1939: Palestine

The Arab-Jewish Problem.

The year 1939 started with a conference in London in which the British Government met Arab and Zionist delegates to try to arrive at some settlement of the thorny Palestinian problem. Since the end of the World War, the Zionist aspirations of making Palestine into a Jewish homeland had kept aroused the hostility of the Arab inhabitants of the Holy Land. This hostility had flared up in April 1936 into an open revolt, which had not subsided at the end of 1938 and which had doubled in violence and force. The growing anti-Semitism in Central Europe and the expulsion of Jews from National Socialist Germany had turned increasingly the eyes of the Jews in Germany, Austria, Poland and Rumania on the Holy Land as a possible refuge. Many tens of thousands waited for a possibility of emigration to and settlement in the country, where for the last 20 years through Zionist efforts new cities had arisen, new industries been created and many thousands of acres of land been reclaimed.

At the same time the independent Arabic states—Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia—had taken up with greatest energy the cause of the Palestinian Arabs and had officially informed the British Government of their unreserved support of the demands of the Palestinian Arabs for independence. The head of the Egyptian delegation, Aly Maher Pasha, presented the united Arab view in London. He proposed the complete independence of Palestine under Arab rule, a strong strategic treaty between Great Britain and Palestine, and the freezing of the Jewish National Home at the present extent, but with the enjoyment of full minority rights and cultural autonomy. The legislative assembly of the All-India National Parliament supported this stand and in a resolution on February 10 demanded India's withdrawal from the League of Nations as a protest against Britain's policy in Palestine. On the other hand, the Zionists regarded any solution of the kind proposed by the Arabs as the death sentence upon their hopes for a Jewish State in Palestine and opposed it with the utmost vigor. Under these circumstances there was no common ground for a meeting between the Arabs and the Zionists, and the Conference was to end in a deadlock as far as mutual agreement was concerned.

British Proposals for Settlement.

Under these conditions the British Government had to work out its own proposals. It envisaged the creation of an independent Palestinian State at the end of a transitional period. In this state the whole population of Palestine would enjoy the rights of self-government. The constitution of this state would have to contain adequate safeguards for the interests of minorities, for the sacred character of the Holy Land, and for British strategic interests.

The British intention of ending the mandate aroused a most violent opposition on the part of Zionists. Unrest in Palestine was revived, this time by Zionist terrorists. Some of their bombs took a large toll of Arab life. On the other hand, the British were successful in cleaning up the armed Arab rebel bands and in executing the leader of the rebellion, Abdul Rahim Haj Mohammed.

British policy found its official expression in a Statement of Policy in May 1939, which took up the proposals laid before the Arab and Zionist delegates in March, rejected by both. Thus the British Government was put to the necessity of devising a policy which, consistent with British obligations to Arabs and Jews, would meet the needs of the situation in Palestine and remove the ambiguity contained in the expression 'a National Home for the Jewish people.' The statement declared that it is not part of British policy that Palestine should become a Jewish state, as that would be contrary to British obligations to the Arabs under the mandate. The aim of the administration of the country should be to establish ultimately an independent Palestinian state in which Arabs and Jews share authority in government in such a way that essential interests of each are secured. This independent state was to be established within ten years and during this transitional period Arabs and Jews were to take an increasing part in the administration of the country.

Further, the statement pleaded for a regulation of Jewish immigration to Palestine, according to not only economic but also political considerations; otherwise, the situation in Palestine might become a permanent source of friction among all peoples of the Near and Middle East. The British Government refused to stop Jewish immigration completely, as had been demanded by the Arabs. It proposed instead to allow Jewish immigration during the next five years at a rate which would bring the Jewish population up to approximately one third of the total population of the country. This would allow, according to the estimates of the Government, for the admission of some 75,000 immigrants over the next five years. After this period further Jewish immigration would depend upon the agreement with the Arab population. The British Government declared itself determined to check illegal immigration, for during the last few years a very large number of Jewish immigrants had entered the country illegally. Measures were also envisaged to restrict the sale of Arab lands in certain areas to Jews. At the end of this statement the British Government expressed its conviction that its proposals will not satisfy the partisans of one party or the other in such controversy as the Palestine mandate has aroused. (See also ARABIA; RELIGION: Jews..)

Arab and Jewish Reactions.

This expectation was entirely justified. The British proposals invoked a sharp opposition from Arabs. They fell far short of Arab demands for immediate complete independence, for complete cessation of Jewish immigration and prohibition of land transfer to Jews. But even stronger was the rejection of these proposals by the Zionists. The unrest in Palestine continued. According to official figures for the first quarter of 1939 there were 279 Arabs, 53 Jews and 16 Britons killed. In the month of March alone 110 Arabs and Jews were killed.

Immigration.

To check illegal immigration, the High Commissioner of Palestine announced that the number of Jewish immigrants who succeeded in entering Palestine illegally would be deducted from future immigration quotas. A system of marine police was organized, and heavier penalties for illegal immigration were provided. In spite of these measures immigration continued in large numbers. The legal immigration during the first 6 months of 1939 amounted to 14,130 Jews, of whom 5,608 came from Germany. At the end of June 1939, the population of Palestine was estimated at 1,015,000 Arabs, 460,000 Jews and 28,000 others. According to this figure the Jewish population amounted to 30 per cent as against 17 per cent by the census in 1931. During the intervening eight years the Jewish population in Palestine had grown by 167 per cent, whereas in the same period the Arab population had grown only 22 per cent. The total population of Palestine was estimated at 1,503,000 as against 1,074,000 in 1931.

