Editing Western Wall (section)

==History==

===Construction and destruction (19 BCE – 70 CE)===
[[File:Kotel engraving 1850.jpg|thumb|Engraving, 1850 by {{interlanguage link|Rabbi Joseph Schwarz|he|יהוסף שוורץ}}]]

According to the [[Hebrew Bible]], [[Solomon's Temple]] was built atop what is known as the Temple Mount in the 10th century BCE and destroyed by the [[Babylonia]]ns in 586 BCE,<ref>Date is adjusted in some Jewish texts to read 422 BCE. See [[chronology of the Bible#Rabbinic traditions|Chronology of the Bible]].</ref> and the [[Second Temple]] completed and dedicated in 516 BCE. Around 19 BCE Herod the Great began a massive expansion project on the Temple Mount. In addition to fully rebuilding and enlarging the Temple, he artificially expanded the platform on which it stood, doubling it in size. Today's Western Wall formed part of the retaining perimeter wall of this platform. In 2011, Israeli archaeologists announced the surprising discovery of Roman coins minted well after Herod's death, found under the foundation stones of the wall. The excavators came upon the coins inside a [[mikveh|ritual bath]] that predates Herod's building project, which was filled in to create an even base for the wall and was located under its southern section.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna45419597|title=Coin discovery sheds new light on sacred Jerusalem site (AP)|publisher=NBC News|date=November 24, 2011 }}</ref> This seems to indicate that Herod did not finish building the entire wall by the time of his death in 4 BCE. The find confirms the description by historian [[Josephus Flavius]], which states that construction was finished only during the reign of [[Agrippa II|King Agrippa II]], Herod's great-grandson.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.antiquities.org.il/about_eng.asp?Modul_id=14 |title=Building the Western Wall: Herod Began it but Didn't Finish it |publisher=Israel Antiquities Authority |access-date=November 23, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103024430/http://www.antiquities.org.il/about_eng.asp?Modul_id=14 |archive-date=November 3, 2011}}</ref> Given Josephus' information, the surprise mainly regarded the fact that an unfinished retaining wall in this area could also mean that at least parts of the splendid [[Royal Stoa (Jerusalem)|Royal Stoa]] and the [[Robinson's Arch|monumental staircase]] leading up to it could not have been completed during Herod's lifetime. Also surprising was the fact that the usually very thorough Herodian builders had cut corners by filling in the ritual bath, rather than placing the foundation course directly onto the much firmer bedrock. Some scholars are doubtful of the interpretation and have offered alternative explanations, such as, for example, later repair work.

[[Herod's Temple]] was destroyed by the [[Roman Empire|Romans]], along with the rest of Jerusalem, in 70 CE,<ref>Date is adjusted in some Jewish texts to read 68 CE. See [[chronology of the Bible#Rabbinic traditions|Chronology of the Bible]].</ref> during the [[First Jewish–Roman War]].

===Late Roman and Byzantine periods (135–638)===
During much of the 2nd–5th centuries of the [[Common Era]], after the Roman defeat of the [[Bar Kokhba revolt]] in 135 CE, Jews were banned from Jerusalem. There is some evidence that Roman emperors in the 2nd and 3rd centuries did permit them to visit the city to worship on the [[Mount of Olives]] and sometimes on the Temple Mount itself.<ref name=UJT>{{cite book |last=Neusner |first=Jacob |title=Understanding Jewish Theology |year=2001 |location=Global Academic Publishing |isbn=1-58684-090-8 |page=79 |chapter=Judaism and the Land of Israel |url=https://archive.org/details/understandingjew0000unse/page/}}</ref> When the empire started becoming Christian under [[Constantine I]], they were given permission to enter the city once a year, on the [[Tisha B'Av]], to lament the loss of the Temple at the wall.<ref>{{cite book |last=Harman |first=Graham |title=A History of Palestine |year=2008 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-11897-0 |page=24 |chapter=The Holiness of the "Holy Land" |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofpalesti00krea/page/}}</ref> The [[Itinerarium Burdigalense|Bordeaux Pilgrim]], who wrote in 333 CE, suggests that it was probably to the [[Foundation Stone|perforated stone]] or the Rock of Moriah, "to which the Jews come every year and anoint it, bewail themselves with groans, rend their garments, and so depart".This was because an imperial decree from Rome barred Jews from living in Jerusalem. Just once per year they were permitted to return and bitterly grieve about the fate of their people. Comparable accounts survive, including those by the Church Father, [[Gregory of Nazianzus]] (c. 329–390) and by [[Jerome]] in his commentary to [[Book of Zephaniah|Zephaniah]] written in 392 CE. In the 4th century, Christian sources reveal that the Jews encountered great difficulty in buying the right to pray near the Western Wall, at least on the 9th of Av.<ref name=UJT/> In 425 CE, the Jews of the Galilee wrote to Byzantine empress [[Aelia Eudocia]] seeking permission to pray by the ruins of the Temple. Permission was granted and they were officially permitted to resettle in Jerusalem.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gold |first=Dore |author-link=Dore Gold |title=The Fight for Jerusalem |year=2007 |publisher=Regnery |isbn=978-1-59698-029-7 |page=56 |url=https://archive.org/details/fightforjerusale00gold/page/}}</ref>

====Archaeology====
Discovery of underground rooms that could have been used as food storage carved out of the bedrock under the 1,400-year-old mosaic floor of Byzantine structure was announced by [[Israel Antiquities Authority]] in May in 2020.

"At first we were very disappointed because we found we hit the bedrock, meaning that the material culture, the human activity here in Jerusalem ended. What we found here was a rock-cut system—three rooms, all hewn in the bedrock of ancient Jerusalem" said co-director of the excavation Barak Monnickendam-Givon.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Researchers find ancient rooms under Jerusalem's Western Wall|url=https://www.thejakartapost.com/life/2020/05/20/researchers-find-ancient-rooms-under-jerusalems-western-wall.html|website=The Jakarta Post|language=en|access-date=2020-05-24}}</ref>

