Jerusalem seeks relic’s return

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Israel has asked Turkey for the loan of a 2,700-year-old Jewish relic.

Jerusalem Mayor Uri Lupolianski’s office said Monday that he was in talks with Turkish Ambassador Namik Tan on the possibility of bringing a First Temple-era tablet held by the Archaeology Museum in Istanbul to Israel for a temporary display.

The tablet, which describes the construction of a Jerusalem water tunnel in the days of King Hezekiah, was discovered in the holy city in 1880 and claimed by the Ottoman regime. Lupoliansky offered to reciprocate for the tablet’s loan by building a monument to Turkish soldiers who were killed in then-Palestine during World War I.

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