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00:009-11, 2001. Terrorists who call themselves
00:09warriors of God against the Crusaders of the West.
00:14Two religions that demand peace, yet wage war throughout history.
00:30Epochs of confrontation and collaboration.
00:40Peoples and powers who fight in the name of God, but who struggle for supremacy on Earth.
00:57It's the 19th century. Europeans control the Islamic world.
01:03But the Muslims are fighting for their freedom.
01:06The German emperor wants to make use of it.
01:10Kaiser Wilhelm II seeks a First World War alliance with the Turkish Sultan.
01:16Together, they plan to unleash a jihad against the British and other enemies.
01:22A holy war for Allah and for the Kaiser.
01:35Jerusalem. A holy city for Jews, Christians and Muslims.
01:40A city worshipped and bitterly disputed for centuries.
01:50In the Middle Ages, Christian emperors and Islamic rulers fought bloody battles over the control of its holy sites.
01:58After the Crusades, Jerusalem remained part of the Islamic world.
02:11On the 29th of October, 1898, the whole city is on its feet.
02:17The people are out to welcome a prominent visitor.
02:20For the first time in 670 years, a Christian monarch has come to visit Jerusalem.
02:34Kaiser Wilhelm II. He's here as a friend of the Muslims, not as a crusader.
02:45The German emperor is popular in the Middle East.
02:48Unlike the British and French, he has not conquered parts of the Islamic world.
02:54He is in Jerusalem for the official opening of the newly built Church of the Redeemer.
03:00The emperor, who is also the head of the Lutheran Church of Prussia, had personally called for its construction.
03:12But it's the Muslim people themselves who leave the greatest impression.
03:17The emperor is enthralled and lets the Muslim world and its people work their magic.
03:27The Kaiser says that if he wasn't Christian, he'd be a Muslim.
03:34Wilhelm II's visit is politically sensitive.
03:39At the end of the 19th century, many Muslims are eager to counter European supremacy.
03:46Holy warriors challenge the most powerful empire of the time, the British Empire.
04:01In British-controlled Sudan and Egypt, a poorly equipped army of farmers and shepherds leaves behind a trail of blood.
04:11The rebellion was definitely couched in Islamist terms, specifically as a kind of modest millenarian revolt against European infidels.
04:28The rebels reach the district capital of Khartoum, the seat of the British governor of the Upper Nile.
04:35They follow their charismatic leader, Muhammad Ahmad, without question.
04:44They believe he has been sent by Allah to liberate the country.
04:49Muhammad Ahmad of Donggala province declared himself the Mahdi, which is to say the rightly guided one.
05:00A kind of prophet to usher in the end times for Islam.
05:04Khartoum falls on the 26th of January 1885.
05:09A traitor opens the city gates.
05:13The rebels create a bloodbath among the defenders.
05:17The Mahdi's war becomes the first successful rebellion against a colonial power in Africa.
05:23A revolt in the name of Allah.
05:29The rebellion was obviously seen as a serious threat to British imperial authority.
05:34There was also a strategic dimension, which was, of course, that the British Empire in particular ruled over many millions of Muslim subjects.
05:46At the end of the 19th century, a hundred million Muslims, a third of the world's Muslim population, live in the British Empire.
05:55It's the biggest empire that ever existed.
05:58If the Mahdi's revolt spreads, the imperial giant will be in serious danger.
06:04London is determined to set an example.
06:14But it's not until 1898, 18 years after the outbreak of fighting, that the British army is able to stop a rebel force at Umdurman in Sudan.
06:26They are armed with a devastating new weapon, the machine gun.
06:3110,000 Muslim fighters are killed in just five hours.
06:46The British lose 500.
06:49The slaughter ends the revolt of the Holy Warriors.
06:52Although the British Empire defeats the Mahdi's rebellion,
06:59the episode shows what kind of forces can be unleashed in the name of Allah.
07:10The death-defying army of the Mahdi shocks the British.
07:14What would happen to the British Empire if these warriors of God had access to modern weapons?
07:21The British and French clearly feared a jihad at the start of the 20th century.
07:40They were aware that their dominance in the Muslim world would pose a threat if Muslims were prepared to rebel.
07:48And this fear is clearly expressed in the publications of the time.
07:55But increasingly, the British also consider the German Emperor a threat.