===Early Muslim to Mamluk period (638–1517)===
Several Jewish authors of the 10th and 11th centuries write about the Jews resorting to the Western Wall for devotional purposes.<ref>David M. Gitlitz & Linda Kay Davidson "Pilgrimage and the Jews" (Westport: CT: Praeger, 2006) 42–.</ref><ref name=report1930/> [[Ahimaaz ben Paltiel|Ahimaaz]] relates that Samuel ben Paltiel (980–1010) gave money for oil at "the sanctuary at the Western Wall."<ref name=Mann72>{{cite book |author=Jacob Mann|title=Texts and Studies in Jewish History and Literature: Ḳaraitica|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6muQAAAAIAAJ|access-date=May 17, 2013|year=1972|publisher=Ktav Pub. House|page=20|isbn=978-0870680854|quote=An improvement evidently took place after the Fatimid conquest in 970 when permission was granted to pray not at a gate but at the Western Wall (כותל מערבי). This permission may have been due to the intervention of Paltiel, the first Egyptian Nagid. Paltiel's son, Samuel, on the occasion of the transference' of his parents' remains to Jerusalem, donated among other gifts money for "oil for the sanctuary at the Western Wall, for the altar that is inside" (ושמן למקדש בכותל מערבי למזבח שבפנים).}}</ref><ref name=Bonfil09>{{cite book |author=R. Bonfil|title=History and Folklore in a Medieval Jewish Chronicle: The Family Chronicle of Aḥima'az Ben Paltiel|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QX6IYhQZ5MwC&pg=PA336|access-date=May 17, 2013|year=2009|publisher=Brill|isbn=978-90-04-17385-9|page=336}}</ref><ref name=Levanon80>{{cite book |author=Yosef Levanon|title=The Jewish travellers in the twelfth century |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XpBtAAAAMAAJ |access-date=May 17, 2013 |date=1980 |publisher=University Press of America|isbn=978-0-8191-1122-7|page=259|quote=The scroll of Ahim'as (11th century) speaks of a synagogue near the Western Wall.}}</ref> [[Benjamin of Tudela]] (1170) wrote "In front of this place is the western wall, which is one of the walls of the Holy of Holies. This is called the Gate of Mercy, and hither come all the Jews to pray before the Wall in the open court." The account gave rise to confusion about the actual location of Jewish worship, and some suggest that Benjamin in fact referred to the Eastern Wall along with its [[Golden Gate (Jerusalem)|Gate of Mercy]].<ref name=Goldhill09>{{cite book |author=Simon Goldhill|title=Jerusalem: City of Longing|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PoLEULaZHzAC&pg=PA74|access-date=May 20, 2013|year=2009|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-03468-6|pages=74–75|quote=Perhaps the earliest evidence for the Western Wall being used for prayer is found in the Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, who visited Jerusalem at some point between 1169 and 1171 on his long trip around the east from Spain, when the city was ruled by the Crusaders. […] This is a confused account: the Gate of Mercy is in the Eastern Wall. But it may imply that the Western Wall was also used for prayer.}}</ref><ref name=Philipson68>{{cite book |author=David Philipson|title=Hebrew Union College Annual|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Mnu1AAAAMAAJ|access-date=May 20, 2013|edition=1930|volume=6|year=1968|publisher=Hebrew Union College|page=7|quote=How this confusion between the Golden Gate and the Western Wall could have arisen it is difficult to imagine, unless it be due to the fact that both spots may have been favourite places of prayer for the Jews of the Middle Ages, just as the Western or Wailing Wall continues to be still today. The fact that this confusion seems to have existed only with Jewish travellers would tend to corroborate this hypothesis.}}</ref> While [[Nahmanides]] (d. 1270) did not mention a synagogue near the Western Wall in his detailed account of the temple site,<ref>{{cite book |author1=Fred Skolnik|author2=Michael Berenbaum|title=Encyclopaedia Judaica|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VkAOAQAAMAAJ|access-date=May 20, 2013|year=2007|publisher=Macmillan Reference |isbn=978-0-02-865949-7|page=25|quote=In the 12th century Benjamin of Tudela mentions Jews coming to the Western Wall for prayers and to the "Mercy Gate," but it is possible that the other walls to the south and east also served a similar purpose. Later visiting rabbis (12th–15th centuries) also refer to the walls of the Temple Mount, but they too, are not specific in terms of a gathering spot for Jewish worship along the Western Wall. The Western Wall is not mentioned at all by Nahmanides (13th century) in his detailed account of the Temple site in 1267 nor in the report of [[Ishtori Haparchi|Estori ha-Parhi]] (14th century). It does not figure even in descriptions of Jerusalem in Jewish sources of the 15th century (e.g., Meshullam of Volterra, [[Obadiah ben Abraham|Obadiah of Bertinoro]], etc.). The name Western Wall, used by Obadiah, refers—as can be inferred from the context—to the southwestern corner of the wall, and there is no hint that there was a place of Jewish worship there. It is only from the 16th century that Jews began praying at the present location and this is clear from the available sources. Thenceforth all literary sources describe it as a place of assembly and prayer for Jews. Transmitted by [[Moses Hagiz]], it was the sultan [[Selim I]], the conqueror of Jerusalem, who recovered the Wall from underneath the dungheap which was hiding it and granted permission to the Jews to hold prayers there.}}</ref> shortly before the [[First Crusade|Crusader period]] a synagogue existed at the site.<ref name=MG1>{{cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Gilbert |title=Jerusalem Illustrated History Atlas |year=1977 |publisher=[[Board of Deputies of British Jews]] |location=London |isbn=0-905648-04-8 |page=31 |chapter=The 'Wailing Wall' Under Ottoman rule 1517–1917}}</ref> [[Obadiah ben Abraham|Obadiah of Bertinoro]] (1488) states "the Western Wall, part of which is still standing, is made of great, thick stones, larger than any I have seen in buildings of antiquity in Rome or in other lands."<ref>{{cite book |last=Yaakov Dovid |first=Shulman |title=Pathway to Jerusalem |year=1992 |publisher=CIS Publishers |location=US |isbn=1-56062-130-3 |page=59 |chapter=A Letter to My Father}} Adler preferred the generic translation "western wall" rather than "Western Wall". {{cite book |author=Elkan Nathan Adler |title=Jewish Travellers in the Middle Ages |publisher=Dover |year=1987 |page=240}}</ref>

Shortly after [[Saladin]]'s 1187 [[Siege of Jerusalem (1187)|siege of the city]], in 1193, the sultan's son and successor [[Al-Afdal ibn Salah ad-Din|al-Afdal]] established the land adjacent to the wall as a [[waqf|charitable trust]] (''waqf''). The largest part of it was named after an important mystic, [[Abu Madyan|Abu Madyan Shu'aib]]. The Abu Madyan waqf was dedicated to [[Maghreb]]ian pilgrims and scholars who had taken up residence there, and houses were built only metres away from the wall, from which they were thus separated by just a narrow passageway,<ref>{{cite book |last=Harman |first=Graham |title=A History of Palestine |year=2008 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-11897-0|page=225 |chapter=The Mufti and the Wailing Wall |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofpalesti00krea/page/ |url-access=registration |access-date=13 December 2022}}</ref> some {{convert|4|m}} wide.{{citation needed|date=December 2022}}

