Wall Commission’s Chairman, Warning on Politics, Says That Threats Will Not Influence It

not allow itself to be imposed upon regarding the Wall. It will take up the legal question, he stated, and not be the subject of threats, hoping that the parties will arrive at a mutual understanding. The Commission hoped its decision would be carried out without fear or hatred but with the mutual respect due from two great sections of the country’s population, he concluded.

INTERPOSES EVIDENCE

Husseini’s evidence was interposed after Sheikh Ismael Abdul, president of the Moslem Religious Courts in Jerusalem, had said that he had not seen any appurtenances at the Wall and that prior to 1929 he did not know that the Jews in years past had prayed at the Wall.

Chairman Loefgren broke into Husseini’s testimony to indicate the Commission’s stand when Husseini said that the temporary regulations of the government with regard to the Wailing Wall had angered the Arab Executive which wired to Transjordania saying that “the Jews desire to convert the pavement in front of the Wall into a synagogue”. This wire caused great excitement in Transjordania and necessitated hurried conferences with Palestine officials who urged Husseini to alter the telegram. The Arab Executive then called a strike in Palestine and Transjordania to protest against the regulations.

COMMISSION WARNED AGAINST PROPOSAL

A veiled warning to the Wailing Wall Commission not to entertain the proposal contained in the Jewish memorandum submitted at the opening session that the properties now occupied by the Moughrabi Wakf be vacated and the Wakf authorities accept instead new buildings on some other eligible site in Jerusalem was made by Sheikh Ismael Abdul, chief judge of the Moslem Religious Courts in Jerusalem, in the course of his testimony before the Commission earlier in yesterdays session.

The Commission was treated to a microscopic analysis of Moslem religious law pertaining to the Wakf (Moslem property held in trust) by Sheikh Abdul in his testimony on the inviolability of property dedicated to charity. Mohammed Ali Pasha, a Moslem advocate from Egypt, conducted the Sheikh’s cross-examination which tended to show that no power in the world is entitled to alter the provisions of the trust, not even a king or a caliph, and that any decision affecting the trust by non-Moslems is invalid.

SAYS MOSQUE’S ENVIRONS HOLY

Sheikh Abdul’s elaborate evidence was climaxed by a recital of the sanctity of the Mosque of Aksa and its environs and walls. He argued that the wall of the Mosque is part of the Mosque and the rules applying to one apply to the other as far as veneration goes. He stressed the fact that non-Moslems must not be allowed to worship in Wakf first, because it is contrary to the conditions to which the property was dedicated and secondly, because such worship might interfere with the devotions of the Moslems.

Five Christian clerics called as witnesses by the Arabs preceeded the Sheikh on the witness stand. They all claimed that while they were frequent visitors to the Wailing Wall they had not observed the appurtenances which the Jews claim they customarily used.