Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery (1873-1955)

Leopold Charles Maurice Stennett Amery (1873-1955)
The Western or Wailing Wall in Jerusalem. Memorandum by the Secretary of State for the Colonies. [Cmd. 3229.] London: HMSO, 1928.
Rare memorandum on the religious dispute that would define the Palestine Mandate, sold together with the League of Nations report establishing ownership of the Western Wall. In 1920s Palestine, the prevailing consensus was that the Western, or Wailing Wall, belonged to Muslims. Jewish attempts to alter the status quo by bringing chairs and benches to the wall were interpreted by Muslims as designs to rebuild the Jewish temple; and in 1928, the chief rabbi of the European (Askenazi) community issued a broadly worded edict calling for exactly that. On 24th September, Yom Kippur, a group of worshippers armed with the rabbi's decree, fastened a screen to the wall and pavement to divide the male and female congregants, per Orthodox tradition. The Muslim guardian of the site complained, and the Palestine Police forcibly removed it, provoking howls of outrage from both parties. Almost a year later, these long-running religious tensions came to a head, with Arab riots in Jerusalem spreading to Hebron and Safed, leading to the deaths of 133 Jews and 110 Arabs. The paper by Amery describes the infringements of the status quo and states the British government's determination to preserve it. Khalidi & Khadduri 1669.
The Shaw Commission of Inquiry (see following lot) called for a final settlement of the rights and claims by the different religious parties in regard to the Western Wall, and established a further commission in consultation with the League of Nations. This lot is sold with their report, in which is set out ownership of the Wall and the religious observances permitted there, as well as Chief Rabbi Hertz’s note on its history (see descriptions below).
Octavo (246 x 152mm). 6pp. (one vertical and one horizontal creasefold, light marginal creasing). Stapled self-wrappers (minor marginal soiling and dogearing, staples rusting, small nick next to lower staple). Provenance: ink ownership inscription on upper cover.
[Sold with:] ELIEL LÔFGREN (1872-1940), CHARLES BARDE AND C.J. VAN KEMPEN. Report of the Commission appointed by His Majesty's Government ... with the approval of the Council of the League of Nations, to determine the rights and claims of Moslems and Jews in connection with the Western or Wailing Wall at Jerusalem. London: HMSO, 1931. Octavo (243 x 155mm). 75pp., 3 maps, 2 of which folding. Original green printed wrappers, stapled (extremities faintly rubbed, upper cover and first few leaves with faint vertical creasefold, staples slightly rusting). Khalidi & Khadduri 1851.
[And:] JOSEPH HERMAN HERTZ (1872-1946).The History and Significance of the Western Wall. [London:] October [1929]. Bifolium, 4pp.