Zionist Reaction to the White Paper
(1939)
The following response was issued by the Jewish Agency for Palestine
after the publication of the British White Paper.
1. The new policy for Palestine laid down by the Mandatory
in the White Paper now
issued denies to the Jewish people the right to rebuild their national home in their ancestral country.
It transfers the authority over Palestine to the present Arab majority and puts the Jewish population at the mercy of that majority.
It decrees the stoppage of Jewish
immigration as soon as the Jews form a third of the total population.
It puts up a territorial ghetto for Jews in their own homeland.
2. The Jewish people regard this policy as a breach
of faith and a surrender to Arab terrorism.
It delivers Britain's friends into the hands of those who are biting
her and must lead to a complete breach between Jews and Arabs which
will banish every prospect of peace in Palestine. It is a policy in
which the Jewish people will not acquiesce. The new regime now announced
will be devoid of any moral basis and contrary to international law.
Such a regime can only he established and maintained by force.
3. The Royal Commission invoked by the White Paper
indicated the perils of such a policy, saying it was convinced that
an Arab Government would mean the frustration of all their (Jews') efforts
and ideals and would convert the national home into one more cramped
and dangerous ghetto. It seems only too probable that the Jews would
fight rather than submit to Arab rule. And repressing a Jewish rebellion
against British policy would he as unpleasant a task as the repression
of the Arab rebellion has been. The Government has disregarded this
warning.
4. The Jewish people have no quarrel with the Arab
people. Jewish work in Palestine has not had an adverse effect upon
the life and progress of the Arab people. The Arabs are not landless
or homeless as are the Jews. They are not in need of emigration. Jewish
colonization has benefited Palestine and all its inhabitants. Insofar
as the Balfour Declaration contributed to British victory
in the Great War, it contributed also, as was pointed out by the Royal
Commission. to the liberation of the Arab peoples. The Jewish people
has shown its will to peace even during the years of disturbances. It
has not ,riven sway to temptation and has not retaliated to Arab violence.
But neither have the Jews submitted to terror nor will they submit to
it even after the Mandatory has decided to reward the terrorists by
surrendering the Jewish National Home.
5. It is in the darkest hour of Jewish history that
the British Government proposes to deprive the Jews of their last hope
and to close the road hack to their Homeland. It is a cruel blow, doubly
cruel because it comes from the government of a great nation which has
extended a helping hand to the Jews, and whose position must rest on
foundations of moral authority and international good faith. This blow
will not subdue the Jewish people. The historic bond between the people
and the land of Israel cannot
he broken. The Jews will never accept the closing to them of the gates
of Palestine nor let their national home be converted into a ghetto.
The Jewish pioneers who, during the past three generations, have shown
their strength in the unbuilding of a derelict country, will from now
on display the same strength in defending Jewish immigration, the Jewish
home and Jewish freedom.
Sources: Walter Laqueur and Barry Rubin, ed, The
Israel-Arab Reader, (New York, NY: Penguin Books, 2001) |