The first likely mention of the Islamic tradition that Buraq was tethered at the site is from the 14th century. A manuscript by Ibrahim b. Ishaq al-Ansari (known as Ibn Furkah, d. 1328) refers to Bab al-Nabi ({{lit|Gate of the Prophet}}), an old name for [[Barclay's Gate]] below the Maghrebi Gate.<ref name=Ricca07>{{cite book |last=Ricca |first=Simone |title=Reinventing Jerusalem |year=2007 |publisher=[[I.B.Tauris]] |isbn=978-1-84511-387-2 |page=212 |chapter=Notes to Chapter One}}</ref><ref name=KhalidiPI>{{cite book |last=Khalidi |first=Rashid |title=Palestinian Identity |year=1997 |publisher=Columbia University Press |page=216}}</ref> Charles D. Matthews however, who edited al-Firkah's work, notes that other statements of al-Firkah might seem to point to the [[The Double Gate|Double Gate]] in the [[Southern Wall|southern wall]].<ref name=Matthews>{{cite journal |last=Matthews |first=Charles D. |title=The Wailing Wall and Al Buraq. Is the 'Wailing Wall' in Jerusalem the 'Wall of al-Buraq' of Moslem tradition? |year=1932 |pages=331–339 |journal=The Moslem World |volume=22 |number=4 |doi=10.1111/j.1478-1913.1932.tb03757.x |via=reprint in "Al-Haram ash-Sharif in Jerusalem: texts and studies", III, Collected and reprinted by [[Fuat Sezgin]] et al., Institute for the History of Arabic-Islamic Science, [[Frankfurt|Frankfurt/Main]] (2007), pp. 225–235 |url=https://www.answering-islam.org/Books/MW/al-buraq.htm |access-date=13 December 2022|issn =0027-4909}}</ref>

===Ottoman period (1517–1917)===
[[File:Wailing Wall by Gustav Bauernfeind.png|thumb|right|upright|''Wailing Wall, Jerusalem'' by [[Gustav Bauernfeind]] (19th century)]]

In 1517, the Turkish [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] under [[Selim I]] conquered Jerusalem from the [[Mamluk Sultanate (Cairo)|Mamluks]] who had held it since 1250. Selim's son, [[Sultan]] [[Suleiman the Magnificent]], ordered the construction of an imposing wall to be built around the entire city, which still stands today. Various folktales relate Suleiman's quest to locate the Temple site and his order to have the area "swept and sprinkled, and the Western Wall washed with rosewater" upon its discovery.<ref name=VilnayP61>{{harvnb|Vilnay|2003|pp=61–62}}</ref> According to a legend cited by [[Moses Hagiz]], Jews received official permission to worship at the site and Ottoman architect [[Mimar Sinan]] built an oratory for them there,<ref>{{Cite web |last=Hagiz |first=Moses |author-link=Moses Hagiz |title=פרשת אלה מסעי |url=https://hebrewbooks.org/20699 |access-date=|website=|pages=18ff}}</ref> but, as of [[Purim]] 1625, Jews were banned from praying on the Temple Mount and only sometimes dared to pray at the Western Wall, for which purpose a special liturgy had been arranged.<ref name=":0" /> Gedaliah of [[Siemiatycze]], who lived in Jerusalem from 1700 to 1706, reports that Jews then had access to the wall and would pray there as often as possible.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=of Siemiatycze |first=Gedaliah |title=קונטרס שאלו שלום ירושלים |publisher=Zalman Shazar |year=1963 |location=Jerusalem |pages=18–22}}</ref>

Over the centuries, land close to the Wall became built up. Public access to the Wall was through the [[Moroccan Quarter]], a labyrinth of narrow alleyways. In May 1840 a [[firman (decree)|firman]] issued by [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt|Ibrahim Pasha]] forbade the Jews to pave the passageway in front of the Wall. It also cautioned them against "raising their voices and displaying their books there." They were, however, allowed "to pay visits to it as of old."<ref name=report1930 />

{{interlanguage link|Rabbi Joseph Schwarz|he|יהוסף שוורץ}} writing in the mid-19th century records:

<blockquote>This wall is visited by all our brothers on every feast and festival; and the large space at its foot is often so densely filled up, that all cannot perform their devotions here at the same time. It is also visited, though by less numbers, on every Friday afternoon, and by some nearly every day. No one is molested in these visits by the Mahomedans, as we have a very old [[firman (decree)|firman]] from the Sultan of Constantinople that the approach shall not be denied to us, though the Porte obtains for this privilege a special tax, which is, however, quite insignificant.<ref>{{cite book |last=Schwarz |first=Joseph |title=Descriptive Geography and Brief Historical Sketch of Palestine |year=1850 |publisher=A. Hart |location=[[Philadelphia]] |chapter=Moriah, The Temple Mount |chapter-url=http://www.jewish-history.com/Palestine/moriah.html}}</ref></blockquote>

Over time the increased numbers of people gathering at the site resulted in tensions between the Jewish visitors who wanted easier access and more space, and the residents, who complained of the noise.<ref name=report1930 /> This gave rise to Jewish attempts at gaining ownership of the land adjacent to the Wall.
[[File:Koisel 1870.jpg|thumb|upright|The Western Wall in c. 1870, squeezed in by houses of the Moroccan Quarter, a century before they were demolished]]

