Pro-Wailing Wall Committee
Encyclopedia
The Pro–Wailing Wall Committee was established in Palestine
on 24 July 1929, by Joseph Klausner
, Professor of Modern Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University
, to promote Jewish rights at the Western Wall
.
The Committee created a programme of political activities organised and promoted by a loose coalition of Revisionist Zionists
, religious Zionists
and young people. It also spawned many branches, which held meetings throughout the country.
on the Temple Mount
, sometimes next to al-Aqsa Mosque
or the Dome of the Rock
and sometimes in their place. The heads of the Yeshivot
in the Old Yishuv
also used photomontages showing the Dome of the Rock with the Star of David
and flags of Zion superimposed in fundraising appeals to Diaspora Jews
. It thus came to be widely believed that a Jewish conspiracy was at work to replace the Muslim holy sites by a rebuilt Jewish Temple. The resulting tensions were exploited by both Palestinian Arab and Jewish nationalists.
Joseph Klausner was a member of the Odessa circle of political activists which included Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Menachem Ussishkin and although not a 'party man' he was a fellow traveller with Revisionist Zionism and contributed significantly to the Zionist education of Betar
, the Revisionist youth movement, and nationalist youth in general. Klausner's background as an academic with expertise in the history of the Second Temple period and as an activist in Zionist polemics eventually brought him to the forefront of Jewish anger at the failure of the Zionist establishment in Palestine to resolve problems over access to, and arrangements for worship at, the Western Wall.
The political vacuum caused by the absence of the British High Commissioner, Sir John Chancellor
, and of the Zionist leadership, who were in attendance at the 16th Zionist Congress in Zurich, allowed the Pro–Wailing Wall Committees to pursue a more radical agenda during the run up to Tisha B'Av
, the day of mourning and remembrance commemorating the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple, which fell on 15 August in 1929. Responding to criticism from the establishment, who feared that incitement of the youth would lead to "accidents" of no "practical utility", Klausner's Committee wrote in the pages of Doar HaYom: "We cannot trust any more the actions of existing institutions in this matter and it was decided to take separate action". In an article in the pages of The Palestine Weekly on the same day Klausner wrote: "But what about the Jews, cannot they too throw stones, have they not hands or even fists? What did Shakespeare say through his Shylock? 'Hath not a Jew eyes ... if you wrong us, shall we not revenge...' "
During The Nine Days
the Committee published an appeal:
The appeal was followed by a protest meeting organised by the World Federation of Hebrew Youth which was addressed by Revisionists and religious Zionists from Mizrachi
, the movement supported by Chief Rabbi
Abraham Isaac Kook
. The meeting was held in Tel Aviv
on the eve of Tisha B'Av, and was attended by 6,000 people, according to British intelligence. It adopted four resolutions and called on the Chief Rabbinate and Klausner's Committee to continue the political struggle for the Wall.
, the Revisionist youth leader Jeremiah Halpern
and three hundred Revisionist youths from the Battalion for the Defence of the Language
and Betar marched to the Western Wall proclaiming "The Wall is ours". The protesters raised the Zionist flag
and sang the Hatikvah
and were said to have insulted the Prophet
, Islam, and the Muslim community at large and also to have beat up Muslim residents. The demonstration took place in the Muslim Maghribi district in front of the house of the Mufti.
Two days later, in raised tensions caused by a 2000-strong Muslim counter-demonstration after Friday prayers the day before, a Jewish youth, Avraham Mizrahi, was killed and an Arab youth picked at random was stabbed in retaliation. Subsequently, the violence escalated into the 1929 Palestine riots
.
The demonstration by Revisionist youth of 15 August was later identified as the proximal cause of the riots by the Shaw Commission.
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
on 24 July 1929, by Joseph Klausner
Joseph Klausner
Joseph Gedaliah Klausner , , was a Jewish historian and professor of Hebrew Literature. He was the chief redactor of The Hebrew Encyclopedia...
, Professor of Modern Hebrew Literature at the Hebrew University
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem ; ; abbreviated HUJI) is Israel's second-oldest university, after the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Hebrew University has three campuses in Jerusalem and one in Rehovot. The world's largest Jewish studies library is located on its Edmond J...
, to promote Jewish rights at the Western Wall
Western Wall
The Western Wall, Wailing Wall or Kotel is located in the Old City of Jerusalem at the foot of the western side of the Temple Mount...
.
The Committee created a programme of political activities organised and promoted by a loose coalition of Revisionist Zionists
Revisionist Zionism
Revisionist Zionism is a nationalist faction within the Zionist movement. It is the founding ideology of the non-religious right in Israel, and was the chief ideological competitor to the dominant socialist Labor Zionism...
, religious Zionists
Religious Zionism
Religious Zionism is an ideology that combines Zionism and Jewish religious faith...
and young people. It also spawned many branches, which held meetings throughout the country.
