The Authentic Palestine Freedom Flotilla - The ship “Exodus.”

The Authentic Palestine Freedom Flotilla

by RUTH KING June 28, 2011

 

The ship “Exodus.”

 

No! I do not mean the motley crew of terrorist enablers, terrorists and assorted curs and knaves that is taking to the briny to defame Israel and bring “humanitarian” aid to the denizen of Gaza. Never mind those immoral misfits who forgot how the residents of Gaza trashed and looted and destroyed the farms, greenhouses, state of the art farming tools and implements, organic fertilizers and even seeds in the lush gardens of Gush Katif which provided 70% of Israel’s produce and $120,000,000 in exports of foods and flowers.

 

I speak of a real Palestine freedom flotilla….that fleet of ancient and ramshackle ships and the valiant volunteer crews that transported the wretched survivors of the Holocaust to Palestine in defiance of the perverse British blockade between 1946 and 1948.

 

 

A voyage of hope… and frustration.

 

Britain’s notorious White Paper of 1939 which effectively cut off Jewish immigration to Palestine on the eve of the Holocaust was a death sentence for millions of European Jews trapped in Europe. After World War 11, British perfidy persisted and the 1939 White Paper remained the basis of British policy.  Its cruel provisions kept wretched survivors of the Holocaust trapped and homeless in displaced persons’ camps in hostile European nations or behind barbed wire in detention camps in Cyprus.

 

There were more than 140 voyages by about 70 ships. Over half were stopped by British navy patrols and sent to internment camps is Cyprus, or Atlit detention camp and some to Mauritius. A wonderful book by the author Natacha Appanah titled “The Last Brother” details the travails of the refugees in Mauritius.

 

One of the groups of rescue ships was named “Alya Bet.” Its earlier history is marred by tragedy. In the 1930s a group calling themselves by the same name attempted to rescue Jews from Europe but their efforts were hopeless. However, after the war the goal of taking survivors to Palestine became urgent and the movement for transferring refugees coalesced.

With breathtaking speed, Christians, Jews and philanthropists working together purchased ten ships which were fitted and manned by American and Canadian volunteer seamen. Many demobilized servicemen and merchant marine officers and oilers including many Christians volunteered, and many had no naval experience, but their mission was to rescue all Europe’s Jewish refugees who wanted to go to blockaded Palestine.

 

All but two of the ships were almost decrepit…four from pro World War 1, but among them they carried 60,000 refugees.

 

The ships from Canada and the United States were the following:

 

1      The Josiah Wedgewood (originally the Beauhamois), a Canadian corvette.

2      The Hagana (originally the Norsyd), also a Canadian corvette.

3      The Haim Arlosoroff (originally the Ulua), a coast guard cutter from the 1920s.

4      The Ben Hecht (originally the Abril) had been a private yacht, a smuggler’s boat and a coast guard vessel.

5      The Hatikva (originally the Tradewinds 1908) a coast guard cutter.

6      The Exodus 1947 (originally the President Warfield), a Chesapeake Bay excursion ferry.

7      The Geula (originally the Paducah, )a coast guard training vessel.

8      The Jewish State (originally the Northland), a coast guard icebreaker.

9      The Kibbutz Galuyot (originally the Pan York), a cargo vessel.

10    The Atzmaut (originally the Pan Crescent), also a cargo vessel.

 

 

These were the passengers of Alyah Bet.

When these ships reached the Palestine coast they were apprehended, boarded, and often rammed by the Royal Navy. Passengers were herded and transported to squalid prison camps on Cyprus formerly used to house German prisoners of war! The 4,530 passengers of the Exodus were threatened with return to Germany.  An American volunteer William Bernstein was clubbed to death on the Exodus 1947 by the British boarding party.

 

 

British gunboat apprehends a refugee ship.

 

The British Navy was ordered to attack in case of any resistance. They used tear gas, clubs and firearms against refugees who occasionally fought back with sticks and eating cutlery.

 

Each ship had a heroic tale of its own. The USS Cythera (Pk31) was purchased from the United States Coast Guard, anchored in Brooklyn’s Gowanus Canal where Yitzhak Ben- Ami managed refurbishing and repair and became the S.S. Ben Hecht. Ben Ami was my friend and a hero and leader of the American League for a Free Palestine. His wicked son is Jeremy Ben Ami the treasonous brat who runs J Street.

 

 

The Ben Hecht in Brooklyn Harbor.

 

Elliot Roosevelt, the son of FDR who was an experienced yachtsman volunteered to serve as captain of the Ben Hecht, but his mother persuaded him to withdraw the offer.

 

 

Signing up to volunteer on the Ben Hecht.

 

Yitzhak Ben Ami was also involved in the purchase of the Altalena as he detailed in his memoir “Years of Wrath, Years of Glory.” The controversial history of the Altalena and its destruction by Issraeli forces is best told by Professor Jerold Auerbach in his new book Brothers at War: Israel and the Tragedy of the Altalena.

