The wailing wall

Millions of people peregrinate from places all over the world. This place is one of the most sacred places all over the world, millions of Jews believe that is the ear of God. What am talking about? Im talking about the Western Wall. The western wall, known also as Wailing Wall, is believed by many Jews to be the remains of one wall of a great Jewish temple or the wall surrounding the temple's courtyard. It is a stone wall that extends about 18.9 m above the ground. The thousands of people including tourists of other religious backgrounds, go to pray at the wall because they believe they are immediately heard by god. People who cannot pray at the wall can send their prayers or ask for the Kaddish, a specific Jewish prayer, to be said for departed loved ones. Prayers that are sent in are placed, written in small pieces of paper, into small cracks of the walls and are called kvitelach. When the small pieces of papers become too numerous, they are removed and buried. The wall is located in the Old City of Jerusalem at the foot of the western side of the Temple Mount. The main section of the wall, where people go to pray, is about 57 m long and is made of meleke limestone. There are two separate sections for prayers, one for men and the other one for women. There is a general request for every person who goes to pray in the wall and this is that every single person must be dressed modestly so that no one gets offended about the way another person is dressed. Besides, men are also requested to wear a head covering while they are praying or close to the praying areas of the wall. The wailing wall has been historical about the dispute between Jews and Muslims, who consider the wall to be part of an ancient mosque because this wall is, according to the Jews, the last place standing of one of the most important temple of their religion. Instead, For the Muslims the wall is considered important because of Al-Buraq, the winged steed that Muhammad is said to have ridden. The reason why Muslims do not call the wall the same way Jews do is that Muslims call the wall as Al-Buraq Wall, because according to them Muhammad tied Al-Buraq to the cracks of the wall and that is why they prefer to call the wall as Al-Buraq. According to them that place is a legitimate Muslim place. As a result Muslims are really against people calling the wall as Wailing Wall and they try to make it about convincing as many people as they can to call the wall in a more proper way. Actually, the term Wailing wall which is the term used by the majority of people who travel to this place is wrong. The correct way of calling it is: Western Wall. This is because of the place where the wall is placed and not about any religious view, so that there is no need to discuss about the religion to which the wall belongs to.

During the more than 3,500 years of its history, Jerusalem has been attacked and captured dozens of times. Control of the city and the Wailing Wall continued to be a point of contention in the 20th and early 21st centuries. Arab leaders controlled the wall during the first part of the 20th century, but with the establishment of Israel, Jews gained control of the wall in 1967. There is still much underlying bitterness regarding this place, however, which has contributed to the poor relationships between Arabic countries and Israel. Although enmity has remained between Jews and Muslims, the Wailing Wall has been the site of reconciliation between Jews and Catholics. In 2000, Pope John Paul II became the first pope to pray at the wall. He also apologized for centuries of Catholic persecution of Jews, referring to them as the Catholics' "elder brothers."

Some issues worth to mention are: From the mid-19th century onwards, attempts to purchase rights to the wall and its immediate area were made by various Jews, but none were successful. With the rise of the Zionist movement in the early 20th-century, the wall became a source of friction between the Jewish community and the Muslim religious leadership, who were worried that the wall was being used to further Jewish nationalistic claims to the Temple Mount and Jerusalem. Outbreaks of violence at the foot of the wall became commonplace and an international commission was convened in 1930 to determine the rights and claims of Muslims and Jews in connection with the wall. After the 1948 Arab-Israeli War the wall came under Jordanian control and Jews were barred from the site for 19 years until Israel captured the Old City in 1967.

All these things point out that the differences between Muslims and Jews will exist as long as the wall exists, because they will always claim that the wall is theirs no matter the other sides opinion or statements they use. No matter the religion, the wall must be conserved because of its historical value and the facts that have started having the wall as the main issue.