In the late 1830s a wealthy Jew named Shemarya Luria attempted to purchase houses near the Wall, but was unsuccessful,<ref>{{cite book |last=Rossoff |first=Dovid |title=Where Heaven Touches Earth |year=1998 |publisher=Guardian Press |location=[[Jerusalem]] |isbn=0-87306-879-3 |page=186 |chapter=The Era of Suffering: 1800–1840}}</ref> as was Jewish sage Abdullah of Bombay who tried to purchase the Western Wall in the 1850s.<ref name=ANT>Baruch, Yuval. [http://www.antiquities.org.il/article_Item_eng.asp?sec_id=17&sub_subj_id=468 The Mughrabi Gate Access – the Real Story]. [[Israel Antiquities Authority]]</ref> In 1869 Rabbi Hillel Moshe Gelbstein settled in Jerusalem. He arranged that benches and tables be brought to the Wall on a daily basis for the study groups he organised and the [[minyan]] which he led there for years. He also formulated a plan whereby some of the courtyards facing the Wall would be acquired, with the intention of establishing three synagogues—one each for the [[Sephardi Jews|Sephardim]], the [[Hasidic Judaism|Hasidim]] and the [[Perushim]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Rossoff |first=Dovid |title=Where Heaven Touches Earth |year=1998 |publisher=Guardian Press |location=[[Jerusalem]] |isbn=0-87306-879-3 |page=231 |chapter=Bound Within the Walls: 1840–1870}}</ref> He also endeavoured to re-establish an ancient practice of "guards of honour", which according to the mishnah in [[Middot (Talmud)|Middot]], were positioned around the Temple Mount. He rented a house near the Wall and paid men to stand guard there and at various other gateways around the mount. However, this set-up lasted only for a short time due to lack of funds or because of Arab resentment.<ref name=SLC>{{cite book |last1=Ben Dov |first1=Meir |last2=Naor |first2=Mordechai |last3=Aner |first3=Ze'ev |title=The Western Wall |year=1983 |publisher=Ministry of Defence Publishing House |location=[[Israel]] |isbn=965-05-0055-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/westernwall00bend/page/ 83–97] |chapter=IV: Sanctity, Law and Customs|url=https://archive.org/details/westernwall00bend/page/}}</ref> In 1874, Mordechai Rosanes paid for the repaving of the alleyway adjacent to the wall.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Fred Skolnik|author2=Michael Berenbaum|title=Encyclopaedia Judaica: Ra-Sam|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gj8OAQAAMAAJ|year=2007|publisher=Macmillan Reference in association with the Keter Pub. House|isbn=978-0-02-865945-9|page=422|quote=His brother, Mordecai Rosanes, financed the paving of the Western Wall area in Jerusalem in 1874.}}</ref>

In 1887 [[Edmond James de Rothschild|Baron Rothschild]] conceived a plan to purchase and demolish the Moroccan Quarter as "a merit and honor to the Jewish People."<ref name=WHTE>{{cite book |last=Rossoff |first=Dovid |title=Where Heaven Touches Earth |year=1998 |publisher=Guardian Press |location=[[Jerusalem]] |isbn=0-87306-879-3 |pages=330–331 |chapter=Beyond the Walls: 1870–1900}}</ref> The proposed purchase was considered and approved by the Ottoman Governor of Jerusalem, Rauf Pasha, and by the Mufti of Jerusalem, [[Mohammed Tahir Husseini]]. Even after permission was obtained from the highest secular and Muslim religious authority to proceed, the transaction was shelved after the authorities insisted that after demolishing the quarter no construction of any type could take place there, only trees could be planted to beautify the area. Additionally the Jews would not have full control over the area. This meant that they would have no power to stop people from using the plaza for various activities, including the driving of mules, which would cause a disturbance to worshippers.<ref name=WHTE /> Other reports place the scheme's failure on Jewish infighting as to whether the plan would foster a detrimental Arab reaction.<ref>{{cite book |last=Stockman-Shomron |first=Israel |title=Israel, the Middle East and the Great Powers |year=1984 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |isbn=965-287-000-5 |page=43 |chapter=Jerusalem in Islam: Faith and Politics}}</ref>
[[File:Jew's Wailing Place, Jerusalem.jpg|thumb|Jews' Wailing Place, Jerusalem, 1891]]

In 1895 Hebrew linguist and publisher Rabbi [[Chaim Hirschensohn]] became entangled in a failed effort to purchase the Western Wall and lost all his assets.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.tau.ac.il/humanities/bronfman/kesher29.heb.html|title=The Hirschensohn Family of Publishers in Jerusalem, 1882–1908|last=Lang|first=Yossef |work=Kesher Issue 29}}</ref> The attempts of the [[Israel Land Development Company|Palestine Land Development Company]] to purchase the environs of the Western Wall for the Jews just before the outbreak of World War I also never came to fruition.<ref name=ANT/> In the first two months following the Ottoman Empire's entry into the First World War, the Turkish governor of Jerusalem, Zakey Bey, offered to sell the Moroccan Quarter, which consisted of about 25 houses, to the Jews in order to enlarge the area available to them for prayer. He requested a sum of £20,000 which would be used to both rehouse the Muslim families and to create a public garden in front of the Wall. However, the Jews of the city lacked the necessary funds. A few months later, under Muslim Arab pressure on the Turkish authorities in Jerusalem, Jews became forbidden by official decree to place benches and light candles at the Wall. This sour turn in relations was taken up by the [[Chacham Bashi]] who managed to get the ban overturned.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Gilbert |title=Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century |year=1996 |publisher=[[Chatto & Windus]] |location=London |isbn=0-7011-3070-9 |page=42 |chapter=War, 1914–1917}}</ref> In 1915 it was reported that Djemal Pasha, closed off the wall to visitation as a sanitary measure.<ref name=Adv>{{cite book |title=The Advocate: America's Jewish journal|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s1ccAQAAMAAJ|access-date=January 3, 2012 |year=1915 |page=638 |quote=According to a report in the Jaffa Hebrew weekly, Hapoel Hazair, the Commander of the Turkish Army, Djemal Pasha, has ordered a barricade to be placed across the approach to the Wailing Wall to prevent this place from being visited by Jews. The order is said to be based on sanitary grounds.}}</ref> Probably meant was the "[[Djemal Pasha|Great]]", rather than the "[[Cemal Mersinli|Small]]" Djemal Pasha.

{{Clear left}}

Decrees (''[[firman]]'')s issued regarding the Wall:
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year
! Issued by
! Content
|-
| c. 1560
| style=white-space:nowrap| [[Suleiman the Magnificent]]
| Official recognition of the right of Jews to pray by the Wall<ref name=Armstrong08>{{harvnb|Armstrong|2001}} "In the 16th century, Ottoman Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent permitted the Jews to make the Western Wall their official holy place and had his court architect Sinan build an oratory for them there."</ref><ref name=Gonen03>{{harvnb|Gonen|2003|pp=135–137}} "It is possible that official recognition of the right of Jews to pray by the Wall was granted already in the second half of the sixteenth century by a ''firman'' (official decree) issued by Suleiman the Magnificent. This firman may have been related to the efforts of the Ottoman ruler to lure Jews to Palestine as a counterbalance to the Arab population, which had rebelled against the new rulers, who were Turkish rather than Arabs."</ref>
|-
| 1840
| style=white-space:nowrap| [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt]]
| Forbidding the Jews to pave the passage in front of the Wall. It also cautioned them against "raising their voices and displaying their books there." They were, however, allowed "to pay visits to it as of old."<ref name=report1930 />
|-
| 1841*
| style=white-space:nowrap| [[Ibrahim Pasha of Egypt]]
| "Of the same bearing and likewise to two others of 1893 and 1909"<ref name=report1930 />
|-
| 1889*
| style=white-space:nowrap| [[Abdul Hamid II]]
| That there shall be no interference with the Jews' places of devotional visits and of pilgrimage, that are situated in the localities which are dependent on the Chief Rabbinate, nor with the practice of their ritual.<ref name=report1930 />
|-
| 1893*
| 
| Confirming firman of 1889<ref name=report1930/>
|-
| 1909*
| 
| Confirming firman of 1889<ref name=report1930/>
|-
| 1911
| style=white-space:nowrap| Administrative Council of the [[Liwa (Arabic)|Liwa]]
| Prohibiting the Jews from certain [[appurtenances]] at the Wall<ref name=report1930 />
|}