 

The Chaim Arlossorof’s passengers put up heavy resistance but the ship was rammed and intercepted and beached with dozens wounded.

 

 

These were not the only ships that rescued Jewish refugees.  There were many more. The Dalin (August 1945), the Hanna Szenes (December 1945) and the Shabbetai Lozinski  (March 1947) went aground near Ashdod and on shore groups gathered and rescued all the passengers.

The Latrun captured by the HMS Chivalrous.(October 1946), the Knesset Yisrael Captured by 4 destroyers & others. Much resistance, 2 killed. All passengers taken to camps. (November 1946), Theodor Herzl (April 1947) Captured after several casualties and 2 killed.

 

The   Rafiah — Athina S. left Yugoslavia in November of 1946 but was wrecked and sank on December 1946. Eight refugees including three children perished. Survivors were transferred to a British minesweeper and taken to Cyprus.

 

Amiram Shochet — Ile de la Rose from Naples arrived undetected in August 1946 and discharged 183 fortunate passengers.

 

In March 1946 the British Army prevailed on the Italian authorities to prevent the departure from La Spezia harbor of the 1,014 refugees on board the Dov Hos and the Eliyahu Golomb; the immigrants reacted by declaring a hunger strike which aroused world public opinion and compelled Britain to permit the boats to reach Palestine.

 

One of the last clandestine immigration operations was a convoy of two large ships named “The Pans”, the Pan York and Pan Crescent, transporting more than 15,000 Jews, the majority from Romania, which left Bulgaria at the end of 1947 despite British and U.S. attempts to prevent their setting sail. The passengers were interned in the Cyprus detention camps.

 

These are only a handful of the ships involved in the Palestine Freedom Flotilla. The crews and passengers encountered mechanical difficulties, breakdowns, gales, turbulence, illness, cruel and humiliating treatment by the British government and incarceration in nearly unbearable circumstances. They persevered, and when Israel's independence from England was declared the jails of Cyprus and Mauritius were opened and they sailed as free men, women and children to their home in Israel.

 

Ships continued to bring refugees to Israel, but the operations were no longer clandestine or met with violence and gunfire.

 

Honorable and gallant men embarked on an epic rescue for a noble cause. Their memory is a blessing. 

 

The Gaza flotilla is a grotesque charade. 

 

The best site with the most information and photos and details on the ships and their passengers during this heroic chapter is Paul Silverstone of the Alyah Bet Project : http://www.paulsilverstone.com/immigration/Primary/Aliyah/shiplist2.php

 

Also the list of voluteers for Israel in the Alyah Bet Movement appears at: http://israelvets.com/roster_aliyahbet_crews_ship.html.

 

 

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Ruth S. King is a freelance writer who writes a monthly column in OUTPOST, the publication of Americans for a Safe Israel.

Read more: Family Security Matters http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.9834/pub_detail.asp#ixzz3jFq4mPtd
Under Creative Commons License: Attribution

The Story of the Ship "Exodus 1947" E-mail Background Information on the British "White Paper

The Story of the Ship "Exodus 1947"

