Rabbi Zvi Yehuda Kook recalled the tremendous pressures placed upon his father that evening in 1930 in the Kiryat Moshe neighborhood of Jerusalem. "How intense, how grave, how terrible were the threats and intimidations at that time, with all of their bitter pressure, from two nations (the Arabs and the British), goading us with lies and murderous traps for the sake of an agreement to relinquish ownership over the Kotel, the remaining wall of our Holy Temple ..." [Lenetivot Yisrael vol. I, p. 65]

The Mufti's Ambitions

The infamous Hajj Amin al-Husseini was appointed Mufti of Jerusalem - the spiritual and national leader of the Arabs - already in the days of the first British High Commissioner. One of the many devices that he and his cohorts employed in their struggle against the Jewish Settlement was the repudiation of all Jewish rights to the "Kotel HaMa'aravi", the Western Wall.

The Arabs gained a partial victory in 1922, when the Mandatory Government issued a ban against placing benches near the Wall. In 1928, British officers interrupted the Yom Kippur service and forcibly dismantled the mechitzah separating men and women during prayer. A few months later, the Mufti and his cohorts devised a new provocation. They began holding Muslim religious ceremonies opposite the Kotel, precisely when the Jews were praying. To make matters worse, the British authorities granted the Arabs permission to transform the building adjacent to the Kotel into a mosque, complete with a tower for the muezzin (the crier who calls Moslems to prayer five times a day). The muezzin's vociferous trills were sure to disturb the Jewish prayers.

Active Arab turbulence reached its peak during the bloody riots of 1929. On the 10th of Av, some two thousand Arabs swarmed the Kotel, chased away the Jews praying, and burned several Torah scrolls. The following week, rioting broke out in Jerusalem and spread through out the country. Nearly a hundred Jews were slaughtered in the riots, mainly in Hebron and Jerusalem.

Rav Kook and the Kotel Commission

In the summer of 1930, the League of Nations dispatched a committee to Eretz Yisrael to clarify the ownership of the Western Wall. The Arabs claimed to be the rightful owners, not only of the Temple Mount but of the Western Wall as well, and they rejected outright permitting Jews to pray at the Wall. The Western Wall is a 'purely Muslim site,' the Mufti claimed, and the Jews can pray there only by the good grace of the Arabs.

When the Rav appeared before the Kotel Commission, he asked the chairman in an impassioned voice:

"What do you mean 'the commission will decide to whom the Wall belongs'? Does this commission or the League of Nations own the Wall? Who gave you permission to decide to whom it belongs? The entire world belongs to the Creator, blessed be He; and He transferred ownership of the entire Land of Israel - including the Kotel - to the Jewish people. No power in the world, not the League of Nations nor this commission, can take this God-given right away from us."

The chairman retorted that the Jews have not been in control of the Land of Israel or the Western Wall for close to two thousand years. At this point, the Rav decided to teach the members of the commission a lesson in Jewish law. Calmly and respectfully, he explained:

"In Jewish law, the concept of 'yei'ush ba'alim' ('owner's despair') applies even to land. (That is, the owner of a stolen piece of land forfeits his ownership over it if he gives up hope of ever retrieving it from the thief.) However, if a person steals someone else's land, and the rightful owner continuously protests the theft, he retains ownership over the land forever."

Rav Kook's proud appearance before the commission made a powerful impact on the Jewish community. The Hator newspaper remarked, "We cannot refrain from mentioning once again the Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael, who sanctified God and Israel with his testimony. The witnesses who preceded him stood there meekly, with tottering knees. After the Chief Rabbi's appearance, we felt a bit relieved, as if a weight had been lifted from our hearts. He raised our stature, straightened our posture, and restored dignity to the Torah and our nation." 

The British Proposal

The British Mandatory government suggested a compromise according to which the Jews would recognize Arab ownership of the Wall and the Arabs, in return, would permit Jews to approach the Wall. (The right to pray at the Wall was not explicitly mentioned.)

Due to the tense political situation - particularly in light of the murderous Arab rioting the previous year - the Va'ad Leumi (the executive committee of the Jewish National Assembly in pre-state Israel) was prepared to recognize Arab ownership of the Wall. However, the Va'ad Leumi stipulated that the Arabs must explicitly recognize the right of Jews to pray there.

Because this was a religious matter, the Mandatory government required that the Va'ad Leumi's proposal be approved by the religious authority of the Jews, namely, the rabbinate. In order to apply greater pressure on the rabbis, the Va'ad Leumi sent delegations simultaneously to the two Chief Rabbis, Rav Kook and Rabbi Yaakov Meir, and also to Rabbi Zonnenfeld, representing Agudat Yisrael.

A delegation from the Va'ad, headed by Yitzchak Ben-Zvi, visited Rav Kook and tried to persuade him to approve the plan. It is a matter of life and death, they argued; only by renouncing Jewish ownership will we assuage the Arabs and bring peace to Israel.

Rav Kook's Steadfast Response

Despite intense pressure from the Va'ad Leumi, Rav Kook refused to authorize the proposal.

"God forbid!" he exclaimed. "We have no authority to do such a thing. The Jewish people did not empower us to surrender the Western Wall on its behalf. Our ownership over the Kotel is Divine in nature, and it is by virtue of this ownership that we come to pray before the Kotel." 

"I cannot relinquish that which God gave to the Jewish people. If, God forbid, we give up on the Wall, the Holy One will not wish to return it to us."

As it turned out, the Arabs refused even to consider granting the right of Jewish prayer at the Wall, and the proposal died. Indeed, after the War of Independence, although the cease-fire agreement provided for the right of Jews to approach the Wall, the Arabs ignored this provision. Only nineteen years later, when God returned the Kotel to its original owners in the Six-Day War, did we merit once again to pray unhindered at the Western Wall.

Addendum

R. Menachem Porush, the respected chairman of Agudat Yisrael, added the following detail of the incident:

Rav Kook, upon receiving the proposal, stated that he would not agree to relinquish the Jewish claim to the Western Wall under any circumstances. He also dispatched a personal messenger to Rabbi Zonnenfeld to inform him of his refusal and to beg him not to indicate to the British any weakness of purpose regarding the matter. Rabbi Zonnenfeld, when he received notice of the proposal, also refused to agree. Afraid that Rav Kook might somehow not be firm enough in refusing the proposal, Rabbi Zonnenfeld dispatched his own personal messenger to Rav Kook to inform him of his policy and to request that he not show any willingness to compromise on the matter.

The two messengers, who happened to be personal friends, met in the street and discussed their missions and messages. Both were relieved and heartened that they did not have to deliver their respective messages. Thus, the plan, which would have compromised Jewish rights at the Western Wall for generations, died aborning.

[adapted from Celebration of the Soul, p. 244; An Angel Among Men, pp. 206-207,215-217,219; letter of R. Porush, quoted by Rabbi Berel Wein]