JEWS AND MOSLEMS

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 525, 30 November 1928, Page 9

JEWS AND MOSLEMS

WAILING WALL CONTENTION BRITISH ATTITUDE OUTLINED British. Official Wireless. RUGBY", Friday. The dispute which arose at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem on the Day of Atonement, September 24, is discussed in a memorandum issued by the Secretary of State for the Dominions and Colonies, Mr. L. S. Amerj, This says the Wailing Wall formed part of the western exterior of an ancient Jewish temple, and is holy to the Jewish community. The wall is also part of the Haramal Shari], and as such is holy to Moslems. Moreover, legally, it is absolutely the property of the Moslem community. On September 23 a complaint was made that innovations had been made by the Jews for the Day of Atonement service, by the introduction of a dividing screen and other articles. A beadle told the deputy District Commissioner that the screen would bo removed next day, but this was not done, and the police removed it, in spite of resistance from some of the worshippers. The British Government regarded it as its duty, and it is its intention, to maintain the Jewish right of access to the pavement in front, of the wall tor the purpose of tlieir devotions, also to bring to the wall those appurtenances they were allowed to take to the wall under the Turkish regime. As to further privileges the possibility of acquiring them by mutual arrangement has been lessened by the tact that public opinion in Palestine has removed the matter from the purely religious orbit and made of it a political and a national question.