Background
During the nineteenth century the Western Wall came to be viewed in Jewish circles as a site of commemoration and particular sanctity. It was also invested with national significance by the Jewish national movement. From the late nineteenth century onwards pictures and postcards often depicted a rebuilt Jewish TempleTemple in Jerusalem
The Temple in Jerusalem or Holy Temple , refers to one of a series of structures which were historically located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem, the current site of the Dome of the Rock. Historically, these successive temples stood at this location and functioned as the centre of...
on the Temple Mount
Temple Mount
The Temple Mount, known in Hebrew as , and in Arabic as the Haram Ash-Sharif , is one of the most important religious sites in the Old City of Jerusalem. It has been used as a religious site for thousands of years...
, sometimes next to al-Aqsa Mosque
Al-Aqsa Mosque
Al-Aqsa Mosque also known as al-Aqsa, is the third holiest site in Sunni Islam and is located in the Old City of Jerusalem...
or the Dome of the Rock
Dome of the Rock
The Dome of the Rock is a shrine located on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem. The structure has been refurbished many times since its initial completion in 691 CE at the order of Umayyad Caliph Abd al-Malik...
and sometimes in their place. The heads of the Yeshivot
Yeshiva
Yeshiva is a Jewish educational institution that focuses on the study of traditional religious texts, primarily the Talmud and Torah study. Study is usually done through daily shiurim and in study pairs called chavrutas...
in the Old Yishuv
Yishuv
The Yishuv or Ha-Yishuv is the term referring to the body of Jewish residents in Palestine before the establishment of the State of Israel...
also used photomontages showing the Dome of the Rock with the Star of David
Star of David
The Star of David, known in Hebrew as the Shield of David or Magen David is a generally recognized symbol of Jewish identity and Judaism.Its shape is that of a hexagram, the compound of two equilateral triangles...
and flags of Zion superimposed in fundraising appeals to Diaspora Jews
Jewish diaspora
The Jewish diaspora is the English term used to describe the Galut גלות , or 'exile', of the Jews from the region of the Kingdom of Judah and Roman Iudaea and later emigration from wider Eretz Israel....
. It thus came to be widely believed that a Jewish conspiracy was at work to replace the Muslim holy sites by a rebuilt Jewish Temple. The resulting tensions were exploited by both Palestinian Arab and Jewish nationalists.
Joseph Klausner was a member of the Odessa circle of political activists which included Ze'ev Jabotinsky and Menachem Ussishkin and although not a 'party man' he was a fellow traveller with Revisionist Zionism and contributed significantly to the Zionist education of Betar
Betar
The Betar Movement is a Revisionist Zionist youth movement founded in 1923 in Riga, Latvia, by Vladimir Jabotinsky. It has been traditionally linked to the original Herut and then Likud political parties of Israel, and was closely affiliated with the pre-Israel Revisionist Zionist splinter group...
, the Revisionist youth movement, and nationalist youth in general. Klausner's background as an academic with expertise in the history of the Second Temple period and as an activist in Zionist polemics eventually brought him to the forefront of Jewish anger at the failure of the Zionist establishment in Palestine to resolve problems over access to, and arrangements for worship at, the Western Wall.
The political vacuum caused by the absence of the British High Commissioner, Sir John Chancellor
John Chancellor (British administrator)
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir John Robert Chancellor, GCMG, GCVO, GBE, DSO was a British soldier and colonial official.After a career in the British Army's Corps of Royal Engineers, which included service on the North West Frontier and being Secretary of the Colonial Defence Committee, he became a...
, and of the Zionist leadership, who were in attendance at the 16th Zionist Congress in Zurich, allowed the Pro–Wailing Wall Committees to pursue a more radical agenda during the run up to Tisha B'Av
Tisha B'Av
|Av]],") is an annual fast day in Judaism, named for the ninth day of the month of Av in the Hebrew calendar. The fast commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem, which occurred about 655 years apart, but on the same Hebrew calendar date...
, the day of mourning and remembrance commemorating the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple, which fell on 15 August in 1929. Responding to criticism from the establishment, who feared that incitement of the youth would lead to "accidents" of no "practical utility", Klausner's Committee wrote in the pages of Doar HaYom: "We cannot trust any more the actions of existing institutions in this matter and it was decided to take separate action". In an article in the pages of The Palestine Weekly on the same day Klausner wrote: "But what about the Jews, cannot they too throw stones, have they not hands or even fists? What did Shakespeare say through his Shylock? 'Hath not a Jew eyes ... if you wrong us, shall we not revenge...' "
During The Nine Days
The Nine Days
The Nine Days is a religious observance in Judaism that takes place during the first nine days of the Jewish month of Av...
