The deal of the century? Cemal Pasha's attempt to sell the Western Wall in 1916

In this special episode of Jerusalem Unplugged with no guest, I will tell you the story of a neglected and forgotten event that took place during the First World War in Jerusalem and might have changed the course of the city's history. In 1916 the Ottoman Military Governor and Commander of Syria and Palestine, Cemal Pasha, offered to Albert Antebi, a local Jewish representative (well respected and openly anti-Zionist) the possibility to purchase the area in front of the Western Wall and to demolish the houses owned by the local Moroccans. In this podcast I will recount the story of the offer and the subsequent debates amongst the member of the Zionist organization. While the money to complete the purchase was collected, many in the Zionist camp were not so eager to move forward and eventually the combination of this factor with a change of mind by Cemal Pasha, the affair did not materialize. Zionist leaders swore to keep the story secret and the story did indeed remain buried in the archives for a long time. While the documents were available, no historian of Zionism ever reported this. It is hard to speculate 'what if' the Western Wall had been sold during the war, what would have happened may not have an easy answer, but if anything else this event tells us that there is a lot more we don't know.

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