From 1948 until June 1967, Jordan controlled Jerusalem’s Old City and Jewish worshippers could not reach the Western Wall. Israel-Jordan armistice provisions contemplated arrangements for free access to holy places, but the plan was not implemented for Jewish access to the Wall. Israeli forces captured the Old City during the Six-Day War in June 1967, and Jews returned to pray at the site.
The armistice and the access ban
The 1949 Israel-Jordan General Armistice Agreement said a special committee would arrange matters that included “free access to the Holy Places” and access to Jewish institutions on Mount Scopus. It set out an agreement in principle and a process for future arrangements; it was not an unconditional, self-executing guarantee. No arrangement opened the Western Wall to Jewish visitors during Jordanian rule. The agreement’s text states the relevant provisions.
Jordanian authorities maintained control over the Old City and barred Jewish visits to the Wall. The precise condition of each Jewish site varied, so claims about the destruction of every synagogue or cemetery should be tied to named sites and records. The established access fact is stark: Jews were kept from praying at the Western Wall for nineteen years.
June 1967 and the plaza
On June 7, 1967, Israeli paratroopers entered Jerusalem’s Old City during fighting with Jordanian forces. Soldiers and civilians reached the Wall soon afterward. Within days, the Mughrabi neighborhood beside the prayer area was demolished to make room for the Western Wall plaza. The Israel Antiquities Authority documents the neighborhood’s demolition in 1967 and the creation of the present plaza in its excavation report.
Israel’s Protection of Holy Places Law, passed by the Knesset on June 27, 1967, protects holy places and makes desecration and interference with access criminal offenses. The law’s text sets out those protections. The Wall plaza and the Temple Mount have distinct arrangements and authorities. For present-day plaza rules, see how the Western Wall plaza is used today.