First Lady visits Western Wall
Laura Bush visits Israel as part of six-day tour aimed at advancing women's rights in the region; Bush stops at Western wall, to visit Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum next
U.S. First Lady Laura Bush and Gila Katsav, the wife of President Katsav, visited the Western Wall in Jerusalem Sunday afternoon. Bush took a tour of the Temple Tunnels and, as is customary, placed a slip of paper on which she wrote a prayer between the stones of the Wall.
Bush arrived in Israel Sunday, as part of a six-day Middle East trip meant to promote women's issues and help defuse anti-American sentiment in the region. She is expected to visit the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, followed by a stop off in the Palestinian Authority.
Earlier in the day, the First Lady met with several dignitaries and public figures, including Judy Nir Mozes Shalom, the wife of Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and the wife of U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Sheila Kurtzer.
In addition, the British Telegraph reported that the Palestinians were angered to discover that Bush's visit to Jericho was included as part of her trip to Israel. Palestinian legislative Council member Hanan Ashwari called a special meeting to prepare a response to the outrage.
In the end, Bush did enter the Dome of the Rock, remarking on its beauty.
But her visit was marred by the heckling of a few Muslim worshipers. According to Reuters, one elderly man shouted, “You are not welcome here. Why are you hassling our Muslims? How dare you come in here?”
Women’s rights in region
The first lady's six-day tour of the region began in Jordan where she delivered a speech at an economic conference in Amman.
Standing before an international audience that included several ministers and men who hold political and economic power in the region, Bush encouraged Middle Eastern leaders to expand women's participation in their societies, emphasizing their rights and the importance of democracy in the region.
"Women who have not yet won these rights are watching,'' she said. "They are calling on the conscience of their countrymen, making it clear that if the right to vote is to have any meaning, it cannot be limited only to men.''
Bush also said women already have achieved extraordinary gains in the Middle East and that change must come to any nation that wants to be considered truly free.
"Freedom, especially freedom for women, is more than the absence of oppression,'' she said. "It's the right to speak and vote and worship freely. Human rights require the rights of women.''
- Associated Press contributed to the report
