98 200 (ISRAEL, LAND OF). A Brief Guide to al-Haram al-Sharif, Jerusalem. FIRST EDITION. Photographic illustrations of the Temple Mount. Upper corner of rear cover with portions of Supreme Muslim Council stamp and here torn off, as all copies, (for purposes of the Council’s internal accounting). pp. (24). Two neat hole-punches. Original printed wrappers. Sm. 4to. Jerusalem, Moslem Orphanage Press for Supreme Moslem Council, 1924. $400-600 ❧ The Supreme Muslim Council (headed by Haj Amin al-Husseini) here officially denotes the historic Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. This guide to the structures that comprise the al-Haram al-Sharif is overwhelmingly written from a Moslem perspective, nonetheless, it declares (p.4): “The site is one of the oldest in the world. Its sanctity dates from the earliest times. Its identity with the site of Solomon’s Temple is beyond dispute. See http://www.wiesenthal.com/site/apps/nlnet/content.aspx? c=lsKWLbPJLnF&b=8776547&ct=14926783. 201 (ISRAEL, STATE OF). The (London) Times. Includes: “Palestine for the Jews. Official Sympathy” (p. 7). With editorial: “The British Victory in Palestine” and a detailed account of the military offensive led by Sir Edmund Allenby. Printed broadsheet newspaper, 14 pages. London, Friday, November 9th, 1917. $500-700 ❧ FIRST PUBLIC ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE BALFOUR DECLARATION. Amidst the First World War, the British War Cabinet issued a statement in the form of a letter from Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour to Baron Walter Rothschild, for transmission to the Zionist Federation of Great Britain and Ireland, that confirmed the support of the British government for the establishment in Palestine of a Homeland for the Jewish People. The original letter from Balfour was dated November 2nd and was first published in the press one week later (November 9th). “The Balfour Declaration remains one of the most important documents of the last hundred years.” See J. Schneer, The Balfour Declaration: The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Conflict (2010) p. 342.