E-mail

Background Information on the British "White Paper"During World War I, although technically citizens of the Ottoman Empire’s province of Syria, Jews volunteered for service in the British Expeditionary Forces. First they joined Jabotinsky’s Zion Mule Corps, and later, together with Jewish volunteers from the U.S.A. and the U.K., formed the Jewish Legion, also known as the London Fusiliers, three battalions that participated in General Allenby's final campaigns. This alignment with the Allied cause in World War I, as well as the work of Dr. Chaim Weizmann and other outstanding Jewish leaders, led to the Balfour Declaration of November 1917, which declared Britain’s support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in the now renamed Palestine, to be established without prejudicing the rights of the Arab inhabitants already living there. This declaration was enthusiastically supported by many British leaders, including Lloyd George, Winston Churchill, Arthur Balfour, and others. Hussein Sharif, the leader of the Arab world during World War I, did not oppose the return of Jews to Palestine. His son, Feisal, who represented the Arab world at the Paris Peace Conference, wrote to Justice Felix Frankfurter of the United States: “There is room in Syria for us both. Indeed I think that neither can be a success without the other." During the war, promises of independence had been made to Arab leaders by the Allies, and these promises were later implemented in Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. But many Arabs were also to claim the area now known as Palestine to be within “Greater Syria”. In 1922 the Council of the League of Nations granted a Mandate to the British Government, entrusting it inter alia with the task of ruling Palestine and implementing the Balfour Declaration. At the time approximately 85,000 Jews lived in Palestine. Included in this number were Jews who had lived for centuries in the country, and indeed for over a hundred years the Jewish population had constituted the majority of the citizens in the city of Jerusalem. Under the Mandate, Jewish immigration, although limited by the authorities, increased the Jewish population seven-fold until by 1947 it numbered some 600,000. The higher standard of living created by the Jewish immigrants attracted Arabs from surrounding countries, and their population grew to over one million in the same period, as there were no limitations on their settling in Palestine. The Palestine Mandate granted to Britain included the entire area of Trans-Jordan on the East Bank of the River Jordan, as well as the area on the West Bank. In 1922, the British Secretary of State for the colonies, Winston Churchill, created an emirate under Emir (later King) Abdullah in the area of Trans-Jordan, later to become an independent country, Jordan. Thus, 80 percent of the mandated area of Palestine was allocated as an autonomous area for the Arabs of Palestine. But over the years – in 1922, 1929, and 1936 – Arab disturbances broke out incited by the Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin el-Husseini. In 1937, a British Royal Commission headed by Lord Peel recommended the partition of Palestine into a Jewish State, a continued Mandate for Jerusalem, and the annexation of the remainder to Trans-Jordan. The Jewish community was willing to contemplate such a solution, but the Arabs were not. In 1939 the British had promulgated a policy document called “The White Paper of 1939.” It imposed a quota for Jewish immigration and limited Jewish acquisition of land. The White Paper deplored both Arab terrorism and the unlimited Jewish immigration which inspired it. The White Paper accordingly set the goal of bringing the Jewish population up to approximately one-third of the total population of the country, and allowed only an additional 75,000 immigrants, starting with 10,000 per year over the following five years. Keeping the Jews as a minority was specifically intended to appease Arab concerns by thwarting Jewish sovereignty in any democratic or representative government. The Zionists sought precisely the opposite. Both sides hated the White Paper which was obviously pro-Arab. Violence against Jewish communities continued, and in addition, the British needed to secure Palestine as the strategic flank of its vital interest in Egypt, mainly the Suez Canal and access to the oil producing countries in the Middle East. Background Information on Aliyah Bet The Jewish Agency and the Haganah had already begun Aliyah Bet – illegal immigration – in a small way in the 1930s; in addition, some attempts to promote it were made during World War II, even though the British enforcement of their White Paper policy was successful. In spite of this, over 30,000 of the Jewish population volunteered into the British forces, seeing service in North Africa, Italy and Europe. The war and the Holocaust wrought by Nazi Germany, resulted in the murder of six million Jews. The remnants who survived clamored to leave Europe and reach a national home in Palestine, but the British Government was committed to severely limiting Jewish immigration and the sale of land for Jewish settlements. Thus the new post-war British Labour government found itself on a collision course with the Jews of Palestine. This caused the Haganah and the Mossad to mount an aggressive policy of transporting displaced war refugees to Palestine. Against this background, some 250 North American Jews, as well as some non-Jews, volunteered to serve on the Aliyah Bet ships bringing survivors of the Holocaust to Palestine. Most of them had completed between two to five years of service in World War II, but not many had served in the navy, and were therefore inexperienced seamen. Link to the story of Aliyah Bet The "Exodus 1947" ("President Warfield") With the increase of illegal immigration, the British authorities decided to stop it by a new plan: sending the ships back to their ports of embarkation. The first and only ship involving this new policy was the "Exodus." Formerly the "President Warfield," and launched at Wilmington, Delaware, in 1928, it had sailed as a pleasure cruiser on the Chesapeake Bay between Norfolk, Virginia, and Baltimore for over a decade, with the exception of two seasons of sailing on the Long Island Sound from 1928 until 1942.In 1942 it was appropriated by the United States Wartime Shipping Administration for convoy duty as the "U.S.S. President Warfield" (IX 169). In 1943 it was in a convoy attacked by German U-Boats and later deployed in the Normandy invasion as a barrack headquarters, coming under German air attacks. Decommissioned in 1946, the ship was bought for US$8,000 as scrap by the Western Trading Company, a front for the Haganah, which later became the Israel Defense Forces. It is said that Jewish-American Sam (the Banana Man) Zemurray was instrumental in obtaining the ship for the Haganah, which would explain its Honduran registration as Zemurray United Fruit Company, a company which pretty much owned the banana republic of Honduras. The shallow draft of the Bay steamer seemed ideal for the Haganah tactic of beaching boats containing refugee immigrants off the shores of Palestine, then bringing the passengers in by lifeboat or by wading ashore. The steamship was refitted in Baltimore and sailed from that port for France on 25th February 1947, carrying 4,554 Jewish men and women and 655 children, all survivors of the Holocaust, trailed by the “Ajax” and several destroyers. Link to Alan Tyler story The commander of the cruiser “Ajax” repeatedly demanded by loudspeakers that the ship discontinue its journey. However, Captain Ike Aronowicz ignored the demands and steered the President Warfield towards the Bat Yam beach in Palestine. On 17th July 1947, the President Warfield was renamed “Exodus 1947” in a ceremony on the open sea, the Zionist blue-white flag with the Star of David was hoisted and “Hatikvah,” later to become the Israeli national anthem, was sung over and over. The following night, two British destroyers rammed the "Exodus 1947" from both sides, damaging the hull, railings and lifeboats. It was boarded by sailors and Royal Marines and a desperate struggle developed, the refugees using tin cans, screwdrivers, potatoes, bottles, wooden boards and metal bars as weapons. As described by a refugee Noah Klieger, “we were determined not to surrender the ship to the British without a fight. It was an unequal battle, and eventually the Royal Navy boarding party, using truncheons and light firearms, succeeded in bringing the "Exodus" under its control. The clash had lasted several hours and resulted in three deaths –- Second Officer William (Bill) Bernstein, an American Aliyah Bet volunteer crew member, a 15-year-old refugee Zvi Jakubowitz, and one other. Some 150 were injured, including other American volunteer crew members." The "Exodus 1947" passengers were kept in check on deck with truncheons.  