08:01Kaiser Wilhelm II.
08:03The German Empire has become a powerful competitor, militarily and economically.
08:11In just two decades, German industry has surpassed the British.
08:21The ambitious German Emperor even wants to challenge the British in their very own domain, at sea.
08:28He commissions the construction of a naval fleet to match the strength of the Royal Navy.
08:35Then, Wilhelm II increases the tension further still.
08:43In his race for influence and market dominance, the Kaiser places a new bet.
08:49The Islamic world.
08:54A few weeks after the British defeat of the rebels in Sudan, Wilhelm II embarks on a spectacular journey.
09:02It takes him to the court of the Sultan of Constantinople.
09:08Abdul Hamid II knows that the Europeans, especially Britain and Russia, are just waiting to pick at his crumbling empire.
09:23The powerful man from Germany arrives at the right time.
09:27He's a trustworthy partner, because he has no territorial desires in the Middle East.
09:45The Sultan and the Ottomans regard the Kaiser's visit as a great honor.
09:50He's brought gifts, including a modern rifle of German manufacture.
09:54The new Mauser rifle allows a skilled soldier to fire 15 rounds per minute.
10:13A symbolic gift, as the Kaiser wants a military alliance with the Sultan.
10:23For some time, the German military has been helping to modernize the Ottoman army.
10:28The Sultan rules over a huge empire that includes the holy sites of Medina, Mecca and Jerusalem.
10:43But his empire has suffered numerous state bankruptcies.
10:47There's talk in Europe of the sick man on the Bosporus.
10:57Not only the governments of Europe hope to profit from the weakness of this former world power.
11:02The Jewish journalist Theodor Herzl also sees an opportunity.
11:09Herzl represents the movement of the Zionists.
11:12It's their ambition to establish a Jewish state in Palestine.
11:17In his book, The Jewish State, Herzl explains why the Jewish people desire their own homeland.
11:25He follows Kaiser Wilhelm II through the Middle East.
11:29He hopes the monarch will support his plan.
11:32Near Jerusalem, there may be an opportunity for a face-to-face meeting.
11:38You see, you don't.
11:43See you, Galam.
11:52The Kaiser is ready to end table.
11:55The Kaiser is ready to chain.
12:00The Jewish journalist complains that the Jews are being ostracized and persecuted in Europe
12:06and that they are barred from the upper echelons of society.
12:12A Jewish state in Palestine would give the Jews the freedoms they've been lacking.
12:16The Kaiser understands Herzl's dream for a Jewish home state in Palestine,
12:30but it will take time to achieve his goal.
12:33We have to deal with the Sultan very carefully.
13:03A Jewish state is of secondary importance.
13:07He's decided to give his support to the Sultan.
13:12His journey continues to Damascus.
13:19At a festive reception in the palace of the Turkish governor,
13:24Kaiser Wilhelm II utters words that will make international headlines.
13:33Wilhelm assures the Sultan that the Kaiser will always be a friend
13:43of the world's 300 million Muslims.
13:46That in all times, the German Kaiser will be your friend.
13:50So the Kaiser was, in a sense, almost interfering in the affairs of these rival powers,
14:07making a claim, that is, that Germany had a preferential or proprietary interest
14:14in the affairs of these Muslims.
14:15It could not help but excite the fears and anxieties of these other powers.
14:21It comes to represent Germany's presence in the Middle East.
14:25A grand railway line.
14:27The Baghdad Railway.
14:30The German press celebrates its construction inside the Ottoman Empire
14:34as a world-class act.
14:371,200 miles long, it runs across mountains and through scorching deserts.
14:42It is the German Empire's biggest foreign investment.
14:48Its financial backers are guaranteed income from rail transportation
14:52and the rights to drill for oil within 12 miles of either side of the line
14:56for the next 99 years.
14:59The line creates a link between Constantinople and Baghdad.
15:10A second line goes south via Damascus to Medina.
15:15But the thought that the Kaiser's railway might one day be carrying German weapons
15:19to the Egyptian border causes concern in London.
15:23The British Empire's main artery, the Suez Canal, runs right through British-controlled Egypt.
15:37It's vital for reducing the sea route to India.
15:40In Cairo, during these years of intense German-British rivalry,
15:51a man from Cologne, barely 40 years old, becomes the talking point.
