Palestinian stones cover Jerusalem’s facades - in pictures

A view of Jerusalem’s Old City from the Mount of Olives as the sun shines on the Dome of the Rock, one of the holiest sites in the Islamic world on the Hareem El Sharif (The Noble Sanctuary), known to Jews as the Temple Mount on January 15, 2017. The variety of colours of limestone – collectively called Jerusalem stone – is quarried in the city and used for construction in ancient days, as it is today.

At Nassar Stone in Al Khader near Bethlehem, between 12 and 14 blocks of limestone weighing 2.9 tons each arrive at the factory from West Bank quarries every day.

Inside the Nassar Stone factory, large slabs of limestone known as Jerusalem stone are seen on the production line. The factory uses the latest technology and imports their machines from Italy.

Inside another factory that belongs to Baha Company, 28-year-old Ali Thawabta is seen splicing a giant block of limestone into slabs using a blade splattered in milky mix of dust and water to cut through the Jerusalem stone. Mr Thawabta sees his family's stone-cutting business as a way to strengthen Palestine.

Palestinian workers cementing Jerusalem stone slabs onto the outer walls of a residential building in Jerusalem that is being restored to look the way stone buildings did 100 years ago in Jerusalem. The Jerusalem stone used is quarried near the Palestinian West Bank town of Bir Zeit and cut in Al Fajjar.

A Palestinian worker using a metal tool to chisel the surface of Jerusalem stone slabs that will be used in construction at a stone factory in the Palestinian village of El Fajjar.

Large blocks of limestone are seen on a hill overlooking the West Bank Palestinian village of Beit Fajjer located between Bethlehem and Hebron. Beit Fajjar is one of the main Palestinian stone quarrying centres in the West Bank that supplies stone to Israel, the Palestinian territories and also the Jewish settlements.

Packaged slabs of Jerusalem stone are stamped with a “Made in Palestine” in Arabic at the Nassar Stone factory in the West Bank village of El Khader near Bethlehem.

At the quarry, outside Hebron owned by the Nassar Stone, a massive spinning blade is used to deepen a gash on the mountain, in order to yank out another 2.9 ton block of stone. Soon, the blocks would be churned into tiles and sent overseas, showing Palestine, and Jerusalem, to the outside world.

Jerusalem is known all over the world for its shimmering pale stone facade. The pink, yellow and white tiles are made from Jerusalem stone, a kind of limestone which underlies the rocky hills of the Holy Land, which is extracted from Palestinian quarries and processed in Palestinian factories – in many cases by Palestinians who cannot travel freely to the city they have helped build.

All photos by Heidi Levine for The National