Their "weapons" (potatoes) lie on the deck. (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Washington D.C.). In the late afternoon of 18th July 1947, the "Exodus 1947" was escorted to the port of Haifa by the British warships. As UN official Emil Sandstroem (bottom right, white hat) looks on, British soldiers remove Jewish refugees from the ship "Exodus 1947." The passengers are deported back to Europe. Haifa, Palestine, July 20 1947. ( Central Zionist Archives) The "Exodus 1947," flying the Zionist flag, being escorted by the British into Haifa. (Stiftung Preußische Kulturbesitz, Berlin) After reaching Haifa, British soldiers transferred the "Exodus 1947" passengers, exhausted from the sea journey and the battle, to three freighters converted into caged prison ships. It was named “Operation Oasis.” The next day, the three caged prison ships, the "Ocean Vigour," the "Runnymede Park," and the "Empire Rival," departed Haifa with the "Exodus" passengers. 1,464 people were accommodated on the "Ocean Vigour," some 1,409 on the "Runnymede Park" and 1,526 were crammed into the belly of the "Empire Rival." The refugees assumed that as illegal emigrants they would be interned in camps on the island of Cyprus. But what was initially a rumor was later confirmed: the three prison ships were sailing towards the European mainland, back towards France. The conditions on board these ships were harsh. The refugees lay crammed together in the bare holds of the freighters. Noah Klieger remembers his impressions of the "Empire Rival:" "We slept, squeezed together, on the bare boards of the ship." Groups were formed on all three ships, and under Haganah command, they began to build an organization. It was resolved that all passengers were to remain on board, and not disembark, on arriving in France. The refugees were repeatedly encouraged to keep resisting. The success of these tactics was made more complicated as communication between the three ships was not possible. The ships first landed at Toulon, France, where the passengers were ordered to disembark. When the French authorities refused to use force to remove the refugees from the ship, British authorities, fearing adverse public opinion, decided to wait until the passengers disembarked of their own accord. But the passengers, including many orphaned children, forced the issue by declaring a hunger strike, the British were forced to return them to Lübeck (near Hamburg), in the British-occupied zone of Germany. Amid worldwide public outrage, the British authorities compelled the passengers to disembark, and some were forcibly removed from the ship. The passengers were then transferred to displaced persons camps in Germany. Though the mission was not successful in delivering any immigrants to Eretz Yisrael, it did attract international media attention, and persuaded the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine to recommend partitioning Palestine and establishing a Jewish state. The former passengers were permitted to immigrate to Palestine in small groups, and most were present in Israel on May 15 1948 when the nation declared its independence. Link to British secret naval report on President Warfield The crew of the "Exodus 1947" USA USA Aras, Joe Marks, Bernard Aranoff, Murray Miller (Milla), Bernard (Dov) Baruch, Kurt Millman, David Bernstein, William (Bill) Millman, William Baer (Belari), Shmuel Nadler, Nat Foreman, Bentley Naftali, Al Grauf, John (N/J) Rofe, Roger Goldstein, Myron Rosenfeld (Vardi), Teddy Kalmanowitz (Kalm), Eli Russel, Jack Kochavi (Storek), David Shiller, Samuel Kolomeitzer (Cole), Arye Segal (Syval), Avraham Lavine, Frank Selove, Lou Leidner, Harold Sklar, Lenny Lester, Sol Stanczak, Frank Lipshitz (Livney), Arthur (Avi) Weinsaft, Harry Lowenthal, David Weinstein, Cyril (Cy) Malik, Louis Weiss, Mike Malovsky, Daniel UK MEXICO Cohen, Joshua, Dr. Margolis, Ruben Segal, Ze’ev (Vevie) DENMARK Katzenelson, Zvi Source: Adapted and abridged by Joseph Wolf from the following sources: i. USA Holocaust Memorial Museum ii. Jewish Virtual Library iii. Everything2.com iv. Introductory historical background from “The Arab Israeli Wars” by Chaim Herzog. President Warfield (Exodus) - Letter from British Navy  E-mail Transcription FROM A SECRET BRITISH ADMIRALTY REPORT CONCERNING THE BOARDING OF “PRESIDENT WARFIELD” (“EXODUS 1947”) 20th July, 1947 Sir, 1.    I have the honour to submit the following report of the boarding of S.S. PRESIDENT WARFIELD ON THE MORNING OF 18TH July, 1947: 2.    Boarding – I, with three of the reserve Boarding Party:- A.B. LAVELLS A.B. TAMPIN G.S. BARNSHAW Boarded the PRESIDENT WARFIELD on the boat deck just forward of saidships from the Flag Deck of CHILDERS on her third run in. 3.    After boarding we dashed forward to the wheelhouse where we met E.R.A. Ravenscroft and A.B. Ainsley also of CHILDERS.  Attempts to enter the wheelhouse failed and we ended up at the head of the main stairway. 4.    We were joined more or less immediately by a fresh Boarding Party including one officer.  Further attempts to make the wheelhouse resulted in the splitting of the party.  Some apparently managed to get in through the door on the starboard side which incidentally was only kept open for a split second by the Boarding Parties already in the wheelhouse because of the number of missiles which were being hurled inside. 5.    The remainder of us eventually found ourselves back at the head of the stairway.  With me now were P.O. Feltham, badly hurt, and six others from different Boarding Parties.  A group of rustlers were gathered at the foot of the stairway and more hostile Jews were on both sides of the Promenade Deck and also above us battering their way through the deckhead. 6.    At first light a man heavily bandaged speaking with an American accent and answering to the name of “Murray” approached me in an hysterical manner.  I gathered he was one of the crew and was scared of the ship sinking.  He asked me if I could take him to see the Office in Command.  I agreed to this because even if talking with the crew was of no avail, it gave me an opportunity of making contact with the wheelhouse and also to get some real idea of the opposition.  “Murray” stopped all resistance and he and I went forward to the wheelhouse.  We were joined by another member of the crew and eventually “Murray” produced the Captain who agreed to take the ship to Haifa under the orders of Lieutenant McPherson R.N. 7.    There was no further fighting. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your obedient Servant, (Signed), D.G. GILL LIEUTENANT, ROYAL NAVY Editors Notes 1.    The “President Warfield” was renamed “Exodus 1947” 2.     “Murray” is American Machalnik Murray Aronoff.