15:56His name is Max von Oppenheim.
16:03He's the descendant of a well-known banking dynasty
16:07and has enough money to fully devote himself to his passion, Oriental culture.
16:13He owns a house in the old city of Cairo and speaks fluent Arabic.
16:18The son of a Jewish family, he is a converted Catholic.
16:24Oppenheim also likes to fulfill his erotic desires.
16:29He enters into temporary marriages with young locals,
16:33a practice allowed by Islamic law.
16:35Ah, Abdullah, schon zurück?
16:40I see, Sie sind fündig geworden.
16:42Sie untertreiben.
16:43Oppenheim has asked his servant to look for a woman to his liking,
16:47a woman who will share his bed.
16:49The young woman won't be the only one.
17:05In his memoirs, Oppenheim boasts that none of his temporary wives ever rejected him,
17:12even though they had the right to do so,
17:14and that the best way to learn Arabic was in bed.
17:23But this passionate admirer of the Middle East is also a German patriot.
17:28He has first-hand knowledge of the Muslim world
17:31and offers his services to his government.
17:34In 1896, Oppenheim secures a position with the German foreign office in Cairo.
17:42His job is described as
17:43systematic observer of the Islamic world.
17:52Oppenheim collects information on the Egyptian resistance against the British occupation.
17:57He sends regular reports to Berlin.
18:00The British and Cairo soon call him the Kaiser's spy.
18:05The two powers, the British and German empires,
18:22also compete in the field of science.
18:25Oppenheim participates in an archaeological race to discover ancient sites.
18:31He excavates a 3,000-year-old palace, which he finds purely by chance.
18:37In 1912, Oppenheim visits a group of British archaeologists,
18:49who are working on a dig a few days from Cairo.
18:54Until this point, the Germans had only ever interpreted other people's discoveries.
18:59Now, they're in the desert themselves, in competition with the British.
19:04Oppenheim meets a young and gaunt archaeologist called Thomas Edward Lawrence.
19:11As a 21-year-old, the talented Oxford graduate has traveled the Middle East on his own initiative.
19:19He is a like-minded enthusiast.
19:21This is the most interesting and most important collection I've ever seen, my dear Lawrence.
19:38With a touch of irony, Lawrence later describes his meeting with the baron from Cologne,
19:44who was 30 years his senior.
19:46But he has respect for him, both as archaeologist and as author of an admirable book on the Bedouins.
19:55Both are fascinated by the Orient and have chosen careers that allow them to live in Arabia.
20:02The two men cannot foresee that they will soon be sworn enemies,
20:08and that they will both try to win the war in the Middle East for their respective nations.
20:16In August 1914, the First World War breaks out.
20:21The Kaiser has isolated Germany and Europe.
20:24France, Britain and Russia have formed an alliance against the German Empire.
20:30Despite this, a sense of confidence remains.
20:39The enemy has attacked us at a time of peace.
20:43We must take up arms.
20:45Any indecision or hesitation would be a betrayal of the Fatherland.
20:50The Germans devise the Schlieffenplan. Its aim is to defeat the French quickly and then
21:02concentrate on the fight against Russia.
21:14But at the Battle of the Marne, the German advance grinds to a halt.
21:20After only a few weeks, the army gets stuck in the trenches.
21:24Even the optimists in the army's high command realize that this will be a long and protracted
21:30war and that it could easily exhaust Germany's resources.
21:38But the Kaiser is convinced that he has another ace to play.
21:44Wilhelm regards the English as a nation of unscrupulous shopkeepers.
21:55He will encourage the Muslim world to rebel against Britain.
22:02The German Empire was not prepared for the war on two fronts that it was now facing.
22:07But the Germans thought they saw a way out by opening up a third front in the Middle East,
22:13meaning they hoped to win the war with the help of millions of Muslims.
22:21Max von Oppenheim shares the Kaiser's view.
22:25Working directly for the Foreign Office in Berlin, he drafts a strategy paper that is based on
22:31his long held beliefs.
22:37He writes, first and foremost, we have to think about strengthening the forces of Islam and
22:44about how to use them for our self-defense.
22:49The perfidiousness of our enemies entitles us to use whatever means are available.
22:56Oppenheim's concept, if the Muslims rebel in the colonies, Britain and France will be forced
23:11to redeploy troops from the European Front.
