Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas submitted a request to Israel on Thursday for a permit to attend the funeral of former President Shimon Peres, set for Friday.

The request was sent to the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and that of IDF Maj.-General Yoav Mordechai, Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT). In that role, Mordechai is also commander of the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria.

The request was officially authorized by Netanyahu, his office said in a subsequent statement to media.

Abbas expressed his “sadness and sorrow” Wednesday in response to hearing of the elder statesman’s death, and sent a letter of condolence to his family, WAFA reported.

“Peres was a partner in making the brave peace with the martyr Yasser Arafat and Prime Minister [Yitzhak] Rabin, and made unremitting efforts to reach a lasting peace from the Oslo Agreement until the final moments of his life,” Abbas wrote, according to WAFA.

The government led by Abbas, however, issued a completely opposite obituary about the 93-year-old former president, saying he was responsible for the “deaths of Palestinians” and committed “many crimes.”

The Israel Security Agency / Shin Bet domestic intelligence service has just released a wealth of historical documents and photos received from Shimon Peres over the years.

The items were sent during the statesman’s various tenures in government. The Shin Bet personal protection unit provided an escort for Shimon Peres for nearly 40 years.

Israeli Chief of Police, Roni Alsheikh briefed the media at police headquarters in Jerusalem Wednesday night about the preparations of the Israeli police for the state viewing and funeral of the former president.

Thousands of police officers will be stationed around the capital, and will also accompany the coffin as it makes its way from Tzrifin, near Rishon LeZion, to the podium at the Knesset where it will be placed for public viewing on Thursday, from 9 am till 9 pm.

Border Guard police officers and undercover police will also be deployed around Jerusalem as well.

Traffic will be restricted and detours will be set up, along with a number of road blocks, in order to facilitate ease of movement for the funeral convoy and foreign dignitaries as they pass through the city on the way to and from the Knesset.

The same arrangement will also apply on Friday, as thousands more are expected to arrive late into the night Thursday to attend the funeral, and will be traveling to and from Mount Herzl cemetery.

The former president will be laid to rest about five meters from the late Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

The Jerusalem Light Rail train was attacked by stone-throwing Arabs Tuesday night when it arrived in the northern Jerusalem neighborhood of Shuafat.

None of the passengers on the train were physically injured, but the windshield of the lead car was damaged.

The neighborhood has been the source of countless attacks on the Light Rail over the past two years, despite the service it provides to local Arab commuters in the capital.

Millions of shekels have been spent on repairs to cars that have had to be taken out of service due to stoning attacks by terrorists in the Arab neighborhood.

Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, who is on business in New York City, on Monday ran into Jonathan Pollard and his wife Esther who were sitting in a Manhattan coffee shop just around the corner from a Barkat fundraising event.

According to the Jerusalem Municipality’s spokesperson, this was the very first meeting between a senior elected Israeli official and Pollard since his release from Federal Prison last November 20. Barkat, apparently, was thrilled to run into the former Israeli spy, whom he had awarded the medal of Honorary Citizen of Jerusalem while the latter was still behind bars.

Mrs. Pollard told Barkat that Jonathan was yet to physically receive the medal, and Pollard hinted that he would be delighted to get it, and so Barkat, ever the improvising Israeli, removed his gold Jerusalem pin from his lapel and put it on Pollard.

Barkat told the couple, “Since Jonathan is not allowed to go to Jerusalem, the eternal city of the Jewish people will come to him in New York or anywhere else in the world.”

“We are longing for the day when you can arrive in Jerusalem to make it your real home,” Barkat told Pollard.

Between the year 1000 and 1400, roughly the time of the crusades (1095-1291), the city of Jerusalem became the most significant place in the known world, an object of desire to people from as faraway as Britain and even Scandinavia and Iceland to India. This universal preoccupation with Jerusalem, ushered a most creative period in the city’s history, the subject of a new exhibition opening Tuesday, Sept. 26, at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The exhibition, “Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven” demonstrates the enormous influence of the city, sacred to the three monotheistic religions, on the art of that time.

