Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Djemal Pasha

Tuesday, May 02, 2023

The Turkish leader who banned Jews from the Kotel in 1915

The American Jewish Yearbook for 1916 described several events about the Kotel that year, all of which were ascribed to Djemal Pasha, the military governor of Syria (which included Palestine) at that time.

JUNE 11 1915. Djemal Pasha examines reports of various Zionist congresses and other Zionist literature, and warns Jewish colonists that despite their success in the past the Government would in future make establishment of colonies more difficult.

JUNE 18 - Djemal Pasha prohibits Jews to pray at the Wailing Wall, because their prayers include plea for the re-establishment of Jewish State.

AUGUST 13. Djemal Pasha announces that the Government has become convinced of the necessity of destroying the entire Jewish colonization work in order that the colonies should not become a danger to the integrity of Turkey.

NOVEMBER 2. Jaffa Hebrew weekly, Hapoel Hazair, reports that Djemal Pasha, commander of Turkish Army, orders barricade to be placed across approach to Wailing Wall, thus preventing Jews from visiting it. Order said to be based on sanitary grounds.

MARCH 3 (1916) . Djemal Pasha offers to give Jews free access to Wailing Wall for from eighty thousand to one hundred thousand francs.

Pasha was a monster, killing Arab leaders right and left, and possibly involved in the Armenian genocide. But I hadn't heard abut restrictions at the Kotel in the 1910s, and notice that he gave different reasons to bar Jews - both because they always pray for Jerusalem to be rebuilt and then the bogus "sanitary reasons," before deciding to shake down the Jews to pay for the privilege of praying there.

I confirmed a couple of these incidents:

This December 1915 article adds that Pasha considered all Jews in Palestine to be spies, and his Turkish authorities stole charity funds intended for impoverished Jews:

Also December 1915:

March 1916 news articles in Jewish newspapers confirmed the desire to charge an exorbitant fee to visit the Kotel in Jerusalem:

100,000 French francs in 1916 was worth about $17,000 US dollars at the time - which is equivalent today to $470,000, a truly exorbitant amount.

I don't see any indication that this was paid. I see photos of Jews at the Kotel in 1917 before the British took over. Either that particular story was a rumor, Djemal Pasha didn't enforce it or somehow an amount was paid quietly.