Britain's role in bringing in illegal Arabs and keeping out Jews, trying to create an artificial Arab majority in Palestine 1920-1948

Britain's role in bringing in illegal Arabs and keeping out Jews, trying to create an artificial Arab majority in Palestine 1920-1948

For many who aren't familiar with the background of the "Palestinian Right to Return" claim here are some facts.

1. The League of Nations set up the Palestinian Mandate to provide a home for the Jewish people, approximately 12 million people in 1900s.¹

 
2. In "recognition to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country", land was chosen to accommodate a "Jewish National Homeland". This land included what is now Israel and Jordan. ²

 
3. The entire area of both Israel [West Palestine] and Jordan [East Palestine] had a relatively stable population at around 600,000 people for the entire duration of the Ottoman empire.³

 
4. It was thought that 12,000,000 Jews would fill up this area (East and West Palestine) while being sensitive to the rights of the 550,000 non-Jews and 50,000 Jews already living there.^4,5

 
5. In the late 1880s, tremendous amounts of money were invested in purchasing land for new settlements along the coast of Israel.  These settlements were in addition to the long time existing Jewish communities of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jericho, Tiberias, Safed, and Gaza.⁶

 
6. Massive numbers of Syrian, Egyptians, Trans-Jordanian and Iraqi migrant Arabs workers set up camps around the Jewish settlements to work in the new orchards to seek a better standard of living.  In some places (Rishon LeTzion for example) there were as many as 10 Arab settlers to 1 Jewish settler.^7,8

 
7. The British published the Balfour Declaration in 1917, and after the fall of the Ottoman Empire was given responsibility "facilitating Jewish Immigration for the establishment of a Jewish National Home" under the supervision of the Palestinian Mandate Council.⁹

 
8. In 1920 the British set Jewish Immigration quotas, restricting Jewish immigration.  The British requested the French to STOP monitoring illegal Arab immigration along the border of Lebanon and Syria with West Palestine (Israel) allowing free immigration of Arabs into Western Palestine [Israel].¹⁰

 
9. Britain's first High Commissioner to Palestine, Herbert Samuel reports "There are now [in 1921] in the whole of Palestine [Israel+Jordan] hardly 700,000 people".  He also questions the propriety of  a "Jewish Majority" in Palestine.

