1,800 MEDALS AWARDED TO SIX DAY WAR VETERANS:

Jerusalem Day began Tues. evening, 23 May, 2017 with the official ceremony marked at the Western Wall, attended by officials that included President Reuven Rivlin, Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat, IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot and Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze’ev Elkin. Rivlin called Jerusalem the "heart of the State of Israel” and described the Western Wall as the heart of the city. "We gave our all for Jerusalem because we knew that on Jerusalem we must insist,” Rivlin said. "We will always insist on Jerusalem. There never has been, there never will be any other reality. Here, in these stones, beats the heart of the Jewish people. Jerusalem is the heart of the State of Israel and the Kotel is the heart of Jerusalem.”

Rivlin said he clearly remembered the moment he heard confirmation of the liberation of Jerusalem’s Old City while serving as a reserve intelligence officer in the Jerusalem Brigade. "When I heard over the two-way radio the voices of my fellow soldiers, we could hardly believe it: ‘The Temple Mount is in our hands!’ I can never forget this,” the president said. "We all felt the history – and the future – of Israel, of the Jewish people, rested on our shoulders. And with that, a great joy filled us all, across the city, across the world. We had returned home – to Jerusalem, to Yerushalayim.” A ceremony was held earlier in the day at Ammunition Hill to honor the soldiers who fought in the battles for Jerusalem. During the ceremony medals were awarded to some 1,800 commanders and veterans of the Six Day War, as well as to the families who lost loved ones to the war. More than 180 Israeli soldiers fell along the Jerusalem front over the course of three days of fighting against Jordanian troops, in what was considered one of the fiercest and bloodiest battles of the war. (J.Post) "Then you will know that I, the Lord your God, dwell in Zion, my holy hill. Jerusalem will be holy; never again will foreigners invade her,” Joel 3:17