Arab Demands.

At the beginning of May, Arab representatives from Palestine and neighboring Arab states issued a statement in Cairo demanding the establishment of a Republic of Palestine in three years. As a first step they proposed to abolish the post of the British High Commissioner. They suggested instead the appointment of an English Premier to the Palestinian Government to be followed after three years by a President, to be elected as the head of the Palestinian Republic. The Arabs agreed to a quota of 10,000 Jewish immigrants annually for the next seven and one half years. They demanded that Palestine become independent after ten years without any condition of a previous Arab-Jewish agreement.

Demonstrations against British Statement of Policy.

The middle of May saw a general strike and powerful demonstrations of the Jewish population in Palestine against the British Statement of Policy. Encounters between the police and the demonstrators resulted in a number of casualties. A number of shooting and bombing outrages against Arabs followed and were ascribed to the activities of an extremist Zionist group, the Revisionists. On June 14, the Palestinian Government made public the new schedule for immigration for the period of the five months from May to September, and fixed the number of Jewish immigrants for this period at 7,850. Among the Arabs a group, headed by Nashashibi, was ready to accept the British Statement of Policy as a basis for further negotiations and to continue cooperation with Great Britain. The majority of the Arabs, however, followed the lead of the exiled Mufti of Jerusalem, whom they still regarded as their national leader, and rejected the British policy in Palestine, demanding full and unconditional independence and elected democratic institutions after a transitional period. Toward the end of June terrorism by small extremist Zionist groups increased to such an extent that Jewish notables joined in a public denunciation of the inciters of these acts of assassination. But the growing international tension and the fear that the Mediterranean might become upon the outbreak of war a decisive battlefield overshadowed all the more local events.

Work of the Zionist Organization.

In spite of all the political troubles and the continuing unrest, the constructive work of the Zionist organization went ahead. The number of immigrants did not diminish. Many, driven in greatest despair from the lands of their birth, unable to receive permission to enter Palestine legally, nor being allowed entrance to any other country, wandered for many weeks in small boats from port to port and from island to island in the Mediterranean trying to find a chance to slip illegally into Palestine, which appeared to them the only refuge. New land was acquired by the Zionist land funds and by private individuals. New agricultural settlements were opened, the existing industries were consolidated, building activity in the cities expanded, and some of the larger industrial and commercial ventures showed most promising returns.

Reaction of Mandates Commission of the League of Nations to British Policy.

Meanwhile the British Government had a difficult task to justify its policy before the Mandates Commission of the League of Nations. The British Colonial Secretary, Malcolm MacDonald, tried to explain his country's policy in a broadcast to the United States from Geneva on June 20. He assured his listeners of the absolute impartiality of the mandatory power between the conflicting claims of Arabs and Jews. 'On the one hand,' he said, 'there are the Jewish people who many centuries ago inhabited Palestine, but who since then, save for a comparative handful, have been scattered over the face of the earth. To them we promised the establishment by immigration and land settlement of a national home in Palestine. On the other hand, there are the Arabs who have been in undisturbed occupation of Palestine for the last 1,300 years. We assured them that Jewish development in their country would only be permitted in so far as it did not prejudice the rights and position of the Arabs.' For the past twenty years the Zionists have been helped to return in hundreds of thousands and to reclaim the ancient land. But the Arabs had not become reconciled; they preferred 'freedom, as would any other people in their place,' to the material benefits brought to them by Jewish immigration. Although the Arab revolt has been 'disgraced' by many acts of the 'worst banditry,' it also 'has borne undeniably the marks of a genuine patriotic movement.' The Colonial Secretary claimed that the British Statement of Policy of May 17 was a successful attempt to guarantee to Arabs and Jews in their common country the right to live according to their own traditions and genius. The Mandates Commission of the League of Nations was, however, not convinced that the British plan for Palestine really did solve the Palestinian problem. In the middle of August the report of the Mandates Commission was published revealing that four out of seven members considered the British Statement of Policy a violation of the provisions of the Palestine Mandate. (See LEAGUE OF NATIONS.)

Zionist Congress.

At the same time the Zionist Congress met at Geneva under the leadership of the President of the Zionist organization, Dr. Chaim Weizmann, and voiced again the most determined and energetic protest against any restriction of Jewish immigration and against the whole policy of the British Government as outlined in the White Paper of May 17. The approaching culmination of the conflict between Germany and Poland forced the Congress to conclude its work prematurely.

Effect of the War.

The outbreak of the European War changed the situation in Palestine. The Arab population backed the democratic powers, and the sympathies of the Jewish population naturally lay in the same direction. The internal situation was eased, some of the urgent problems were left to be solved after the war. The great influx of refugees without any means rendered the economic position more difficult. The fact that Italy has not joined in the war has so far kept Palestine at peace. But the possibility of a German or Soviet push into the Near East or of Italy's participation in the war has turned Palestine into a most important strategic point for the defense of British interests in the Near East and for the safeguarding of her oil supply from Iraq, which is conducted by pipe lines to the Palestinian port of Haifa. See also INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCES.