November 18, 2014

Two men armed with a pistol and meat cleavers attacked Orthodox Jews in a synagogue in West Jerusalem this morning. Four rabbis were killed and eight others injured before police shot and killed the Palestinian attackers. Three of the four victims were United States citizens. The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem are at a fever pitch. Six people–including a baby, a soldier and a border police officer–have been killed in recent weeks in violence connected to the revival of an ancient dispute over rights of worship at a site within the walls of the Old City.

The areas in Jerusalem under contention are in the Old City. (World Book map)

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly refused to lift restrictions on Jews praying at the Jerusalem site known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount. The site, which Muslims regard as sacred, includes the al-Aqsa Mosque compound and the Dome of the Rock. Pushing back against right-wing Cabinet ministers and members of the Knesset, Netanyahu insisted that there will be no change in the status quo regarding the historic site of the ancient Jewish First and Second Temples. (The First Temple, built by Solomon, was destroyed by Nebuchadnezzar II after the Siege of Jerusalem of 587 B.C.; the Second Temple, built by Herod the Great, was destroyed by the Roman Emperor Titus in A.D. 70.)

Under longstanding arrangements for the site’s administration, Jews and Christians are allowed to visit but not to pray. Demands by Jewish extremists for greater access to the site are blamed by both Israelis and Palestinians for the upswing in violent confrontations. As a security measure, Israeli police currently bar male Muslim worshipers under the age of 50 from entering the compound.

April 12, 2013

Israeli police yesterday arrested five Jewish women who wore prayer shawls at a morning service at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, Judaism’s holiest shrine. The Western Wall, also called the Wailing Wall, formed the western wall of the enclosure surrounding the courtyard of the Jews’ holy temple in ancient times. Jews worship at the Western Wall because it is where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac, and it is the last remnant of the Second Temple, built by Herod the Great to replace the Temple of Solomon.

There has long been a battle over worship at the Western Wall. In the decades since it came under Israeli control in the 1967 Six-Day War, the site has been reserved for Orthodox practice only. A specially appointed Orthodox rabbi supervises all rituals at the site; men must cover their heads, and women dress modestly; no women are allowed to worship with men or wear prayer shawls; they are kept behind a partition.

The Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City is the holiest site in Judaism. The golden dome in the background is the Dome of the Rock, a Muslim shrine built over a sacred stone. The stone is believed to be the site of the Prophet Muhammad’s journey to heaven, as described in the Qur'an. Jews believe the sacred rock was the site where Abraham prepared to sacrifice his son Isaac. © George Chan, Photo Researchers (© George Chan, Photo Researchers)

Members of the protest group Women of the Wall have long campaigned for the right to worship at the Wall and to adopt practices traditionally reserved for men, such as the wearing of prayer shawls. The group is largely made up of English-speaking immigrants with the backing of American Jewish supporters. An Israeli Supreme Court decision upholding traditional religious practices at the Wall caused an uproar among many American Jews, who provide significant financial support for the Jewish state. In the United States, Reform and Conservative movements are dominant. In Israel, these more-liberal denominations are relatively small, and all Jewish religious matters are under the control of the Orthodox rabbinate.

Yesterday’s arrests came two days after the announcement of a plan for non-Orthodox services to be held in the area. The proposal, which has yet to be approved by the government, calls for an area of non-Orthodox worship at an extension of the Western Wall south of the main plaza. There, men and women could pray together and women could lead services. However, the plan faces major obstacles, both from the Orthodox rabbinate and from Muslim religious authorities. Muslims consider the Western Wall to be part of the Al Aqsa Mosque compound, their third-holiest shrine, after Mecca and Medina.

Additional World Book articles:

• Dome of the Rock
• Israel 1967 (a Back in Time article)