US First lady Laura Bush was met by protesters as she visited two of Jerusalem's holiest sites Sunday. Mrs. Bush, who is on a Middle Eastern tour meant, in part, to help defuse anti-American sentiment, placed a note in the "Western Wall," Judaism's holiest shrine.
She then went to the Dome of the Rock, a mosque on a hilltop compound known to Muslims as "Haram as-Sharif". Before she entered the mosque, one heckler yelled, "How dare you come in here?" and "Why do you hassle our Muslims?"
According to The AP, Mrs. Bush removed her shoes as she entered the mosque and walked barefoot on the red carpet.
A group of women studying inside the mosque were annoyed at the intrusion and waved their fingers at the U.S. entourage.
At the "Western Wall," dozens of protesters stood nearby, shouting, "Free Pollard now." Jonathan Pollard is serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison for spying for Israel.
Mrs. Bush's next stop Sunday is the West Bank town of Jericho, where she will participate in a round-table discussion with prominent Palestinian women.