 
10. In 1921, T. E. Lawrence informed Churchill that Emir Feisal (Abdullah's brother, and Lawrence "of Arabia's" choice to lead the Arab revolt) had "agreed to abandon all claim of his father to [Western] Palestine [=Israel]," if Feisal got in return Iraq and Eastern Palestine [=Jordan] as Arab territories.¹¹

 
11. In 1922 Churchill White Paper limits Jewish immigration to "capacity to absorb new arrivals" - absorptive capacity.¹²

 
12. In 1928 Eastern Palestine [Jordan] was closed to Jewish settlement, and the Arab Legion was placed in charge for monitoring illegal Arab immigration from Eastern Palestine [Jordan] into Western Palestine [Israel] ¹³

 
13. From the years from 1890 to 1945 about 500,000 Egyptian, Syrian, Iraqi and Eastern Palestine [Jordan] Arabs settled into West Palestine, later in 1939 Winston Churchill said "So far from being persecuted, the Arabs have crowded into the country and multiplied till their population has increased more than even all world Jewry could lift up the Jewish population." ¹⁴

 
14. In 1929 British Shaw Commission finds Jewish immigration of 1925-26 was "excessive" and recommends restriction of Jewish immigration and land sales.

 
15. 1930 Passfield White Paper restricts Jewish immigration and land acquisition, based on "absorptive capacity."

 
16. Cultivators' Ordinance of 1933 replaces earlier laws, institutes giving free land from Western Palestine to Arab "statutory tenants" that is Arab settlers or nomadic Bedouin who had not "grossly neglecting" areas of grazing or occasional presence ¹⁵

 
17. In 1934 Government institutes practice of deducting their estimated numbers of illegal Jewish immigrants from Jewish immigration quotas ¹⁶

 
18. In 1936, The Conference of Protestant and Catholics in America published "It is the profound conviction of Christian America that [the British Government] rescind its illegal, unjust, and indefensible partition of Palestine, to restore Trans-Jordania [Jordan] to its proper place as part of Palestine territory, and throw it open to Jewish Settlement"¹⁷

 
19. Also in 1936 the Arabs riot with funds supplied by the Nazi's¹⁸

 
20. In 1937 Palestine Royal commission, recognizing that Arab majority was building, they recommends partition Western Palestine a second time into two states one Jewish, one Arab, state.  After the violent rejection by Arab leaders of the Palestine Royal Commission Report's recommendation, British Secretary of Foreign Affairs, Anthony Eden, then aimed for another plan, "which would not give Jews any territory exclusively for their own use."  ¹⁹ There was little attention to inherent "justice" in Government's in an artificially created Arab majority as Eden later wrote to his private secretary, "If we must have preferences, let me murmur in your ear that I prefer Arabs to Jews." ²⁰

 
21. "I can only hope and expect that the other world,  which has such deep sympathy for these criminals [the Jews], will at least be generous enough to convert this sympathy into practical aid. We, on our part, are ready to put all these criminals at the disposal of these countries, for all I care, even on luxury ships" ²¹ Adolf Hitler offered to allow the Jews to emigrate from Europe in 1938, if anyone would take them. ²²

 
22. 1939 British Government White Paper enforces new, rigidly pro-Arab, anti-Mandate policy: restricting Jewish immigration to a token number for five years, and afterwards at the discretion of "Arabs of Palestine."

 
23. In 1939 The Permanent Mandates Commission of the League of Nations protested the Britain's "White Paper" in August. Four out of the seven members intended to strike down the restrictive White Paper as a violation of the Mandate of Palestine. But WWII intervened in the few days before the League was to review the matter. The meeting was to have taken place on September 8; Germany marched on Poland September 1, and Britain declared war on Germany September 3.²³

 
24. 1940 Britain Prohibits transfers of most land in Western Palestine "except to a Palestinian Arab".²⁴  Neville Chamberlain, Britain's Prime Minister in that most pivotal period of the shaping of British policy, 1937-1940. Chamberlain told his cabinet that "If we must offend one side, let us offend the Jews rather than the Arabs". ²⁵

 
25. In 1941 the Mufti of Jerusalem (Arafat's 'Uncle'²⁶) relocated his headquarters to Berlin to maintain closer connection with the Nazi government. ²⁷

 
26. In 1944, Henry Morgenthau, United States Secretary of the Treasury to President Roosevelt said "The British were apparently prepared to accept the probable death of thousands of Jews in enemy territory because of "the difficulties of disposing of any considerable number of Jews should they be rescued." ²⁸

 
27. As the war progressed, Jewish "restraint" was strained thin. While the doomed Jews were frantically fighting to get into substandard ships surreptitiously headed for the Jewish National Home, Palestine officials were devising additional measures to keep Jewish refugees out. Jews were "only racial refugees," one British officer decided. The White Paper was stringently enforced with no modification despite the news of wholesale persecution and slaughter of the Jews. ²⁹

 
28. The British Army brings in 30,000 foreign Arab workers to help in the war effort, to work and eventually settle in Western Palestine.³⁰

 
29. In 1949 Ernest Bevin, then Britsh Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, says "It would be too high a price to pay for the friendship of Israel to jeopardize, by estranging the Arabs, either the base in Egypt or the Middle Eastern oil."^30s