:* These firmans were cited by the Jewish contingent at the International Commission, 1930, as proof for rights at the Wall. Muslim authorities responded by arguing that historic sanctions of Jewish presence were [[Toleration|acts of tolerance]] shown by Muslims, who, by doing so, did not concede any [[Negative and positive rights|positive rights]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://unispal.un.org/UNISPAL.NSF/9a798adbf322aff38525617b006d88d7/59a92104ed00dc468525625b00527fea?OpenDocument |title=Report of the Commission appointed by His Majesty's Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, with the approval of the Council of the League of Nations, to determine the rights and claims of Moslems and Jews in connection with the Western or Wailing Wall at Jerusalem |date=December 1930 |publisher=United Nations |access-date=December 20, 2009}}</ref>

===British rule (1917–1948)===
[[File:Jewish legion hakotel 1917.jpg|thumb|right|[[Jewish Legion]] soldiers at the Western Wall after British conquest of Jerusalem, 1917]]
[[File:Historical images of the Western Wall - 1920 C SR 016b.JPG|thumb|right|1920. From the collection of the [[National Library of Israel]]]]

In December 1917, Allied forces under [[Edmund Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby|Edmund Allenby]] [[Battle of Jerusalem (1917)|captured Jerusalem]] from the Turks. Allenby pledged "that every sacred building, monument, holy spot, shrine, traditional site, endowment, pious bequest, or customary place of prayer of whatsoever form of the three religions will be maintained and protected according to the existing customs and beliefs of those to whose faith they are sacred".<ref>{{cite book |last=Janin |first=Hunt |title=Four Paths to Jerusalem |year=2002 |publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland]] |isbn=0-7864-1264-X |page=192 |chapter=Pilgrimages During the British Mandate and Under the Israelis (1917–2001)
|url=https://archive.org/details/fourpathstojerus0000jani/page/}}</ref>

In 1919 Zionist leader [[Chaim Weizmann]] approached the British Military Governor of Jerusalem, Colonel [[Sir Ronald Storrs]], and offered between £75,000<ref name=MG>{{cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Gilbert |title=Jerusalem in the Twentieth Century |year=1996 |publisher=[[Chatto & Windus]] |location=London |isbn=0-7011-3070-9 |page=69 |chapter=British Military Rule, 1918–1919}}</ref> and £100,000<ref name=BW>{{cite book |last=Wasserstein |first=Bernard |title=Divided Jerusalem |year=2001 |publisher=[[Profile Books]] |location=London |isbn=1-86197-333-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/dividedjerusalem0000wass/page/ 323] |chapter=Trouble on the Temple Mount|url=https://archive.org/details/dividedjerusalem0000wass/page/}}</ref> (approx. £5m in modern terms) to purchase the area at the foot of the Wall and rehouse the occupants. Storrs was enthusiastic about the idea because he hoped some of the money would be used to improve Muslim education. Although they appeared promising at first, negotiations broke down after strong Muslim opposition.<ref name=BW/><ref>{{cite book |last=Shepherd |first=Naomi |title=Ploughing Sand: British Rule in Palestine |year=1999 |publisher=[[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]] |location=London |isbn=0-7195-5707-0 |page=42 |chapter=From Conquest to Colony}}</ref> Storrs wrote two decades later:
<blockquote>The acceptance of the proposals, had it been practicable, would have obviated years of wretched humiliations, including the befouling of the Wall and pavement and the unmannerly braying of the tragi-comic Arab band during Jewish prayer, and culminating in the horrible outrages of 1929.<ref name=MG /></blockquote>

In early 1920, the first Jewish-Arab dispute over the Wall occurred when the Muslim authorities were carrying out minor repair works to the Wall's upper courses. The Jews, while agreeing that the works were necessary, appealed to the British that they be made under supervision of the newly formed Department of Antiquities, because the Wall was an ancient relic.<ref>{{harvnb|Gonen|2003|p=}}</ref>

According to Hillel Halkin, in the 1920s, among rising tensions with the Jews regarding the wall, the Arabs ceased using the more traditional name El-Mabka, "the Place of Weeping", which related to Jewish practices, and replaced it with El-Burak, a name with Muslim connotations.<ref name=Halkin01 />

In 1926 an effort was made to lease the Maghrebi ''waqf'', which included the wall, with the plan of eventually buying it.<ref name=BWbook>{{cite book |author=Bernhard Wasserstein |title=The British in Palestine |year=1978 |publisher=Royal Historical Society |place=London |pages=224–227}}</ref> Negotiations were begun in secret by the Jewish judge [[Gad Frumkin]], with financial backing from American millionaire [[Nathan Straus]].<ref name=BWbook /> The chairman of the Palestine Zionist Executive, Colonel [[F. H. Kisch]], explained that the aim was "quietly to evacuate the Moroccan occupants of those houses which it would later be necessary to demolish" to create an open space with seats for aged worshippers to sit on.<ref name=BWbook /> However, Straus withdrew when the price became excessive and the plan came to nothing.<ref>{{cite book |author=Tom Segev |title=One Palestine, Complete |page=301 |publisher=Abacus |year=2001}}</ref> The [[Va'ad Leumi]], against the advice of the Palestine Zionist Executive, demanded that the British expropriate the wall and give it to the Jews, but the British refused.<ref name=BWbook />

In 1928 the [[World Zionist Organization]] reported that [[John Chancellor (British administrator)|John Chancellor]], High Commissioner of Palestine, believed that the Western Wall should come under Jewish control and wondered "why no great Jewish philanthropist had not bought it yet".<ref>{{cite book |last=Shepherd |first=Naomi |title=Ploughing Sand: British Rule in Palestine |year=1999 |publisher=[[John Murray (publishing house)|John Murray]] |location=London |isbn=0-7195-5707-0 |page=11 |chapter=The Law Factory}}</ref>

====September 1928 disturbances====
In 1922, a Status Quo agreement issued by the mandatory authority forbade the placing of benches or chairs near the Wall. The last occurrence of such a ban was in 1915, but the Ottoman decree was soon retracted after intervention of the [[Chacham Bashi]]. In 1928 the District Commissioner of Jerusalem, [[Edward Keith-Roach]], acceded to an Arab request to implement the ban. This led to a British officer being stationed at the Wall making sure that Jews were prevented from sitting. Nor were Jews permitted to separate the sexes with a screen. In practice, a flexible [[modus vivendi]] had emerged and such screens had been put up from time to time when large numbers of people gathered to pray.
[[File:Kotel jerusalem.jpg|thumb|upright|The placing of a ''[[Mechitza]]'' similar to the one in the picture was the catalyst for confrontation between the Arabs, Jews and Mandate authorities in 1928.]]

