 In 1895 Hebrew linguist and publisher Rabbi Chaim <unk> became entangled in a failed effort to purchase the Western Wall and lost all his assets . Even the attempts of the Palestine Land Development Company to purchase the environs of the Western Wall for the Jews just before the outbreak of World War I never came to fruition . In the first two months following the Ottoman Empire ’ s entry into the First World War , the Turkish governor of Jerusalem , <unk> Bey , offered to sell the Moroccan Quarter , which consisted of about 25 houses , to the Jews in order to enlarge the area available to them for prayer . He requested a sum of £ 20 @,@ 000 which would be used to both rehouse the Muslim families and to create a public garden in front of the Wall . However , the Jews of the city lacked the necessary funds . A few months later , under Muslim Arab pressure on the Turkish authorities in Jerusalem , Jews became forbidden by official decree to place benches and light candles at the Wall . This sour turn in relations was taken up by the <unk> Bashi who managed to get the ban overturned . In 1915 it was reported that Djemal Pasha closed off the wall to visitation as a sanitary measure . 
