The United Kingdom

The British intentionally failed to estimate the size of the Arab immigration, focusing solely on Jewish Aliyah.

  • Report of the Royal Commission to the Land of Israel Page 125: “We cannot make a precise estimate of the number of Arabs who came to the Land of Israel from neighboring Arab countries and settled in it.”
  • Report of the Royal Commission to the Land of Israel for 1937 [1]: “Since the 1931 census, there has been illegal and unlisted immigration by both Arabs and Jews, but until the next census is held, its scope cannot be estimated”.
  • The difference between illegal immigration by Jews and Arabs was intentionally blurred (Page 223, 226).
  • In 1934 the newspaper La Ciri published an interview with Taufiq Bey Al-Khurani, governor Hauran, in which he announced that “Over the past few months between thirty thousand and 36,000 Haurani (Syrians) have entered the land of Israel and settled there.” The Mandates Committee, which was responsible for all of the mandatory governments of the League of Nations, noted the fact that the Hauran natives were not just passing through Israel, but settled in it; however, British immigration summaries make no mentioned of that wave of illegal immigration (Page 228).
  • Secret internal British correspondence files referred to Syrians permitted to enter Palestine without a passport or visa [2], but there was no mention in this in official British government reports.
  • In the same period of time, the number of Arabs who entered the Land of Israel illegally and remained in it was larger than the total number of Jews in twice the amount of time in 1934 who were allowed to enter the country, the country defined as their national home. The High Commissioner declared in 1934: “We do not believe that the number of illegal immigrants has exceeded 100 per month” [3] (Page 224-226, 228).
  • Hope Simpson, a land and settlement expert and author of the Hope Simpson Report following the 1929 events, testifies [4] that there is a practice that lays as a yoke on the Jews’ shoulders: “A tourist procedure, for people allegedly entering the country for a fixed period of time, (but) remaining in the country after their license expires” (Page 229-230).
  • Simpson admitted in his report that British officials would turn a blind eye to illegal Arab immigration, except for the most overt cases. Not only this, but this immigration also hurts Jews seeking to enter the country: “When the case is overt, deportation is obviously necessary. In cases that are not particularly overt and when there is no objection to any individual person, it would be enough, apparently, to follow current procedure, and deduct them from the worker quota, despite the fact that this method causes a certain degree of injustice for Jewish Olim outside the country, whose places are taken by the day’s tourist” (Page 288).
  • As entering the country illegally was so easy, the way of dealing with illegal immigration was to return the immigrants from whence they came. This is what was demanded by British Colonel MacCarth, who was responsible for the border between Israel and Syria, from the government in 1937, but the state of affairs in 1942 was still such that “The police has no instructions to focus on catching Arabs who entered the country illegally” (Page 289).
  • According to the Simpson Report, Arab unemployment numbers were inflated in order to serve as a political tool for halting Jewish immigration (Page 289).
  • The same report stated that Jewish immigration harmed the rights of native Arabs, despite the fact that the report itself noted that a portion of the Arab population was immigrants, and therefore Jewish immigration needed to be cut or even halted. The report leans on reservations to the Mandate: Section 6 states that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine; despite the fact that the report admits that a large portion of the Arab population were immigrants and not natives, and that the Arabs were inflating unemployment numbers in order to halt Jewish immigration (Page 289).
  • Simpson’s conclusion was that the Jews were uprooting landless Arabs, and therefore he objected to adding Jewish immigrants as settlers on the land, and recommended dense mixed Arab and Jewish settlement (Page 142).
  • The members of the Royal Commission for the Land of Israel were amazed to hear public testimony that confirmed the existence of extensive illegal Arab immigration, to areas settled by Jews and the other portions of the western Land of Israel and the political consequences that could arise from this. The Jews tried to argue to the Commission that this immigration was pushing them aside and hurting them, and noted that without their efforts and the success of the development and Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel, there would have been no Arab immigration to the Land of Israel (Page 294).
  • A later British report stated that the 1930 Simpson report was biased in favor of the Arab side (Page 291).
  • In 1926, with the increase in the value of the cost of Jewish capital, entrance licenses were granted to Syrians escaping the riots in Syria, without any difficulties imposed on the Syrian refugees.

The British claimed that the increase in Arab population in the Land of Israel derived solely from natural growth: “But one may assume that nine-tenth of the increase came from natural growth, which was a growth rate of over fifty percent for 17 years. These are amazing numbers even more so as according to generally accepted opinions, the population of the Land of Israel during Ottoman rule was more or less stable…”

  • The census taken in the Land of Israel in 1931 notes the place of birth of Muslim residents, and also notes that they speak fifty different languages [5]. (Page 147).
