This period of time was interrupted during the crusades until Salah Eddin liberated the city and other parts of Palestine from its occupier. The Minister fiercely condemned Israeli attempts to Judaise the holy city, asserting that there was no shred of historical evidence supporting their claim that the alleged Solomon Temple existed anywhere in the city. He also emphasised that the Western Wall in Jerusalem, known for Jews as the Wailing Wall, was not even a Jewish holy site. Last February, Egypt's top Muslim authority, the Mufti Nasr Fradid Wassel, has decreed that the Western Wall in Jerusalem's Old City remain an Islamic endowment for ever. Israel then annexed that part of the city in a move not recognised internationally.
Jewish worshippers pray at the wall, which they revere as part of a biblical temple.
It forms part of a raised esplanade that Jews call Temple Mount and regard as their holiest site. The fate of the compound, which has been administered by the Waqf, Islamic endowments, since 1967, is one of the thorniest issues in Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Wassel said Muslims and the media should stop referring to the wall as the Wailing Wall. Wassel said there could be no recognition of Israeli control over the wall.