Palestine. Mohammed V, the Sultan of Turkey, died July 3,
1918, and many superstitious Turks looked upon that event as forecasting
the end of the Turkish Empire. The Turkish army in Palestine was left
largely to its fate by Germany and Austria, and although it was
numerically a formidable opponent for General Allenby's forces, that
distinguished strategist fairly outmaneuvered the Turkish High Command
in every encounter.
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