Editing Western Wall (section)

===Jordanian rule (1948–1967)===
During the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War]] the Old City together with the Wall was [[Jordanian annexation of the West Bank|controlled by Jordan]]. Article VIII of the [[1949 Armistice Agreements#With Jordan|1949 Armistice Agreement]] called for a Special Committee to make arrangements for (amongst other things) "free access to the Holy Places and cultural institutions and use of the cemetery on the Mount of Olives".<ref>Yale Avalon Project, https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/arm03.asp [https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/arm03.asp Israel-Jordan Armistice Agreement].</ref> The committee sat multiple times during 1949, but both sides made additional demands and at the same time the [[Palestine Conciliation Commission]] was pressing for the internationalization of Jerusalem against the wishes of both parties.<ref name=BenDror>{{cite journal |first1=Elad |last1=Ben-Dror |first2=Asaf |last2=Ziedler |title=Israel, Jordan, and their Efforts to Frustrate the United Nations Resolutions to Internationalise Jerusalem |journal=Diplomacy & Statecraft |year=2015 |volume=26 |issue=4 |pages=636–658 |doi=10.1080/09592296.2015.1096685 |s2cid=155549524}}</ref> No agreement was ever reached, leading to recriminations in both directions. Neither Israeli Arabs nor Israeli Jews could visit their holy places in the Jordanian territories.<ref name=Gilbert254>Martin Gilbert, ''Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century'' (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1996) p. 254.</ref><ref name=Israeli23>{{cite book |last=Israeli |first=Raphael |title=Jerusalem Divided: The Armistice Regime, 1947–1967 |year=2002 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[Jerusalem]] |isbn=0-7146-5266-0 |page=23 |chapter=Introduction: Everyday Life in Divided Jerusalem}}</ref> An exception was made for Christians to participate in Christmas ceremonies in Bethlehem.<ref name=Israeli23/> Some sources claim Jews could only visit the wall if they traveled through Jordan (which was not an option for Israelis) and did not have an Israeli visa stamped in their passports.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ross |first=Marc Howard |title=Cultural Contestation in Ethnic Conflict |year=2007 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-87013-9 |page=179 |chapter=Digging up the past to contest the present: politics and archeology in Jerusalem’s Old City}}</ref> Only Jordanian soldiers and tourists were to be found there. A vantage point on [[Mount Zion]], from which the Wall could be viewed, became the place where Jews gathered to pray. For thousands of pilgrims, the mount, being the closest location to the Wall under Israeli control, became a substitute site for the traditional [[priestly blessing]] ceremony which takes place on the [[Shalosh regalim|Three Pilgrimage Festivals]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Israeli |first=Raphael |title=Jerusalem Divided: The Armistice Regime, 1947–1967 |year=2002 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |location=[[Jerusalem]] |isbn=0-7146-5266-0 |page=6 |chapter=Introduction: Everyday Life in Divided Jerusalem}}</ref>

===="Al Buraq (Wailing Wall) Rd" sign====
During the Jordanian rule of the Old City, a ceramic street sign in Arabic and English was affixed to the stones of the ancient wall. Attached {{convert|2.1|m|ft}} up, it was made up of eight separate ceramic tiles and said ''Al Buraq Road'' in Arabic at the top with the English "Al-Buraq (Wailing Wall) Rd" below. When Israeli soldiers arrived at the wall in June 1967, one attempted to scrawl Hebrew lettering on it.<ref name=Narkiss70>{{cite book |author=Bezalel Narkiss|title=Picture History of Jewish Civilization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oWKFAAAAIAAJ|access-date=May 19, 2011|year=1970|publisher=H. N. Abrams|page=241|isbn=9780810904002|quote=An Israeli soldier writes the Hebrew name on a street sign, which had previously had only Arabic and English lettering identifying the location as Wailing Wall Road.}}</ref> ''[[The Jerusalem Post]]'' reported that on June 8, Ben-Gurion went to the wall and "looked with distaste" at the road sign; "this is not right, it should come down" and he proceeded to dismantle it.<ref name=Kuwayt>{{cite book |author1=Jāmiʻat al-Kuwayt|author2=Institute for Palestine Studies (Washington, D.C.)|author3=Muʾassasat al-Dirāsāt al-Filasṭīnīyah|title=Journal of Palestine studies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EmoMAQAAMAAJ|access-date=May 19, 2011|year=1972|publisher=University of California Press for Kuwait University and the Institute for Palestine Studies|page=187}}</ref> This act signaled the climax of the capture of the Old City and the ability of Jews to once again access their holiest sites.<ref name=בר2007>{{cite book |author=דורון בר|title=לקדש ארץ|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=D3JtAAAAMAAJ|access-date=May 19, 2011|year=2007|publisher=יד יצחק בן צבי|page=207|isbn=9789652172686|quote=The symbolic removal of a sign placed by the Jordanians in English and Arabic, which referred to the Western Wall plaza as al-Buraq, was part of the process of 'Judaization' and return of the site to the status of the most important holy place of the Jewish people, and now the most holy place inside Israel.}}</ref> Emotional recollections of this event are related by [[David Ben-Gurion]] and [[Shimon Peres]].<ref name=PL95>{{cite book |author1=Shimon Peres |author2=David Landau |title=Battling for peace: a memoir |url=https://archive.org/details/battlingforpeace00pere |url-access=registration |access-date=May 18, 2011 |year=1995 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-679-43617-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/battlingforpeace00pere/page/94 94]}}</ref>