On September 24, 1928, the [[Yom Kippur|Day of Atonement]], British police resorted to removing by force a [[Mechitza|screen]] used to separate men and women at prayer. Women who tried to prevent the screen being dismantled were beaten by the police, who used pieces of the broken wooden frame as clubs. Chairs were then pulled out from under elderly worshipers. The episode made international news and Jews the world over objected to the British action. [[Yosef Chaim Sonnenfeld]], the Chief Rabbi of the [[Haredi]] Jews in Jerusalem, issued a protest letter on behalf of his community, the [[Edah HaChareidis]] and [[World Agudath Israel|Agudas Yisroel]], strongly condemning the desecration of the holy site. Various communal leaders called for a general strike. A large rally was held in the [[Etz Chaim Yeshiva]], following which an angry crowd attacked the local police station in which they believed [[Douglas Valder Duff]], the British officer involved, was sheltering.<ref name=GoJ>{{cite book |last=Danziger |first=Hillel |title=Guardian of Jerusalem |year=1990 |publisher=[[Artscroll]]|location=New York |isbn=0-89906-458-2 |pages=452–470 |chapter=The Kosel Affair}}</ref>

Commissioner Edward Keith-Roach described the screen as violating the [[Status Quo (Jerusalem and Bethlehem)|Ottoman status quo]] that forbade Jews from making any construction in the Western Wall area. He informed the Jewish community that the removal had been carried out under his orders after receiving a complaint from the [[Supreme Muslim Council]]. The Arabs were concerned that the Jews were trying to extend their rights at the wall and with this move, ultimately intended to take possession of the [[Temple Mount|Masjid Al-Aqsa]].<ref name=PYIL>{{cite book |last=Kassim |first=Anis F. |title=The Palestine Yearbook of International Law 1996–1997 |year=1998 |publisher=Martinus Nijhoff |isbn=90-411-1009-7 |page=375 |chapter=Special Report}}</ref> The British government issued an announcement explaining the incident and blaming the Jewish [[gabbai|beadle]] at the Wall. It stressed that the removal of the screen was necessary, but expressed regret over the ensuing events.<ref name=GoJ/>

A widespread Arab campaign to protest against presumed Jewish intentions and designs to take possession of the Al Aqsa Mosque swept the country and a "Society for the Protection of the Muslim Holy Places" was established.<ref>{{cite book |last=Kayyālī |first=Abd al-Wahhāb |title=Palestine: A Modern History |year=1978 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0-85664-635-0 |page=139 |chapter=The Lull: 1923–1929}}</ref> The [[Jewish National Council]] (Vaad Leumi) responding to these Arab fears declared in a statement that "We herewith declare emphatically and sincerely that no Jew has ever thought of encroaching upon the rights of Moslems over their own Holy places, but our Arab brethren should also recognise the rights of Jews in regard to the places in Palestine which are holy to them."<ref name=PYIL /> The committee also demanded that the British administration expropriate the wall for the Jews.<ref name=OR>{{cite book |last=Ovendale |first=Ritchie |title=The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Wars |year=2004 |publisher=Pearson Education |isbn=0-582-82320-X |page=71 |chapter=British Paramountcy over Arabs and Zionists}}</ref>

From October 1928 onward, Mufti [[Amin al-Husayni]] organised a series of measures to demonstrate the Arabs' exclusive claims to the Temple Mount and its environs. He ordered new construction next to and above the Western Wall.<ref>{{cite book |last=Dershowitz |first=Alan |author-link=Alan Dershowitz |title=The Case For Israel |year=2003 |publisher=[[John Wiley & Sons]] |location=[[Hoboken, New Jersey]] |isbn=0-471-46502-X |page=43 |chapter=5: Were the Jews Unwilling to Share Palestine?
|url=https://archive.org/details/caseforisraelders00ders}}</ref> The British granted the Arabs permission to convert a building adjoining the Wall into a mosque and to add a minaret. A [[muezzin]] was appointed to perform the [[adhan|Islamic call to prayer]] and [[dhikr|Sufi rites]] directly next to the Wall. These were seen as a provocation by the Jews who prayed at the Wall.<ref>{{cite book |last=Ovendale |first=Ritchie |title=The Origins of the Arab-Israeli Wars |year=2004 |publisher=[[Pearson Education]] |isbn=0-582-82320-X |page=71 |chapter=The "Wailing Wall" Riots |quote=The Mufti tried to establish Muslim rights and the Jews were deliberately antagonised by building works and noise.}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Harman |first=Graham |title=A History of Palestine |year=2008 |publisher=[[Princeton University Press]] |isbn=978-0-691-11897-0 |page=230 |chapter=The Mufti and the Wailing Wall |quote=From 1929 onward, the Supreme Muslim Council intensified construction work on the Haram al-Sharif in order to demonstrate their exclusive claims to the Temple Mount (...) Not without reason, Jewish believers felt disturbed in their prayer. |url=https://archive.org/details/historyofpalesti00krea/page/}}</ref> The Jews protested and tensions increased.
[[File:Western Wall Jerusalem 1933.jpg|thumb|upright|British police post at the entrance to the Western Wall, 1933]]
[[File:British police wailing wall1.jpg|thumb|upright|British police at the Wailing Wall, 1934]]

