Western Wall (Kotel) workers have completed the annual clean up that includes removing tens of thousands of notes and prayers from visitors who placed them in the cracks of the wall. The discarded items are considered as prayers and like all other discarded holy objects, they are buried.

The most famous note of the year was placed by Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama during his visitor to Jerusalem earlier this year. A youth removed his prayer and distributed it to a newspaper, which printed it. Rabbis severely reprimanded his action, which was considered a severe violation of privacy.