  • The UK Violated the Terms of the Mandate
    • In the Belfour Declaration, the area assigned to the Jews, that being Palestine, covers the area east and west of the Jordan River, and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Arab Peninsula and Iraq, and north and south from Egypt to Lebanon and Syria (Page 231). All of this area was intended, according to the Mandate Agreement, to serve as a national home for the Jews, as declared by the United States: “When a state is established there… when the Jews are invited to return to Palestine and settle there… the policy of the League of Nations will be to recognize Palestine as a Jewish state… we may trust England, as sponsor, to grant the Jews the special status suitable to them…” (Page 232).
    • But despite the United State’ statement regarding Britain, the British brought Emir Abdullah and the Emirates into the Mandate’s area, east of the Jordan River. The reason for this is, apparently, a British attempt to placate the Emir following the Balfour Declaration, or it was in appreciation for the Hijaz Arabs’ who faught alongside the British against the Turks in the First World War.
    • A proposal Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill received from Lawrence of Arabia claimed that Abdullah’s brother, Faisal, stipulated his withdrawal from his father’s demand for the western Land of Israel on receiving Iraq and the eastern Land of Israel as Arab territory, by joining it to Hijaz (Page 232).
    • Despite the fact that this demand was, as stated by Sir Herbert Samuel, High Commissioner to the Land of Israel, in violation of Section 5 of the Mandate, Faisal got what he wanted, thus becoming the King of Iraq, while his brother Abdullah became the ruler of the temporary Emirate in eastern Palestine, which eventually became the Kingdom of Transjordan (Page 233).
    • The UK had violated the terms of the Mandate, by taking away some three-quarters of the area of the Land of Israel – 98,000 square kilometers that had been assigned to the Jewish homeland – to the Arab emirate (Page 234).
  • Following the violation of the terms of the Mandate, a state of affairs arose in which Jews were not permitted to settle in three-quarters of the area promised them.
    • 75% of the Land of Israel, east of the Jordan, is in practice a Palestinian Arab state, with most of its population being Arab; this despite the fact that when Lord Balfour referred to a “small piece of land” he was referring to both western and eastern Israel together (Page 235).
    • In addition to the demographic data, in 1948 King Abdullah of Jordan declared that “Palestine and Transjordan are a single country…”. Eventually a ruling was passed in the Jordanian Citizenship Law stating that all Palestinians were entitled to Jordanian citizenship, unless they were Jewish (Page 234). Many statements by Palestinian leaders indicated that Jordan was a Palestinian country, including Yasser Arafat, who declared that Jordan was Palestine, as did King Hussain and his brother Prince Hassan.
    • In effect, the discussion that has arisen on uprooting Arabs refers solely to the western part of the country, with no reference made to the eastern part of the country (Page 235), as in the eastern part the Arabs acted as if it were the Arab state, and Jews were not allowed to settle in it. Naturally, we cannot refer to the removal of Arabs from an area in which Jewish settlement was not permitted (Page 236).
  • The British Tried to Placate the Arab World
    • After the First World War, the Arabs won Arab independence in various countries surrounding the Land of Israel, which lead Lord Balfour to hope that the Arabs would not covet such small a parcel of land as the Land of Israel, when this would be given to the Jews (Page 232).
    • Israeli Arabs were allowed to enter the area allocated to Jewish settlement, but Jews, on the other hand, were not allowed to settle across the Jordan. This is in spite of the decision of the Mandate Committee of the League of Nations, which emphasized that special relief must be given to Jewish immigration to all parts of the Land of Israel, including Transjordan and eastern land of Israel; this, while applying the accepted British policy, which stated that a mutual agreement allowing the entrance of Jews to Transjordan must be prevented, due to concerns that “The entrance of foreigners (Jews) to Transjordan would lead to a breakdown in law and order” [6] (Page 318).
    • There were those among the British who wished to placate the Arab-Muslim world in particular and the Middle East in general, in order to gain support against Germany and the Nazi enemy. This expectation was not realized, as examination of the lack of Arab support for the British in their war against the Turks would show. Some officials held anti-Semitic beliefs – which were expressed in discrimination against the Jews. Whether due to antisemitism or due to the informal foreign policy of placating and recruiting the Arab world against the Germans, evidence exists that the British did not fulfill their duties in the Land of Israel, which was the realization of the vision of establishing a Jewish homeland (Page 315).
    • The Highcraft Report stated, among other things, that in villages surrounded by Arab population, the Jews were not suffering. However, this was in fact an attempt to mollify Arab anger against the British, who were accused of treating the Jews decently, and not a reflection of reality (Page 317).
    • In May 1939 an agreement was reached with the Arabs, that stipulated Jewish immigration on Arab consent and the economy’s ability to absorb them. MacDonald, the British Colonial Secretary, admitted that if the government had considered its new hard line without taking the Arab pressure into account, Britain would have omitted certain points (Page 323).
