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Western Wall in Jerusalem

Introduction

Jerusalem is considered a holy place for three major religions in the world, namely, Judaism, Christanity and Islam. Jerusalem is located in the state of Israel and western wall is situtated in East Jerusalem. It is close to five hundred meters in length, its thick walls of limestone are around fifty seven meters high (Heilman,C. 2012). The wall above ground has twenty-four rows of different styles and time period. Most of the wall is part of other surrounding structures in the area. In 1867, it was discovered that nineteen more rows were buried underground. For Muslims, the most acclaimed place after a pilgrimage to Mecca is the Dome of the Rock. The rock denotes the place where Abraham took his son Isaac to the Lord and where Prophet Muhammad (c. 570-632) ascended from Paradise.

The exact place is considered by Jews as the capital of Judea which was headed by King David (d. 932. B.C.E). This Wall is considered to be the only remains of the great Temple that was destroyed by the Romans in 70 C.E. Christians believe that this city was the place where Jesus (c.6 B.C.E) was crucified. The Church of Sepulchre was constructed over the place assumed to be Christ's resting place (Firestone,R. 2012). The original site of the temple is in disagreement between Arabs and Jews According to Jewish beliefs the Western Wall was part of their sacred Second Temple (Mattar,P. 2012). Arabs argue that this is a structural part of Al Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount. The wall inherited the name “Wailing Wall” or “Place of Weeping” by the Arabs in the nineteenth century.

The Wailing Wall remains the most blessed place for Jews and other groups residing in Jerusalem, people of all religious backgrounds stick prayers between the walls. In 1520, the Wall became a permanent aspect of Jews tradition (Heilman,C. 2012).. All legendary sources described it as a religious place of worship for the Jews. According to one emic belief of Moses Hafiz, it was the Suleiman, the vanquisher of Jerusalem who found the Wall which was hiding under other construction. It was he who granted permission to Jews to worship there.

At the end of the twelfth century, Muslim sentiments towards the Wall are mentioned in the literary sources (Mattar,P. 2012). In 1928, the Zionist groups of Jews were rapidly growing stronger, the economy of the Jewish community was getting strong and their political presence was increasing. So, they were in a position to purchase the wall. In the same year, Jews visited the wall on their holiest day and placed a screen to separate men from women (Firestone,R. 2012). There was a revolt by the Muslims who claimed 'innovation' was unacceptable and took the matter to the British authorities (Anonymous, 2005) who removed the screen. The matter further worsened when the Zionist group demanded rights over the wall and Muslims destroyed prayer slips in retaliation. This lead to fierce violence between Palestinians ...