A British inquiry into the disturbances and investigation regarding the principal issue in the Western Wall dispute, namely the rights of the Jewish worshipers to bring appurtenances to the wall, was convened. The Supreme Muslim Council provided documents dating from the Turkish regime supporting their claims. However, repeated reminders to the Chief Rabbinate to verify which apparatus had been permitted failed to elicit any response. They refused to do so, arguing that Jews had the right to pray at the Wall without restrictions.<ref name=VI>{{cite book |last1=Ben Dov |first1=Meir |last2=Naor |first2=Mordechai |last3=Aner |first3=Ze'ev |title=The Western Wall |year=1983 |publisher=Ministry of Defence Publishing House |location=[[Israel]] |isbn=965-05-0055-3 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/westernwall00bend/page/ 123–137] |chapter=VI: The Struggle for the Wall |url=https://archive.org/details/westernwall00bend/page/}}</ref> Subsequently, in November 1928, the Government issued a White Paper entitled "The Western or Wailing Wall in Jerusalem: Memorandum by the Secretary of State for the Colonies", which emphasised the maintenance of the ''status quo'' and instructed that Jews could only bring "those accessories which had been permitted in Turkish times."<ref>{{cite web |title='File 15/18 Foreign and Political Department Circulars Received From the Govt of India' IOR/R/15/2/1461|url=http://www.qdl.qa/en/archive/81055/vdc_100023731157.0x000010|publisher=Qatar Digital Library|date=August 29, 2014}}</ref>

A few months later, Haj Amin complained to [[John Chancellor (British administrator)|Chancellor]] that "Jews were bringing benches and tables in increased numbers to the wall and driving nails into the wall and hanging lamps on them."<ref>{{cite book |last=Kayyālī |first=Abd al-Wahhāb |title=Palestine: A Modern History |year=1978 |publisher=[[Routledge]] |isbn=0-85664-635-0 |page=140 |chapter=The Lull: 1923–1929}}</ref>

====1929 Palestine riots====
:{{Main|1929 Palestine riots}}
In the summer of 1929, the Mufti [[Amin al-Husseini|Haj Amin Al Husseinni]] ordered an opening be made at the southern end of the alleyway which straddled the Wall. The former cul-de-sac became a thoroughfare which led from the Temple Mount into the prayer area at the Wall. Mules were herded through the narrow alley, often dropping excrement. This, together with other construction projects in the vicinity, and restricted access to the Wall, resulted in Jewish protests to the British, who remained indifferent.<ref name=VI />

On August 14, 1929, after attacks on individual Jews praying at the Wall, 6,000 Jews demonstrated in Tel Aviv, shouting "The Wall is ours." The next day, the Jewish fast of [[Tisha B'Av]], 300 youths raised the Zionist flag and sang [[Hatikva]] at the Wall.<ref name=OR /> The day after, on August 16, an organized mob of 2,000 Muslim Arabs descended on the Western Wall, injuring the beadle and burning prayer books, liturgical fixtures and notes of supplication. The rioting spread to the Jewish commercial area of town, and was followed a few days later by the [[1929 Hebron massacre|Hebron massacre]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Gilbert |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Gilbert |title=Jerusalem llustrated History Atlas |year=1977 |publisher=[[Board of Deputies of British Jews]] |location=London |isbn=0-905648-04-8 |page=79 |chapter=Jerusalem, Zionism and the Arab Revolt 1920–1940}}</ref> One hundred and thirty-three Jews were killed and 339 injured in the Arab riots, and in the subsequent process of quelling the riots 110 Arabs were killed by British police. This was by far the deadliest attack on Jews during the period of British Rule over Palestine.

====1930 international commission====
{{Main|International Commission for the Wailing Wall}}
In 1930, in response to the 1929 riots, the British Government appointed a commission "to determine the rights and claims of Muslims and Jews in connection with the Western or Wailing Wall", and to determine the causes of the violence and prevent it in the future. The [[League of Nations]] approved the commission on condition that the members were not British.

The Commission noted that "the Jews do not claim any proprietorship to the Wall or to the Pavement in front of it (concluding speech of Jewish Counsel, Minutes, page 908)."
[[File:Anglo-American Committee at the Western Wall.jpg|thumb|Members of the [[Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry]] at the Western Wall, 1946]]

The Commission concluded that the wall, and the adjacent pavement and Moroccan Quarter, were solely owned by the Muslim ''[[Jerusalem Islamic Waqf|waqf]]''. However, Jews had the right to "free access to the Western Wall for the purpose of devotions at all times", subject to some stipulations that limited which objects could be brought to the Wall and forbade the blowing of the [[shofar]], which was made illegal. Muslims were forbidden to disrupt Jewish devotions by driving animals or other means.<ref name=report1930/>

The recommendations of the Commission were brought into law by the Palestine (Western or Wailing Wall) Order in Council, 1931, which came into effect on June 8, 1931.<ref name=Gaz31>Palestine (Western or Wailing Wall) Order in Council, 1931, ''Official Gazette of the Government of Palestine, Gazette Extraordinary'' (Suppl. No. 8/1931), June 8, 1931, pp. 464–468; also printed in ''The Palestine Yearbook of International Law'', Vol. 9, Iss. 1, pp. 411ff.</ref> Persons violating the law were liable to a fine of 50 pounds or imprisonment up to 6 months, or both.<ref name=Gaz31 />

During the 1930s, at the conclusion of Yom Kippur, young Jews persistently flouted the shofar ban each year and blew the shofar resulting in their arrest and prosecution. They were usually fined or sentenced to imprisonment for three to six months. The Shaw commission determined that the violence occurred due to "racial animosity on the part of the Arabs, consequent upon the disappointment of their political and national aspirations and fear for their economic future."

===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>

===First years under Israeli rule (1967–1969)===
====Declarations after the conquest====
[[File:צנחנים בכותל המערבי.jpg|thumb|right|The iconic image of Israeli soldiers shortly after the capture of the Wall during the [[Six-Day War]]]]

Following Israel's victory during the 1967 [[Six-Day War]], the Western Wall came under Israeli control. Brigadier Rabbi [[Shlomo Goren]] proclaimed after its capture that "Israel would never again relinquish the Wall", a stance supported by Israeli Minister for Defence [[Moshe Dayan]] and Chief of Staff General [[Yitzhak Rabin]].<ref name=JR67>{{cite book |author1=Maurice David Japheth |author2=P. K. Rajiv |title=The Arab Israel conflict: an Indian viewpoint |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3qm7AAAAIAAJ |year=1967 |publisher=Pearl Publications |page=19 |quote=The Chief Chaplain of the Army, Brigadier (Rabbi) Goren, offered prayers for four hours at the Wall. He proclaimed that Israel would never again relinquish the Wall. A little later, the Minister for Defence, Moshe Dayan, accompanied by the Chief of Staff, General Yitzhak Rabin, arrived. They repeated the pledge of the Rabbi. "Today we have reunited Jerusalem. We have returned to all that is holy in our land. We have returned, never to be parted from it again," Dayan said.}}</ref> Rabin described the moment Israeli soldiers reached the Wall:

