Six-Day War
After 1967, Israel demolished the Mughrabi Quarter to create the Western Wall Plaza, altering Jerusalem’s landscape and creating space for Jewish worship.
In the immediate aftermath of Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War, one of the first major changes to the Old City of Jerusalem was not military, but architectural. Within 48 hours of the war’s end, bulldozers began demolishing the Mughrabi Quarter—an 800-year-old North African neighborhood located directly in front of the Western Wall. The goal: to create a large, open plaza where Jews could freely gather, pray, and reconnect with their holiest accessible site after 19 years of Jordanian control. This dramatic transformation was both symbolic and practical. During the Jordanian period (1948–1967), Jews were completely barred from the Old City, and the Western Wall was hidden behind residential structures and narrow alleys. Once recaptured by Israeli forces, the government wasted no time in reconfiguring the site to reflect its renewed Jewish significance. The entire quarter—135 homes, two mosques, and several communal structures—was evacuated and razed in a matter of days…
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