In the end, during WWII, six million Jews are killed.  At the end of the war instead of 

A Jewish National Home 12,000,000 Jews settling in "Palestine" (what is now Israel+Jordan), together with 600,000 Arabs --

We have 6,000,000 Jews dead 5,000,000 Jews living outside of Israel 1,200,000 Jews living in 1/3 of the original "Jewish National Home" 1,500,000 Arabs living in Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza (Jordan today is over 60% Palestinian) 32 600,000 Arabs fled the fledgling state

Of the 600,000 Arabs fled the fledgling state, 70% left without seeing an Israeli soldier ^34,35 because they had not lived there very long, they were migrant families, and many had fled back to Eastern Palestine [Jordan] where they had come from originally.
The Arab League forbid any Arab country from accepting these "refugees" and the U.N. declared that any Arab who had lived for TWO YEARS ³⁶ in Western Palestine before 1948 "He and his descendants could claim the right of return".  Now 3,000,000 Arabs, without proof or document are claiming to be descendants of these original refugees and are claiming the "right of return".
1. The Standard Jewish Encyclopedia, (Doubleday & Company, 1959), p. 1754
2.  League of Nations, Mandate for Palestine, Preamble, 1922
3. Carl Hermann Voss, Answers on the Palestine Question (Boston: 1949), p. 17.
4. E.C. Blech to Sir Nicholas O'Conor, Jerusalem, 16 November 1907, FO 371/356 No 40321 (No. 62), cited by Farhi, "Documents," in Ma'oz, Studies, p. 190.
5. Vital, The Origins of Zionism, p. 196.
6. Y. Ben-Zvi, The Land of Israel and Its Settlements During the Turkish Regime, pp. 205-206, cited by David Ben-Gurion, Israel, A Personal History (Tel Aviv, 1971), p. 15.
7.  Ketavim, vol. 111, December 18, 1889, p. 66. From letter written by Y. Grazavsky
to Y. Eisenstadt.
8 Simon Schama, Two Rothschilds, p. 156, quoting Emile Meyerson report, La Colonisation Juivre en Palestine, December 13, 1914, p. 4.
9. League of Nations, Mandate for Palestine, Command #1785, Article 6, 1922.
10. Public Record Office, Kew Gardens, Foreign Office, Great Britain  371/20819; see also interview between the officer administering the Government (OAG) and Shertok, October 16, 1937.
11. Letter from Colonial Secretary Winston Churchill from T. E. Lawrence, January 1921
12. Anglo-American Committee, Survey, 1945-1956, vol. I, p. 20
13. Annual report on the Administration for 1936, p. 324.
14. Martin Gilbert, Churchill, vol. 5, p. 1072.
15. Cultivators' Ordinance of 1933, Drayton, vol. 1, p. 506, cited in Survey, pp. 290-291
16. Report for the year 1934, p. 28; Report for the Year 1.935, p. 13; Report, Department of  Migration, 1935, p. 19
17. Conference of Protestant and Catholic Leaders, New York, December 1936, reported in Palestine, January 13, 1937, vol. XII, no. 2.
18. Arab Higher Committee - Its Origins, Personnel and Purposes: The Documentary Record submitted to the United Nations, May 1947 by Nation Associates of New York p. 5; a documentary record of the Mufti's and other Arab notables' pro-Nazi activities.
19. Public Record Office, Kew Gardens, Foreign Office, Great Britain 371/20821; Nov. 26, 1937, Eden to Lindsay, British Ambassador to the United States. Cited in Gilbert, Exile, pp. 193-194.
20. Eden to Harvey, 7 September 195 1, BL 56402. Cited in Wasserstein, Britain, p. 34.
21. Speech at Konigsberg, April 1938. Cited in Avriel, Open, p. 21.
22. "Undersecretary of State, Sumner Welles, had devised the idea of an international conference," believing that the calling of the conference and its related commotion "would in themselves act as an indicator of the American Government's stand and perhaps influence the Nazis." Ehud Avriel, Open, pp. 20-2 1; also see Arthur Morse, While Six Million Died (New York: Hart Publishing Co.; 1967), p. 60; also see Joint Hearings before a Subcommittee of the Committee on Immigration, United States Senate, and a Subcommittee of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization' House of Representatives, 16th Congress, Ist Session, April 20, 21, and 24, 1939, p. 160ff.
23. Bethell, Palestine Triangle, pp. 69-71.
24. Great Britain, Palestine Land Transfer Regulations, Command Paper 6180, 1940; see Esco-Yale, p. 933 ff.
25. Cabinet Committee Minutes: Cabinet Papers 24/285, April 20, 1939. Cited in Gilbert, Exile, p. 226; also see correspondence to Winston Churchill reporting of British officials who were "strongly anti-Semite" in Bucharest and Prague, despite the "persecution" of Jews there. Cited in Gilbert, Exile, p. 226.
