Summary
The ad hoc international commission of three non-British members appointed by the British 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, which reported in December 1930 (Report of the Commission appointed by His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 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, lines 262-306).
Details
- Origin: recommended in December 1929 by the Commission of Enquiry into the August 1929 disturbances as an early appointment under Article 14 of the Mandate, essential “in the interests of peace and good government in Palestine”; the League Council resolved on 14 January 1930 that a commission of three members not of British nationality, at least one eminently qualified by judicial functions, be entrusted with the settlement, its duties to cease when it had pronounced (lines 272-294).
- Members, approved by the League Council on 15 May 1930: Eliel Löfgren (Chairman), Charles Barde, Vice-President of the Court of Justice at Geneva, and J. van Kempen, formerly Governor of the East Coast of Sumatra; Stig Sahlin acted as Secretary (lines 298-306).
- It sat in Jerusalem from 19 June to 19 July 1930, held 23 meetings, heard 52 witnesses and received 61 documents or collections, following as far as possible the judicial methods of the English courts, with the Jewish Side as plaintiff and the Moslem Side as defendant (lines 308-324).
- It is not the Article 14 Holy Places Commission, which never came into being; it was appointed by the Mandatory as a means of carrying out Article 13, and declared it had no wish to interfere with the fabric or management of Moslem sacred shrines (lines 706-716).
- It attempted conciliation beyond its stated mandate and recorded the failure of the parties’ negotiations by 8 October 1930, then met at Stockholm (27 October-1 November) and Paris (28 November-1 December) (lines 334-336).
- Its unanimous Verdict of December 1930 awarded sole ownership of the Western Wall, the Pavement and the Moghrabi Quarter to the Moslems, affirmed Jewish free access for devotions at all times as an existing right, made the September 1929 temporary instructions on appurtenances permanent with the Ark restricted to proclaimed fasts and specified holy days, prohibited the Shofar at the Wall, and laid reciprocal duties on both parties and the Administration; the Commission recorded that the dispute arose from “an existing incompatibility in actual principles of right and religious faith” and that no amicable agreement had proved possible (lines 946-998).
Related pages
Report of the Commission appointed by His Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, 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, Eliel Löfgren, Western Wall, Shaw Commission, League of Nations