International Commission for the Wailing Wall

Further, the dispute over religious rights at the Western Wall elevated the conflict between a united world Jewry and the Muslims of Palestine to a global level.

[3] The commission comprised three jurists, one Swiss, one Swede, and one Dutch: Eliel Löfgren, Charles Barde and Carel Joseph van Kempen.

In front of this bare stone wall, that nation stands under the open sky, in the heat of summer and in the rains of winter, and pours out its heart to its God in heaven.

The Jews shall have free access to the Western Wall for the purpose of devotions at all times subject to the explicit stipulations hereinafter to be mentioned.

[7] The Commission noted that 'the Jews do not claim any proprietorship to the Wall or to the Pavement in front of it (concluding speech of Jewish Counsel, Minutes, page 908).'

The Commission concluded that the wall, and the adjacent pavement and Moroccan Quarter, were solely owned by the Muslim waqf.

[7] The recommendations of the commission were brought into law by the Palestine (Western or Wailing Wall) Order in Council, 1931, which came into effect on June 8, 1931.