23:15Islam's intervention in the current war would be a terrible blow for the English.
23:31Let's do whatever we can to ensure that this blow will be fatal.
23:37Oppenheim's paper, the revolutionization of our enemies' Islamic colonies, speaks of a global
23:52Muslim revolt.
23:55If the Sultan of Constantinople declared a jihad, Muslims from India to Morocco would follow.
24:07He would have to assassinate enemy politicians, smuggle weapons to India, set fire to the
24:16oil fields of Baku and Azerbaijan, and lay mines in the Suez Canal.
24:24Oppenheim knows that a holy war will be very expensive.
24:29His paper is given to the Kaiser in October 1914.
24:36Oppenheim is ordered to establish a dedicated agency to run the holy war from Berlin.
24:46For the plan to work, the Turks will have to cooperate.
24:50But in Constantinople, army generals have seized power in a coup.
24:57The leader is the 33-year-old Enver Pasha.
25:00The Sultan, Mehmed Reshad, is a political puppet.
25:11In November 1914, Enver officially announces an alliance with Germany.
25:17The same day, the Sultan declares a jihad.
25:24It's a first triumph for the strategic planners in Berlin.
25:31Oppenheim is able to announce that the Sultan has declared a jihad.
25:36The Ottoman leader has told his soldiers to attack their enemies, like lions.
25:42May Allah bless their swords, and may the English be damned.
26:02The jihad of 1914 is also known as jihad made in Germany.
26:08Economic law had to be adapted to meet the special demands of the German Empire.
26:14What makes this jihad so special is that it was remotely controlled.
26:22And the German official in charge sets everything in motion to start a worldwide Muslim revolt.
26:31A German expedition is dispatched to Afghanistan to convince the country's Muslim leader
26:38to wage war against British India.
26:43Oppenheim's plans for a Muslim uprising have a global dimension.
26:47Germany's Weltpolitik includes warfare against the British at the Hindu Kush.
26:54The second dimension of the jihad strategy targets India.
27:01It was hoped that the Indian Muslims would rise against their colonial masters.
27:06Yet India was firmly under British control, and the Muslims were in any case a minority in the country.
27:17German agents are on their way to encourage the ruler of Afghanistan to wage war against British India.
27:24There are plans to block the Suez Canal by scuttling a merchant vessel.
27:31German submarines deliver arms and ammunition to the Senussi rebels in Libya.
27:43Persia too is part of the German jihad strategy.
27:47It's already a major source of oil, the lifeblood of the industrial nations.
27:54As early as World War I, most British battleships are powered by oil.
28:00It's the reason why Britain has brought southern Persia under its control.
28:06The pipeline of the Anglo-Persian Oil Company stretches hundreds of miles through the desert.
28:13It's a prime target for sabotage.
28:17A colorful gang including German officers, Turkey soldiers, and locals opposed to British rule,
28:24blow up the pipeline along a 12-mile stretch.
28:29According to British estimates, 300 million liters of oil are lost.
28:50By 1915, more than 60 people work at Berlin's jihad agency, including Muslims from around the world.
28:58They produce pamphlets to entice rebellion in the Muslim world.
29:05Oppenheim even publishes a paper that is titled Jihad.
29:23He explains his own understanding of the Holy War.
29:32Oppenheim's conception of it, which was then spread by the German Foreign Office and its agents,
29:40was a specifically targeted holy war against the members of the Entente powers and their colonies,
29:49particularly targeting civilians.
29:53This was an original contribution, one might say, to the doctrine of jihad.
30:03Muslim prisoners of war are to be trained to commit acts of terrorism and sabotage against civilian installations.
30:12Oppenheim houses them in a camp close to Berlin that includes a mosque, so they can be indoctrinated by Ottoman clergy.
30:22But it's impossible to trigger a holy war from Berlin alone.
30:41Oppenheim travels to Constantinople to meet a man with great authority in the Muslim world.
30:47He will play a key role in Oppenheim's plan. He is Faisal, the son of the Sharif of Mecca.
30:56Salam alaikum.
31:01Faisal comes from one of the most influential Arab families.
31:07They rule the holy sites of Mecca and Medina and have enormous clout in the Muslim world.
31:22Oppenheim hopes for popular uprisings against the British in India and Egypt.
