The Algerian government will sue Israel for possession of the Western Wall according to reports from Algiers on Friday. Government officials claim they possess the property deeds of a Muslim-Algerian citizen who they claim owns the Western Wall and Western Wall Plaza and transferred ownership to the Algerian government.
The claim was made by a close advisor of Yasser Arafat, Bassam Abu-Sharif. Abu-Sharif claims that the United States also has possession of those documents but is trying to destroy them.
According to Abu-Sharif, Algerians who came to Jerusalem to fight against Israel in the War of Independence then became Israeli citizens. He adds however that this doesn’t prevent the government of Algeria from demanding ownership of the Western Wall.
During Israel’s War of Independence, Jerusalem’s Old City was temporarily conquered by the IDF only to be relinuished back to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan after reinforcements weren’t deployed.
