[Colonel Motta Gur announces on the army wireless:] The Temple
Mount is in our hands! I repeat, the Temple Mount is in our hands!
All forces, stop firing! This is the David Operations Room. All forces,
stop firing! I repeat, all forces, stop firing! Over.
Commander eight-nine here, is this Motta (Gur) talking? Over.
[Inaudible response on the army wireless by Motta Gur.]
Uzi Narkiss: Motta, there isn’t anybody like you. You’re next to
the Mosque of Omar.
Yossi Ronen: I’m driving fast through the Lion’s Gate all the
way inside the Old City.
Command on the army wireless: Search the area, destroy all
pockets of resistance [but don't touch anything in the houses], especially
the holy places.
[Lt.- Col. Uzi Eilam blows the Shofar. Soldiers are singing ‘Jerusalem
of Gold’.]
Uzi Narkiss: Tell me, where is the Western Wall? How do we get
there?
Yossi Ronen: I’m walking right now down the steps towards the
Western Wall. I’m not a religious man, I never have been, but this is the
Western Wall and I’m touching the stones of the Western Wall.
Soldiers [reciting the ‘Shehechianu’ blessing]:Baruch ata
Hashem, elokeinu melech haolam, she-hechianu ve-kiemanu ve-hegianu la-zman
ha-zeh. [Translation: Blessed art Thou L-rd God King of the Universe
who has sustained us and kept us and has brought us to this day]
Rabbi Shlomo Goren:Baruch ata Hashem, menachem tsion u-voneh
Yerushalayim. [Translation: Blessed are thou, who comforts Zion and
bulids Jerusalem]
Soldiers: Amen!
[Soldiers sing ‘Hatikva’ next to the Western Wall.]
Rabbi Goren: We’re now going to recite the prayer for the fallen
soldiers of this war against all of the enemies of Israel:
[Soldiers weeping]
El male rahamim, shohen ba-meromim. Hamtse menuha nahona al kanfei
hashina, be-maalot kedoshim, giborim ve-tehorim, kezohar harakiya meirim
u-mazhirim. Ve-nishmot halalei tsava hagana le-yisrael, she-naflu be-maaraha
zot, neged oievei yisrael, ve-shnaflu al kedushat Hashem ha-am ve-ha’arets,
ve-shichrur Beit Hamikdash, Har Habayit, Hakotel ha-ma’aravi
veyerushalayim ir ha-elokim. Be-gan eden tehe menuhatam. Lahen ba’al ha-rahamim,
yastirem beseter knafav le-olamim. Ve-yitsror be-tsror ha-hayim et
nishmatam adoshem hu nahlatam, ve-yanuhu be-shalom al mishkavam
[soldiers weeping loud] ve-ya’amdu le-goralam le-kets ha-yamim ve-nomar
amen!
[Translation: Merciful God in heaven, may the heroes and the pure, be
under thy Divine wings, among the holy and the pure who shine bright as
the sky, and the souls of soldiers of the Israeli army who fell in this
war against the enemies of Israel, who fell for their loyalty to God and
the land of Israel, who fell for the liberation of the Temple, the Temple
Mount, the Western Wall and Jerusalem the city of the Lord. May their
place of rest be in paradise. Merciful One, O keep their souls forever
alive under Thy protective wings. The Lord being their heritage, may they
rest in peace, for they shalt rest and stand up for their allotted portion
at the end of the days, and let us say, Amen.]
[Soldiers are weeping. Rabbi Goren sounds the shofar. Sound of gunfire
in the background.]
Rabbi Goren:Le-shana HA-ZOT be-Yerushalayim ha-b’nuya, be-yerushalayim
ha-atika! [Translation: This year in a rebuilt Jerusalem! In the
Jerusalem of old!]