In April 1918 , Chaim Weizmann , then a prominent Zionist leader on a visit to Jerusalem , sent a letter via Ronald Storrs offering the sheikhs £ 70,000 in exchange for the Wall and the buildings of the Moroccan quarter . This was immediately rejected when the Muslim authorities got wind of the proposal . Nothing daunted , Weizmann then addressed his petition to Arthur Balfour , asking him to resolve the issue by ruling in favour of the Jews . In a letter of 30 May that year , headed '' THE HANDING OVER OF THE WAILING WALL TO THE JEWS '' , he gave his reasons as follows : We Jews have many holy places in Palestine , but the Wailing Wall-believed to be part of the old Temple Wall-is the only one which is in some sense left to us . All the others are in the hands of Christians or Moslems . And even the Wailing Wall is not really ours . It is surrounded by a group of miserable , dirty cottages and derelict buildings , which make the whole place from the hygienic point of view a positive danger , and from the sentimental point of view a source of constant humiliation to the Jews of the world . Our most sacred monument , in our most sacred city , is in the hands of some doubtful Moghreb religious community , which keeps these cottages as a source of income . We are willing to compensate this community very liberally , but we should like the place to be cleaned up ; we should like to give it a dignified and respectable appearance . ' The wall as well as the Moroccan Quarter nonetheless , throughout the British Mandatory period , remained Waqf property , while Jews retained their longstanding right to visit it . During the 1929 Palestine riots Jews and Muslims did however clash over competing claims on the area adjacent to the Moroccan Quarter , with Jews denying they had no aims regarding the Haram al-Sharif but demanding the British authorities expropriate and raze the Moroccan quarter . Jewish Moroccan and Muslim Moroccan pilgrims , both groups on a visit to Jerusalem , were present at the riots , and several of the former were killed or injured . Great Britain appointed a commission under the approval of the League of Nations to settle the issue . The Commission again reaffirmed the status quo , while placing certain restrictions on activities , including forbidding Jews from conducting the Yom Kippur prayers ( the holiest holiday in Judaism ) , which involved the blowing of the Shofar , and Muslims from carrying out the Dhikr ( Islamic prayers ) close to the wall or to cause annoyance to the Jews
1929 Palestine riots
1929 Palestine riots
Moroccan Quarter