Jerusalem UFO video: a spaceship or a movie?

A video purporting to show a UFO hovering over the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem has prompted a heated debate over its authenticity – and the uploading of footage filmed by several other 'witnesses'.

The original video is dated January 28 2011. The wobbly, blurred footage shows a bright dot of light dropping from a great height to hover over what we are told is the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, but which could in fact be any city skyline. After almost half a minute maintaining its position, there is a sudden flash and the UFO flies straight up at high speed.

In the following days, other videos were uploaded to back up the original footage and silence the doubters.

One, taken a few hundred yards from the Dome of the Rock, the Muslim shrine situated atop the Temple Mount, comes complete with exclamations from the assembled tourists, including the memorable line: "We've seen them in Mississippi like this... but never like this."

A third, slightly clearer, video is shot from yet another angle and again at distance. The video above is a composite showing all three running together.  

The existence of so many videos of the incident has led cynics to observe that it is probably all a guerrilla marketing ploy that heralds the imminent arrival of a marketing onslaught for a sci-fi blockbuster film. ·