2:32pm UK, Friday July 25, 2008
Dominic Waghorn, Middle East correspondent
Is nothing sacred, even in the Holy Land? It seems not, when it comes to Jerusalem's Wailing Wall and its most recent famous visitor, Barack Obama.
Obama at Wailing Wall
In time honoured tradition, the Democratic White House hopeful wedged a prayer note in a crack in the wall when he visited in the early hours on Thursday.
When he had gone, someone took it out again.
A message intended by Obama for his Maker alone, could be read by Israelis over their breakfast, reprinted in full on the front page of a national newspaper.
"Worshippers could not resist the curiosity and pulled out the note," reads the caption on Maariv, unable to resist publishing it, either.
In the private note, handwritten on the headed letter paper of the hotel where he was staying, the presidential hopeful asks God to: "Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just" and "protect my family".
Predictably, the publication has ignited an unholy row.
The wailing or western wall, as it is also known, is the holiest place Jews can visit, because it is the remains of the foundations of the Second Jewish Temple, destroyed by Romans two thousand years ago.
Rabbis for the site have condemned the publication of the note as "disgraceful" saying reading any prayer note is forbidden.
More than a hundred people have complained on the newspapers' website.
Twice a year, religious authorities collect the thousands of prayer notes stuffed into the wall and bury them on the Mount of Olives.
In the digital age, making a western wall prayer note no longer requires paper or going there.
On the wall's official website, a free service allows you to send your own message which will then be printed off and stuck into the wall.
A more confidential service future high profile visitors may prefer to use, given what has happened to Obama.
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