“While Jerusalem is often described as a city of three faiths, that formulation underestimates its fascinating complexity,” says the exhibition’s web page. “In fact, the city was home to multiple cultures, faiths, and languages. History records harmonious and dissonant voices of people from many lands, passing in the narrow streets of a city not much larger than midtown Manhattan. This will be the first exhibition to unravel the various cultural traditions and aesthetic strands that enriched and enlivened the medieval city.”

More than 200 works of art have been gathered from some 60 lenders worldwide, with a quarter of the objects arriving from Jerusalem, including key loans from the city’s religious communities, some of which have never before shared their treasures outside their walls. “Jerusalem 1000–1400: Every People Under Heaven” bears witness to the crucial role that the city has played in shaping world culture, a lesson vital to our common history.

The following are notes from the museum’s website, accompanying the exhibition.

“Beginning in about the year 1000, Jerusalem captivated the world’s attention as never before. Why did it hold that focus for the next four centuries?

“A kind of Jerusalem fever gripped much of the world from about 1000 to 1400. Across three continents, thousands made their way to the Holy City—from Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions alike. Generals and their armies fought over it. Merchants profited from it. Patrons, artists, pilgrims, poets, and scholars drew inspiration from it. Focusing their attention on this singular spot, they praised its magic, endowed its sacred buildings, and created luxury goods for residents and visitors. As a result, the Holy City shaped the art of this period in significant ways.

“Dramatic circumstances, including natural disasters, political turmoil, intense religious fervor, and an uptick in world travel, brought new attention to the city. In the 1030s, the Fatimid caliph who ruled over Jerusalem forged an agreement with the Byzantine emperor to rebuild the Holy City after a series of earthquakes and the malfeasance of his predecessor. In 1099 European Christians achieved their improbable dream of conquering Jerusalem. In the wake of their bloody victory, they created glorious buildings and works of art for nearly a century. In 1187, the military leader Saladin (1137/38–1193) retook the city and rededicated its Islamic sanctuaries. In the late 1200s through the 1300s, Mamluk sultans blessed with stable reigns promoted the city as a spiritual and scholarly center.

“Throughout these years, the city was home to more cultures, faiths, and languages than ever before. As the site of both conflict and coexistence, it inspired art of great beauty and fascinating complexity.”

One of the exhibition’s many galleries is named “The Absent Temple.” It cites instructions from an early 11th century guidebook for Jewish pilgrims regarding a visit to the Temple Mount: “If you are worthy to go up to Jerusalem you should observe the following procedure: If you are riding on a donkey, step down; if you are on foot, take off your sandals, then rending your garment say: ‘This our sanctuary was destroyed.'”

But even with no Temple to visit, Jewish pilgrims flocked to medieval Jerusalem. They came to mourn the destruction of the Temple and pray that it would one day be rebuilt. Their prayers largely took place not within the city but around its walls. They made a circuit of the city’s gates—a custom that was revived after the liberation of Old Jerusalem in 1967—concluding at the eastern Gates of Mercy, built over an ancient gateway to the Temple. There they might scratch their names and prayers into the stone. They then ascended the Mount of Olives, the historic site where it is believed that the Divine Spirit will return at the time of Redemption. This significant spot east of the city afforded the best vantage point from which to gaze upon the Temple platform.

The installation features specially commissioned videos that provide subtle glimpses, as through windows, of the varied and colorful panorama of Jerusalem with its ever-present medieval monuments. Complementing the videos are short interviews with some of the fascinating men and women who maintain the city’s medieval legacy.

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 899, September 26, 2016–January 8, 2017

A Jewish minor was detained by police on Temple Mount Sunday morning, when he toured the area with a group and was accused of praying to God, which Jews are prohibited from doing there, legal aid society Honenu reported. Honenu attorney Rehavia Piltz is providing legal representation to the minor.

A gang of some 15 Arab terrorists hurled stones Thursday afternoon at worshipers who were entering and leaving the Tomb of Rachel, on the outskirts of Bethlehem, a few minutes south of Jerusalem.

The sacred grave site of the Biblical matriarch is frequented by Jewish women in particular, who appeal to the soul of their Jewish ancestor for intervention with God on their behalf.

Israeli security forces used riot dispersal methods in order to bring the violence to a rapid conclusion. No injuries were reported and all personnel reported safely to base.