JEWS IN PALESTINE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20386, 15 October 1929, Page 11

JEWS IN PALESTINE.

USE OF WAILING WALL.

ARABS' DRASTIC ACTION. GENERAL STRIKE CALLED. (Received October 15, 12.5 a.m.) United Service. LONDON, Oct. 13. Tho special correspondent of the Daily Mail in Palestine says tho Arab Congress to-day decided to plunge Palestine into a general strike on Wednesday as a protest against the new regulations for Jewish worship at tho Wailing Wall. The Arabs allege that these regulations convert tho Holy Place into an open synagogue. The general strike will affect the whole of Palestine. The Wailing Wall (the Kauthal Ma'arbe or Western Wall of tho Jews) in Jciusalem is, as Holy Places go in that country, of no groat age. Its stones may well have been laid under the eye of King Solomon, but the custom of wailing has grown up since the Crusades. For antiquity as a Holy Place it ranks after such immemorial objects of veneration as tho Oak of Mamre, the Rock of Sacrifice, or the Tomb of Abraham.

Tho Wailing Wall is, however, very much more closely connected in the minds of pious Jews with the former greatness of their race than any of these because it is an actual relic of King Solomon and bocauso no pious Jew will approach the Rock of Sacrifice for fear of treading upon the forbidden site of the Holy of Holies. As far back as can be remembered the narrow little courtyard, some 25ft. wide, at the bottom of the Wailing Wall has been a cul-de-sac just over 50yds long. It is a public place, and everybody has the right to go into it, but the Wal itself, the pavement in front of the Wall, and the houses which overlook the court are the property of a Moslem Waqf, or pious foundation. While the courtyard was a cul-de-sac there was no great difficulty about accommodating those Jews who daily went in ones and twos, or in scores upon tho Sabbath, to stand on tho Moslem pavemcnt and lean against ilio Moslem Wall which used to be King Solomon s, but within the last few months tho Moslems have built some staircases through their property so that one of the doors which previously only led into one of the houses giving on to Uio courtyard now opens into a passage-way which connects the courtyard with the Bab al Magharibe, one of the entrances to the Ilaram-esh-Slierif, to the south, and a good deal higher up. This means that tho courtyard in front of tho Wailing Wall has been converted into a thoroughfare for Moslems. The Jews maintain that the thoroughfaro has been created with the deliberate intention of facilitating an increase in tho volume of perfectly legal traffic through tho courtyard in hopes of thereby annoying the Jews engaged in tlieir_ devotions at the Wall. In Jerusalem, it is still regrettably almost common form to do this, and innumerable cases can be quoted of grown-up and outwardly respectable lay* men and ecclesiastics of a variety of creeds, Churches, sects, races and communities behaving in Holy Places in a way which would be considered in England disgraceful, even on the part of spiteful and ill-bred children.

The Moslems maintain that, while they have permitted the Jews to use the courtyard in front of the Wailing Wall for private devotions, the Jews have no right to use tho courtyard for congregational worship, with tho usual accompaniment of mats, chairs, tables, lights and the ceremonial screen or partition which usage proscribes between tho men and tho women: The Moslems insist that the introduction of these objects and the, practice of congregational praying is an infringement of the status quo.

Tho Rock of Sacrifice of the Jews, 'on which .Abraham inado ready to offer up Isaac, which afterwards served in turn as (he foundation for the great Altar of Sacrifice in front of the temples of King Solomon, Zerubbabel and King Herod, and of the High Altar of the Crusaders' Templo Church, was the spot from which the Prophet Mohamed , started on his journey to Heaven while still in this life. Its sanctity .in Moslem eyes therefore is such that it affects its surroundings far and near, and for this reason the Moslems refused to sell tho courtyard under the Wailing Wall, although it is nearly 200 vards away from tho Rock, when the Ilews, in 3919, made an offer to buy the place at any price in reason which the Moslems might fix.

RECENT DISORDERS.

COMMISSION OF INQUIRY.

DEPARTURE FROM LONDON.

(Received October 14, 5.25 p.m.)

British Wireless. RUGBY, Oct. 33. Tho chairman and members of the Palestino Commission of Inquiry, with the exception of Sir Henry Betterton, who is travelling overland, left London yesterday. They' embarked on the liner Oronsav at Tilbury for Palestine.

Tlie Colonial Sccrotary, Lord Passfield, on September 14, appointed tho following members of Parliament to serve under tho chairmanship of Sir Walter Shaw, formerly Chief Justice of the Straits Settlements, on the Commission of Inquiry into the recent disturbances in Palestine: —Sir Henry Betterton (Conservative), formerly Parliamentary Secretary for Labour, Mr. Hopkin Morris (Liberal), Mr. Henry Snell (Labour). The terms of reference for tho 'commission aro:—To inquiro into tho immediate causes of the recent outbreak and to make recommendations as to tho steps necessary to avoid a recurrence. AMERICAN JEWRY. INTEREST IN PALESTINE. INTERVIEW WITH MacDONALD. British Wireless. RUGBY, Oct. i 3. Tho Jewish deputation which waited upon the Primo Minister, Mr. Mac Donald, in New York on Friday handed him a memorandum stating that their implicit trust and confidence in the British Government had induced American Jews to enlist the co operation of groups who had previously not been interested in the affairs of Palestine. Many new enterprises were being prepared for Palestine by tho Jews of America.

The memorandum expressed full confidence in the Commission which is inquiring into the recent disorders in Palestine. Mr. Mac Donald, in reply, described the steps talion by the British Government to restore order in Palestine, and said the Commission would bo thoroughly impartial. He praised the extraordinary devotion with which the Jews of the world and particularly of America had pursued their work in tho building of Palestine.