    • In 1921 correspondence took place between Dr. Chaim Weitzman and British general Sir Deeds, in which Weitzman ascribed the British behavior to the antisemitism of the officials in the country, and noted that the Arabs were taking advantage of this behavior (Page 330). In a letter sent by Sir Henry Locke to the Secretary of State for Colonies, he presented him with his deep concerns regarding the political goals of the Jews immigrating to the country. But the Mandate holders stiffened their necks toward Jewish immigration after every terrorist attack the Arabs carried out against the Jews (Page 332).
    • Certain great powers intervened to perpetuate the feelings of hostility the Arabs felt toward the Jews, probably in order to advance their interests in the region.
    • In the 1930s, American oil companies began exporting oil from Saudi Arabia, but during the war this land remained penniless and mired in debt, mainly to the UK. Despite his hostility toward the Jews, Saudi King ibn Saud considered borrowing money from Zionist sources, with British assistance. These also promised him that a settlement could be reached on the Israel issue with Chaim Weitzman. The Americans applied pressure against the growing cooperation between Jews and Arabs and convinced them that this was impossible; their excuse was to blame Jewish “economic imperialism”. Thus, the possibility of economic cooperation followed by compromise between Jews and Arabs before the founding of the State of Israel had failed.
    • According to secret documents revealed in 1949, in several Arab countries, defeated leaders started talking about a peace process with Israel after the War of Independence. These were sabotaged by senior British government officials, who were afraid of an Arab-Israeli block, which would lead to Britain losing its position as the dominant power in the region. It’s important to note that the British also feared that friendship with Israel “Would cost us dearly… if it would drive the Arabs away from us, thus risking our bases in Egypt or the Middle Eastern oil”, as stated by Ernest Bevin, the British Foreign Minister at the time (Page 342).
  • Despite the fact that the conflict between the Balfour Declaration and the British approach in practice was evident, British statements gave a pretense of following it, until 1939, when they declared a change in policy: that they would no longer be able to honor the Balfour Declaration and the “White Book” laws (Page 323).
    • The Passfield “White Book” sought, in 1930, not to give Jews the right to purchase state lands, but rather give that right to landless Arab farmers (Page 291).
    • The “White Book” instructed that Jewish immigration be based not just on Jewish unemployment, but also on Arab unemployment, without taking into account the fact that Jewish capital was solely injected for the employment of Jewish workers (Page 291).
    • The “White Book” also ruled that Jewish immigration and settlement must be halted until the condition of landless Arabs and primitive Arab farming methods were improved (Page 292).
    • After Dr. Chaim Weitzman protested to Lord Passfield that the White Book was incompatible with the Mandate and in fact reversed British policy regarding the Jewish national home, Prime Minister Ramsey MacDonald ordered temporary reprieves for some of the restrictions in Passfield’s White Book: only Arabs who could prove that they had been dispossessed of their land following Jews taking over, and who had not found alternate land, could receive the status of a landless farmer entitled to state lands. But actually, just one percent of the Arab population was listed as truly landless. This, versus the number listed in the Simpson Report – 29.4%. The reason for the difference derives from two important facts: the first is that there existed throughout the Middle East a migrant workers class, who earned money from temporary work; and the second is that the illegal Arab immigrant population described in the report was counted as “landless” population. Thus, in effect, the Jews were blamed for “dispossessing” Arabs, despite this having no basis in fact.  It’s important to note that the opportunity to receive land was not also given east of the Jordan, despite the fact that the same “landlessness” situation existed there as well. The obvious conclusion is that the argument of “dispossessing Arabs from their land” was an excuse to harm the Jewish Yishuv – where Jews were not allowed to settle (Page 292).
    • The justification the British gave for the relative freeze of the Balfour Declaration and for signing the White Book was that the Balfour Declaration included a commitment not to harm non-Jewish communities living in the country. According to British statements, Jewish immigration did in fact harm the rights of these communities. However, they were penniless immigrants and not natives of the country (Page 325).
    • The White Book was eventually ratified with a majority of 268 versus 179, and the only ones who could have caused it to be cancelled were the members of the League of Nations Mandate Committee. The Committee expressed its objections to the White Book but did not convene due to the British declaration of war against Germany, after the latter invaded Poland in September 1939 (Page 335).
  • In July 1937, the Royal Commission for the Land of Israel published a comprehensive report that serves as decisive proof that the British and strayed far from their policy of realizing the vision of a Jewish national home in favor a policy of pandering to the Arabs, so as not to provoke their wrath (Page 300).
    • The report also embodied the Arab arguments that the Jews were the reason for the disquiet due to their very presence; that the massive Arab majority had been here since antiquity; and that areas of Jewish settlement must be treated as of it was the Land of Israel as a whole (Page 300).