<blockquote>"There was one moment in the Six-Day War which symbolized the great victory: that was the moment in which the first paratroopers—under [[Mordechai Gur|Gur]]'s command—reached the stones of the Western Wall, feeling the emotion of the place; there never was, and never will be, another moment like it. Nobody staged that moment. Nobody planned it in advance. Nobody prepared it and nobody was prepared for it; it was as if Providence had directed the whole thing: the paratroopers weeping—loudly and in pain—over their comrades who had fallen along the way, the words of the [[Kaddish]] prayer heard by Western Wall's stones after 19 years of silence, tears of mourning, shouts of joy, and the singing of '[[Hatikvah]]'".<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mfa.gov.il/MFA/Foreign+Relations/Israels+Foreign+Relations+since+1947/1995-1996/Address+to+the+Knesset+by+Prime+Minister+Rabin+on+Jerusalem.htm |title=Address to the Knesset by Prime Minister Rabin on Jerusalem, May 29, 1995 |last=Rabin |first=Yitzchak |date=May 29, 1995 |publisher=Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs}}</ref></blockquote>

====Demolition of the Moroccan Quarter====
[[File:Western Wall area and Moroccan Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem map by Survey of Palestine map 1-2,500 (cropped).jpg|thumb|left|Moroccan Quarter (cell J9) surrounding the Western Wall (numbered 62) in the 1947 [[Survey of Palestine]] map. The two mosques demolished after 1967 are shown in red.]]

Forty-eight hours after capturing the wall, the military, without explicit government order,{{sfn|Gorenberg|2007|p=45}} hastily proceeded to demolish the entire [[Moroccan Quarter]], which stood {{convert|4|m}} from the Wall.<ref>Joost R. Hiltermann, 'Teddy Kollek and the Native Question,' in Annelies Moors, Toine van Teeffelen, Sharif Kanaana, Ilham Abu Ghazaleh (eds.) [https://books.google.com/books?id=FsjgmSPiWvsC&pg=PA55 ''Discourse and Palestine: Power, Text and Context''], Het Spinhuis, 1995 pp. 55–65 [55–56]</ref> The Sheikh Eid Mosque, built on the site of one of Jerusalem's earliest [[madrassa|Islamic schools]] (the ''Afdiliyyah''), was pulled down to make way for the plaza.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Kedar |first=Benjamin Z. |last2=Weksler-Bdolah |first2=Shlomit |last3=Da'ādli |first3=Tawfiq |date=2012 |title=The Madrasa Afḍaliyya / Maqām Al-Shaykh 'Īd: An Example of Ayyubid Architecture in Jerusalem |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44092161 |journal=Revue Biblique (1946-) |volume=119 |issue=2 |pages=271–287 |issn=0035-0907}}</ref> 106 Arab families consisting of 650 people were ordered to leave their homes at night. When they refused, bulldozers began to demolish the buildings with people still inside, killing one person and injuring a number of others.<ref>{{cite book |author=Tom Segev |title=1967 |publisher=Metropolitan Books |year=2007 |pages=400–401}}</ref><ref>Ari Shavit,[http://www.haaretz.com/weekend/magazine/jerusalem-born-thinker-meron-benvenisti-has-a-message-for-israelis-stop-whining.premium-1.469447 'Jerusalem-born thinker Meron Benvenisti has a message for Israelis: Stop whining,'] ''[[Haaretz]]'', October 11, 2012.</ref><ref>[[Gershom Gorenberg]], ''The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount''. Oxford University Press, 2002 p. 102.</ref><ref>[[Henry Cattan]], ''The Palestine Question'', Taylor & Francis, 1988 p. 256.</ref>

According to [[Eyal Weizman]], [[Chaim Herzog]], who later became Israel's sixth president, took much of the credit for the destruction of the neighbourhood:

<blockquote>When we visited the Wailing Wall we found a toilet attached to it ... we decided to remove it and from this we came to the conclusion that we could evacuate the entire area in front of the Wailing Wall ... a historical opportunity that will never return. ... We knew that the following Saturday [sic Wednesday], June 14, would be the Jewish festival of [[Shavuot]] and that many will want to come to pray ... it all had to be completed by then.<ref>{{cite book |last=Weizman |first=Eyal |title=Hollow Land |year=2007 |publisher=[[Verso Books|Verso]] |location=London |isbn=978-1-84467-125-0 |page=38|url=https://archive.org/details/hollowlandisrael00weiz}}</ref></blockquote>

The narrow pavement, which could accommodate a maximum of 12,000 per day, was transformed into an enormous plaza that could hold in excess of 400,000.<ref>{{cite book |last=Teller |first=Matthew |title=Nine Quarters of Jerusalem |year=2022 |publisher=[[Other Press]] |isbn=978-1-6354-2335-8 |chapter=12}}</ref> Several months later, the pavement close to the wall was excavated to a depth of two and half metres, exposing an additional two courses of large stones.<ref>{{cite book |author=Meron Benvenisti |title=Jerusalem: the Torn City |year=1976 |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |pages=312–313}}</ref>

A complex of buildings against the wall at the southern end of the plaza, that included Madrasa Fakhriya and the house that the Abu al-Sa'ud family had occupied since the 16th century, were spared in the 1967 destruction, but demolished in 1969.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Cbd1ALFq9hAC&dq=simone+ricca+fakhiriya&pg=PA67 Reinventing Jerusalem: Israel's Reconstruction of the Jewish Quarter after 1967, Simone Ricca], pp. 67–113</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Unearthing Jerusalem: 150 Years of Archaeological Research in the Holy City |editor=Gideon Avni and Katharina Galor |chapter=Mamluk and Ottoman Jerusalem |author=Robert Schick |pages=475–490}}</ref> The section of the wall dedicated to prayers was thus extended southwards to double its original length, from {{convert|28|to|60|m}}, while the {{convert|4|m}} space facing the wall grew to {{convert|40|m}}.

The narrow, approximately {{convert|120|m2}} pre-1948 alley along the wall, used for Jewish prayer, was enlarged to {{convert|2400|m2}}, with the entire Western Wall Plaza covering {{convert|20000|m2|acre}}, stretching from the wall to the Jewish Quarter.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.jerusalemquarterly.org/ViewArticle.aspx?id=104 |title=Heritage, Nationalism and the Shifting Symbolism of the Wailing Wall; June 1967: Erasing The Past |last=Ricca |first=Simone |date=Summer 2005 |publisher=[[Institute for Palestine Studies|Institute of Jerusalem (Palestine) Studies]]}}</ref>