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Western Wall Plaza
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Western Wall Plaza
The Western Wall Plaza is a large public square situated adjacent to the Western Wall in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel. It was formed in 1967 as a result of the razing of the Mughrabi Quarter neighborhood at the very end of the Six-Day War.
The Western Wall Plaza abuts the Western Wall, part of the ancient retaining wall erected by Herod the Great to surround and increase the surface area of the Temple Mount. Apart from the Western Wall to the east, the plaza is bordered on its north side by the two Western Wall Foundation facilities (the Chain of Generations Center and the entrance to the Western Wall Tunnels), Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh, and a passage to the Muslim Quarter to the Valley Street (HaGay or al-Wad); by Aish HaTorah, Porat Yosef Yeshiva and the Jewish Quarter via the Yehuda HaLevi Stairs on its west side; and by the Jerusalem Archaeological Park and the exits towards Dung Gate on its south.
The plaza measures 10,000 square meters and can accommodate up to 400,000 persons per day.
The site was the location of the Mughrabi Quarter, a neighbourhood founded by El Afdal, son of Saladin, in 1193.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the viability of the Mughrabi Quarter in Jerusalem began to decline, due in part to the ambitions of the emerging secular Zionist movement. A small number of wealthy Zionists sought to acquire the Western Wall but were unsuccessful. Among them was Edmond James de Rothschild, who in 1887 attempted to purchase the entire quarter with the intention of demolishing it and creating a plaza. Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn and the Zionist Palestine Land Development Company also tried to acquire the Western Wall in 1895, without success.
In 1914, amid the Ottoman Empire’s bankruptcy and its involvement in the First World War, Zeki Bey, the Ottoman governor of Jerusalem, offered unsuccessfully to sell the Mughrabi Quarter for £20,000. Five years later, in 1919, following the League of Nations’ granting of the British Mandate for Palestine, Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann sought to raise £75,000 to purchase the quarter, demolish it, and relocate its residents; however, the British authorities upheld the existing status quo.
Zionist attempts to challenge the status quo continued into the 1920s, contributing to ongoing tensions. In 1926, American Jewish philanthropist Nathan Straus proposed leasing and eventually purchasing the Mughrabi Quarter, but this too was rejected by the British authorities, who maintained the status quo ante.
In August 1929, tensions escalated into violent riots between Jews and Muslims over access to the Western Wall, sparked by an incident in which a group of Jews raised the Zionist flag and sang the Zionist anthem. Despite official prohibitions by the Mandatory authorities, Zionist demonstrations at the site persisted through the 1930s and 1940s.
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Western Wall Plaza
The Western Wall Plaza is a large public square situated adjacent to the Western Wall in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem, Israel. It was formed in 1967 as a result of the razing of the Mughrabi Quarter neighborhood at the very end of the Six-Day War.
The Western Wall Plaza abuts the Western Wall, part of the ancient retaining wall erected by Herod the Great to surround and increase the surface area of the Temple Mount. Apart from the Western Wall to the east, the plaza is bordered on its north side by the two Western Wall Foundation facilities (the Chain of Generations Center and the entrance to the Western Wall Tunnels), Yeshivat Netiv Aryeh, and a passage to the Muslim Quarter to the Valley Street (HaGay or al-Wad); by Aish HaTorah, Porat Yosef Yeshiva and the Jewish Quarter via the Yehuda HaLevi Stairs on its west side; and by the Jerusalem Archaeological Park and the exits towards Dung Gate on its south.
The plaza measures 10,000 square meters and can accommodate up to 400,000 persons per day.
The site was the location of the Mughrabi Quarter, a neighbourhood founded by El Afdal, son of Saladin, in 1193.
In the second half of the nineteenth century, the viability of the Mughrabi Quarter in Jerusalem began to decline, due in part to the ambitions of the emerging secular Zionist movement. A small number of wealthy Zionists sought to acquire the Western Wall but were unsuccessful. Among them was Edmond James de Rothschild, who in 1887 attempted to purchase the entire quarter with the intention of demolishing it and creating a plaza. Rabbi Chaim Hirschensohn and the Zionist Palestine Land Development Company also tried to acquire the Western Wall in 1895, without success.
In 1914, amid the Ottoman Empire’s bankruptcy and its involvement in the First World War, Zeki Bey, the Ottoman governor of Jerusalem, offered unsuccessfully to sell the Mughrabi Quarter for £20,000. Five years later, in 1919, following the League of Nations’ granting of the British Mandate for Palestine, Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann sought to raise £75,000 to purchase the quarter, demolish it, and relocate its residents; however, the British authorities upheld the existing status quo.
Zionist attempts to challenge the status quo continued into the 1920s, contributing to ongoing tensions. In 1926, American Jewish philanthropist Nathan Straus proposed leasing and eventually purchasing the Mughrabi Quarter, but this too was rejected by the British authorities, who maintained the status quo ante.
In August 1929, tensions escalated into violent riots between Jews and Muslims over access to the Western Wall, sparked by an incident in which a group of Jews raised the Zionist flag and sang the Zionist anthem. Despite official prohibitions by the Mandatory authorities, Zionist demonstrations at the site persisted through the 1930s and 1940s.
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