the Committee published an appeal:
- "Ye Jews, and national Jews in all parts of the world! Wake up and unite! Do not keep silent or rest in peace until the entire Wall has been restored to us! Form yourselves into pro-Wailing Wall societies! Hold meetings of protest! Go and demonstrate before the British Consuls in all countries on behalf of the Wall! Submit protests memorials to them! Explain to the Jewish masses and to the young generation what has been and what is the Kotel to Israel in the past and at present! Explain to the righteous and the pious among the nations of the world what is the national insult which we have suffered at the hands of the British officials without justice or right! Move heaven and earth at the unspeakable and unprecedented injustice and oppression which tends to rob a live nation of the last of its relics and its 'poor man's lamb.' Those of us who are here will not rest until that relic which has always been ours, which had been sealed with the blood of scores of thousands of our children through two millenia and which has absorbed the tears of Israel for two thousand years, has been restored to us. Come to our help by co-operating in this just struggle for the Wall and triumph is sure to come.
Jerusalem, during the Nine Days of Mourning. 5689.
Pro-Wailing Wall Committee."
The appeal was followed by a protest meeting organised by the World Federation of Hebrew Youth which was addressed by Revisionists and religious Zionists from Mizrachi
Mizrachi (Religious Zionism)
The Mizrachi is the name of the religious Zionist organization founded in 1902 in Vilnius at a world conference of religious Zionists called by Rabbi Yitzchak Yaacov Reines. Bnei Akiva, which was founded in 1929, is the youth movement associated with Mizrachi...
, the movement supported by Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi
Chief Rabbi is a title given in several countries to the recognized religious leader of that country's Jewish community, or to a rabbinic leader appointed by the local secular authorities...
Abraham Isaac Kook
Abraham Isaac Kook
Abraham Isaac Kook was the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the British Mandate for Palestine, the founder of the Religious Zionist Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav, Jewish thinker, Halachist, Kabbalist and a renowned Torah scholar...
. The meeting was held in Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv , officially Tel Aviv-Yafo , is the second most populous city in Israel, with a population of 404,400 on a land area of . The city is located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline in west-central Israel. It is the largest and most populous city in the metropolitan area of Gush Dan, with...
on the eve of Tisha B'Av, and was attended by 6,000 people, according to British intelligence. It adopted four resolutions and called on the Chief Rabbinate and Klausner's Committee to continue the political struggle for the Wall.
The outbreak of violence
On 15 August, Tisha B'AvTisha B'Av
|Av]],") is an annual fast day in Judaism, named for the ninth day of the month of Av in the Hebrew calendar. The fast commemorates the destruction of both the First Temple and Second Temple in Jerusalem, which occurred about 655 years apart, but on the same Hebrew calendar date...
, the Revisionist youth leader Jeremiah Halpern
Jeremiah Halpern
Captain Jeremiah Halpern was a Revisionist Zionist leader in Palestine who first came to prominence when he served as aide de camp to Ze'ev Jabotinsky in the 1920s when the latter was head of the Haganah in Jerusalem.Halpern, a certified ship's captain, was known as Rav...
and three hundred Revisionist youths from the Battalion for the Defence of the Language
Battalion for the Defence of the Language
The Battalion for the Defence of the Language was a small but militant body established by Jewish students at the Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium in Tel Aviv, Palestine in the 1920s to urge Jews to use only the Hebrew language....
and Betar marched to the Western Wall proclaiming "The Wall is ours". The protesters raised the Zionist flag
Flag of Israel
The flag of Israel was adopted on October 28, 1948, five months after the country's establishment. It depicts a blue Star of David on a white background, between two horizontal blue stripes...
and sang the Hatikvah
Hatikvah
"Hatikvah" is the national anthem of Israel. The anthem was written by Naphtali Herz Imber, a secular Galician Jew from Zolochiv , who moved to the Land of Israel in the early 1880s....
and were said to have insulted the Prophet
Muhammad
Muhammad |ligature]] at U+FDF4 ;Arabic pronunciation varies regionally; the first vowel ranges from ~~; the second and the last vowel: ~~~. There are dialects which have no stress. In Egypt, it is pronounced not in religious contexts...
, Islam, and the Muslim community at large and also to have beat up Muslim residents. The demonstration took place in the Muslim Maghribi district in front of the house of the Mufti.
Two days later, in raised tensions caused by a 2000-strong Muslim counter-demonstration after Friday prayers the day before, a Jewish youth, Avraham Mizrahi, was killed and an Arab youth picked at random was stabbed in retaliation. Subsequently, the violence escalated into the 1929 Palestine riots
1929 Palestine riots
The 1929 Palestine riots, also known as the Western Wall Uprising, the 1929 Massacres, , or the Buraq Uprising , refers to a series of demonstrations and riots in late August 1929 when a long-running dispute between Muslims and Jews over access to the Western Wall in Jerusalem escalated into violence...
.
The demonstration by Revisionist youth of 15 August was later identified as the proximal cause of the riots by the Shaw Commission.