Report of the Commission Appointed by His Majesty’s Government...To Determine the Rights and Claims of Moslems and Jews in Connection with the Western or Wailing Wall at Jerusalem

The status of the Western Wall during the British Mandate was riddled with controversy with both Jew and Arab claiming right to the site as a place of worship. Particularly contentious was the status of the desire by the Jews to places objects of worship at the site. A ten-month build up of tension over these disputed rights culminated in an attempted attack by an Arab mob on the Jews in Jerusalem on August 23rd, 1929. (See lot ***). The outbreak of violence spread to other parts of the country and on the following day, the Arabs murdered some seventy Jews in Hebron. In the week that followed, there were attacks in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Safed. Before the week had passed, large detachments of British troops were brought in, many were arrested (both Jew as well as Arab), before order was restored. In the wake of the violence, a Special Commission of Inquiry was set up by the League of Nations to resolve the “Problem of the Wall.” The Commission, composed of experts from the Netherlands, Sweden and Switzerland, spent a month in Jerusalem in 1930, hearing numerous witnesses on both sides and attempted to promote a negotiated settlement between the parties. It failed miserably. See: M. Ben-Dov et al, Hakotel- The Western Wall (1983)