    • The report submitted to the British government featured a number of suggestions for preventing illegal immigration: recognizing illegal Jewish immigrants already in the country as legal, issuing ID cards, creating a border control force and forcing married women to naturalize (page 301).
    • But the report also stated that the expansion of the Jewish Yishuv is not organic and that it ignored the hostile position of the Arabs of the Land of Israel. Therefore, the report recommended dividing Palestine – a division in which the Arabs would have to accept the fact that part of the land was no longer in their possession (Page 302).
  • British officials in the Land of Israel treated the Arab population as the natives, while the Jewish population was considered a new population. This can be seen in the claims made by a colonial official by the name of Lord Haley to the Permanent Mandate Committee in Geneva. Haley argued that “The British would not be convinced to support… the enslavement of a native population (Arabs) by a new population (Jews), which mostly consists of Polish and German settlers” (Page 319).
    • Another statement that is indicative of the British attitude toward the Jews is that of the British Foreign Minister at the time, Anthony Eden, to his private secretary in 1943: “Let me whisper in your ear that I prefer Arabs to Jews” (Page 322). Chamberlain told the members of his government: “If we must hurt one side, let us hurt the Jews and not the Arabs.”
  • From the very beginning of the Mandate, the British government had limited Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel. It even eventually defined it as illegal, despite the fact that it had actually been tasked with making Jewish immigration easier (Page 330).
    • In an extensive internal government summary, Sir Windham Deeds, the Secretary General of the Government of the Land of Israel, noted that in 1921 “Many immigrants had been turned back… ” and “Thousands of people had been returned…. many of whom had valid papers…” (Page 329.
    • In 1926 the British raised the capital ownership value requirements for Jews as a condition for immigration to the country (Page 332).
  • In an attempt to halt Jewish immigration to the Land of Israel, before the war, The British informed Germany of Jews planning to immigrate to the Land of Israel in order or to stop them.
    • In march 1939 the British ambassador to Berlin was instructed by the British Foreign Ministry to inform the German government of Jewish escape routes, and ask German authorities “Not to encourage such travel…” (Page 334).
    • The British government would inform the Nazis of ships laden with refugees arriving at the Land of Israel (Page 344).
  • By the end of the war in 1945, six million Jews had been murdered; of those arriving at the country, only 51,000 were allowed to stay – less than one percent. This, despite knowing that Jews were being persecuted and murdered. The number of Jews allowed to immigrate to the Land of Israel by the mandatory government from the start was 300,000 (Page 336).
    • At the same time, thousands of Arabs continued to immigrate to the Land of Israel.
    • If illegal Arab immigration had been halted in those years, the number of Jews in the country would have exceeded the number of (Native) Arabs (Page 337).
  • The Mandate government did not prevent the Mufti’s supporters from entering the Land of Israel, even during the war, despite the fact that in 1941 the Mufti declared that he was “Calling for a holy war against Britain” (Page 347), and despite the fact that UK had proof that he had been managing the Arab riots of 1936, with money provided by the Nazis (Page 348).
    • The Arabs’ betrayal of the UK did not just come from Mufti Ah-Husseini. It also came from Arab countries including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Lebanon, despite the British policy of mollifying the Arabs.
    • Britain continued to negotiate with those betraying it, despite the fact that the Arab Leaders had given their loyalty and their assistance to the Axis powers (Page 349).
    • The Anglo-American investigative committee of 1946 noted that most of the Arabs who had supported Nazi ideals and led the Arab Revolt of 1936 had left the eastern Land of Israel. After the Second World War and the Holocaust, the report noted, the Arabs were permitted to return to the country, while the Jewish quota was kept at just 1,500 people per month (Page 366).
  • IN 1944 the British Labor Party announced that: “Arabs must be motivated to leave the Land of Israel…” and that it was “in favor of a Jewish state.” Similar voices were heard from the United States. The Americans said that they were “in favor of opening the gates of the Land of Israel to unlimited Jewish immigration and settlement… and establishing a free and democratic Jewish community.”
  • Despite everything, British government policy in the Land of Israel was unchanged, as can be seen in a telegram sent in 1945 by the UK’s representative to Washington: “No further immigration licenses are being issued.” It’s important to note that from 1939, the year the White Book was approved, to 1945, the end of World War II, the immigration quota was just 75,000 Jews – a quota that was not met.
  • [1] Colonial Office no. 146, Page 221.
  • [2] Report of the Royal Commission to the Land of Israel, Page 210.
  • [3] Report of the Royal Commission to the Land of Israel for 1934, Colonial Office no. 104 Page 11.
  • [4] Report Page 138
  • [5] Census of the Land of Israel, Volume A, Land of Israel; Part A Report from A. Mellis, Assistant General Secretary and Census Supervisor (Alexandria, 1933)
  • [6]B. Glub, Commander of the Arab Legion, 1938