31:27He wants Faisal to support the Ottoman Sultan's call for a jihad.
31:32Soon, Faisal's Muslim brothers would be taking up arms.
31:37Faisal refuses to allow Muslims armed only with swords to fight against British machine guns.
31:55There would be terrible losses.
31:58But it would be very different if Oppenheim supplied money and modern weapons.
32:04But Oppenheim is unaware that this powerful family from Mecca is playing a double game.
32:11Faisal's father, Sharif Hussein, is in contact with the British.
32:16Oppenheim suggests that the Germans could supply artillery by railway.
32:24Sharif Hussein, a man who claims to be a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad, secretly dreams of reestablishing the Prophet's realm in Mecca.
32:36Also in secret, Hussein is in contact with British officials in Egypt.
32:41Since the start of the war, an old acquaintance of Oppenheim's has been working here for the British secret services.
32:50Thomas Edward Lawrence.
32:54London has assured Sharif Hussein in writing that Britain will recognize the independence of Arabia.
33:00It's a promise made under the pressure of war.
33:10The British need allies against the Turks, as their Arab office in Cairo is well aware.
33:17Whether they will really hand over territories snatched from the Turks is another matter.
33:23Lawrence is ordered to deal with the Arab uprising.
33:29He and Oppenheim are now direct opponents in the struggle for the future of Arabia.
33:35The British plan works in the summer of 1916 enticed by the promise of future independence.
33:54Hussein officially turns against the Sultan of Constantinople.
33:59Arab fighters destroy the Turkish garrison in Mecca.
34:03But they stop short of further military action.
34:13Hussein and his son Faisal want to unify the Arab regions of the Ottoman Empire.
34:19They also plan to expel the Turks, who they have long considered to be foreign rulers.
34:29Lawrence is sent to the Arabian Peninsula to make contact with the rebel forces,
34:34and to reinvigorate the uprising with Faisal's help.
34:38It's the start of a career that will make him world famous.
34:43In the desert, he meets a man who, a year ago, had cooperated with Oppenheim.
34:50.
35:06London has given Lawrence all the authority he needs,
35:10to make him a more attractive partner in the eyes of the sheikh.
35:14of the Sheikh. He can offer weapons, military advisors, and money.
35:21For money?
35:29How much?
35:35200,000 Puls-Dörling every month, as long as the war lasts.
35:41The British are prepared to fund the Arab uprising.
35:49200,000 Puls-Dörling per month to mobilize Faisal and his Bedouin warriors against Turks and Germans.
35:57When it comes to the crunch, religion is less important than other interests. The same applied during the First World War.
36:15The Arab elites were most concerned with the question of independence.
36:20A political question that weighs heavier on the soul than the salvation of your soul in paradise.
36:27Freedom and money are more important than the Kaiser's holy war.
36:33The Arabs do go to war, but in support of the British and against the Turks and Germans.
36:46Lawrence knows that in an open battle, his Bedouin fighters are weaker than the Turks.
36:57The Bedouin's strength lies in guerrilla warfare.
37:03The weakest link in the Turkish defense is the German-built railway.
37:07It's ideal for an attack.
37:10The Bedouins, who can survive in the desert, are able to attack out of nowhere and then disappear again into the distance.
37:19Lawrence perfects these tactics of pin-prick attacks, disrupting the Turkish supply lines.
37:42By the end of 1916, all Ottoman forces are in retreat.
37:52From Egypt, a British expeditionary force pushes northwards.
37:57In December 1917, the British reach Jerusalem.
38:02The Sultan's troops and their German commander clear their positions without resistance.
38:07On the 9th of December, the victors march through the alleyways of the Holy City.
38:16Lawrence celebrates the victory over the Turks and Germans, but he knows that the Arabs' jubilation is premature.
38:28Lawrence has been told that the dream of Arab independence will not come to fruition.
38:33The Germans have too little money and too few soldiers and personnel, appropriate personnel, to implement their strategy on the ground.
38:47But it's different for the British.
38:49They seem to have infinite amounts of money.
38:52And they have no problem promising the Arabs' independence when they have no intention of honoring their promise.
38:57Oppenheim is forced to admit failure.
39:01He thought he'd given the Arabs a goal that was worth fighting for.
39:16But he realizes that the British had a much smarter strategy.
39:20Some still hope for victory, but Oppenheim realizes that the war on the battlefield has been lost.
39:32Jihad made in Germany was little more than a pipe dream.
39:36The German Empire's holy war turns out to be a grandiose failure.
39:48Its professed anti-colonial sentiments weren't credible.
40:06Muslims were simply unable to trust a jihad that was led by a Christian power.
40:15By November 1918, the war, the most murderous to date, is over.
40:25In London and Paris, people celebrate the German defeat.
40:30The Kaiser is forced to abdicate.
40:35The Muslim revolt that he had hoped for never happened.
40:48The victors meet in Versailles to negotiate a new world order.
40:53Germany's fate and that of the Middle East are on the agenda.
40:56But any pledges made during the war are quickly forgotten.
41:02The Arabs no longer have a voice.
41:14As Faisal's advisor, Lawrence attempts to influence the negotiations.
41:18But he fails.
41:24The French and British had secretly agreed to carve up the Ottoman Empire in 1916.
41:30In the tradition of the colonial powers, they created new countries with the stroke of a pen.
41:36Modern-day Lebanon and Syria are placed under French control.
41:42Iraq, Transjordan, and Palestine under that of the British.
41:46There are anecdotes, no doubt with some historical truth, that an Englishman and a Frenchman, drunk inside a tent, redrew the demarcation lines of the Middle East with the help of a ruler.
42:05The new borderlines had major implications.
42:10Tribes and ethnic groups were divided.
42:14Geographic divisions were made without any logic.
42:18To this day, it makes life in the Middle East extremely difficult.
42:28Faisal had dreamt in vain of a unified Arab kingdom.
42:32After the war, in Damascus, he proclaims himself King of Syria.
42:38But the French expel him.
42:41Then, with permission from Britain, he is able to take over the Iraqi throne in the 1920s.
42:47He dies in 1933.
42:53The developments following the First World War have left Thomas Edward Lawrence deeply disappointed.
43:00He declines all honors and offers of high office.
43:05Instead, he writes his account of the Arab revolt.
43:10His book, The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, makes him world famous.
43:15But the author leads a reclusive life in the south of England.
43:19In 1935, Lawrence of Arabia dies in a motorcycle accident at the age of 47.
43:301935.
43:32Max von Oppenheim survives his British opponent by many years.
43:39The man who organized the holy war made in Germany had dreamt of a German-Islamic alliance.
43:47But blinded by his patriotism, he had misjudged reality.
43:52Oppenheim has a museum in Berlin for his archaeological discoveries, which he advertises on screen.
44:07Because of his connections, the descendant of a prominent Jewish family is left unharmed by Nazi Germany.
44:14He dies in 1946.
44:21Max von Oppenheim and T. E. Lawrence were both patriots and determined imperialists.
44:30Both the British and the Germans misused the Arab people for their own imperial ends.
44:36A unified Arabia remains an unfulfilled dream, even though the colonial powers largely pull out of the Middle East in the 1930s and 40s.
44:56It's the vision of another key player that becomes reality.
45:00Theodor Herzl's dream of a Jewish state begins to take shape after the First World War.
45:10Palestine becomes a British mandate.
45:13The British agree to support a future Jewish state without impeding the rights of non-Jews.
45:26An extremely difficult task.
45:28There is opposition against the British and the Jews among the Arab population.
45:35The British authorities arrest the heads of the Arab independence movement.
45:40The vision of peaceful coexistence between Jews and Arabs in Palestine doesn't come to fruition.
45:46In the mid-1930s, civil unrest leads to civil war.
46:01The British are caught between the front lines.
46:05There is fighting between Jewish and Arab militia.
46:085,000 Arabs, 400 Jews and 200 British lose their lives.
46:19After World War II, many Holocaust survivors move to Palestine.
46:24The British withdraw and on the 14th of May 1948, Ben-Gurion declares the independence of the State of Israel.
46:34The young country has to fight for its survival.
46:48The mass escape and expulsion of many Palestinians and the enmity of a number of Muslim states create a permanent source of friction.
46:56Today, the Holy City of Jerusalem remains at the center of a conflict, encompassing many political, economic and religious issues.
47:10A hotspot of world politics that could trigger a firestorm at any time.
47:22The nape and industrialist will continue in Jerusalem and the
47:46Transcription by CastingWords