26. The Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini was later the notorious Nazi who mixed Nazi propaganda and Islam.  He was wanted for war crimes and the slaughter of Jews in Bosnia by Yugoslavia.  His mix of militant propagandizing Islam was an inspriation for both Yasser Arafat and Saddam Husein: He was also a close relative of Yasser Arafat and grandfather of the current Temple Mount Mufti. "Arafat's actual name was Abd al-Rahman abd al-Bauf Arafat al-Qud al-Husseini. He shortened it to obscure his kinship with the notorious Nazi and ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Muhammed Amin al-Husseini." Howard M. Sachar, A HISTORY OF ISRAEL (New York: Knopf, 1976).  The Bet Agron International Center in Jerusalem interviewed Arafat's brother and sister, who described the Mufti as a cousin (family member) with tremendous influence on young Yassir after the Mufti returned from Berlin to Cairo. Yasser Arafat himself keeps his exact lineage and birthplace secret.  Saddam Hussein was raised in the house of his uncle Khayrallah Tulfah, who was a leader in the Mufti's pro-Nazi coup in Iraq in May 1941.
27. Arab Higher Committee, p. 7; Diary of Major General Erwin LaHousen, of German Abwehr, September 3, 1941: ". . . Mufti ... is currently in connection with Abwehr II [Sabotage division of Nazi intelligence]"; June 2, 1942: ". . . utilization of the connections with the Grand Mufti for the purpose of Abwehr "... to demonstrate the solidarity of the Axis powers"; July 13, 1942: "I took part in discussion" with the Mufti and Hitler's representative-"chief of the Abwehr" Canaris concerning "Arabian Freedom Movement ... .. The Mufti made an offer ... that followers of the ... movement led by him, as well as the followers of former Iraq Prime Minister, Kailani [leader of Iraqi revolt against Britain] were to be used for purposes of sabotage and sedition in the Near East in accordance with purposes of the Abwehr Il." Secret Diary, cited in The Arab Higher Committee. Among many documents included are photocopies of originals and translations of Hitler's "secret pledges to the Mufti for Revolt against British"; of Italy's "promise" to the Mufti to "aid in revolt against British"; "of Mufti's handwritten diary entries recording Hitler's "words of the Fuehrer on Nov. 21, 1941, Berlin, Friday from 4:30 P.m. till a few minutes after 6." The following is an extract of the November 1941 meeting between Hitler and the Mufti, with the Mufti quoting Hitler: ". . . It is clear that the Jews have accomplished nothing in Palestine and their claims are lies. All the accomplishments in Palestine are due to the Arabs and not to the Jews. I am resolved to find a solution for the Jewish problem, progressing step by step without cessation." In reply to the Mufti's demand for an "Axis declaration to the Arabs," Hitler assured that, "Only if we win the war will the hour of deliverance also be the hour of fulfillment of Arab aspirations.... If the declaration is issued now, difficulties will arise .... Now I am going to tell you something I would like you to keep secret. First, I will ... fight until the complete destruction of the Judeo-Bolshevik rule has been accomplished. Second ... we will reach the Southern Caucasus. Third, then I would like to issue a declaration; for then the hour of liberation of the Arabs will have arrived. Germany has no ambitions in this area but cares only to annihilate the power which produces the Jews. Fourth, I am happy that you have escaped and that you are now with the Axis powers ... You will be the man to direct the Arab force. ... I understand the Arab desire for this (declaration-Ed.) but his Excellency the Mufti must understand that only five years after I became President of the German Government and Fuehrer of the German people, was I able to get such a declaration (the Austrian Union-Ed.) ... you can rely on my word. "We were troubled about you. I know your life history ... I am happy that you are with us now ... to add your strength to the common cause." The full text of Mufti's diary entries paraphrasing Hitler are found in Arab Higher Committee
28. Morgenthau to Roosevelt, January 16, 1944, in Michael Mashberg, "Documents," cited in Wasserstein, Britain, p. 248.
29. Palestine Statement of Policy, Command #6019, The White Paper of May 1939,  para. 14.
30. Anglo-American Committee, Survey, vol. 1, p. 212.
31. Cabinet Middle East Policy Note by Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Ernest Bevin, on Israel: Bevin's report reviewing meetings with England's representatives in the Middle East, to Cabinet, August 25, 1949, PRO CAB 129/2 (CP/49 183).
32. Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics for Palestinians in WB/Gaza. The Jordanian Governenment has never allowed publication of the number of Palestinians in Jordan
33. According to various estimates, the accurate number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 was somewhere between 430,000 and 650,000. An oft-cited study that used official records of the League of Nations' mandate and Arab census figures determined that there were 539,000 Arab refugees in May 1948.
34. Peter Dodd and Halim Barakat, River Without Bridges.- A Study of the Exodus of the 1967Arab Palestinian Refugees (Beirut: Institute for Palestine Studies, 1969), p. 43; on April 27, 1950, the Arab National Committee of Haifa stated in a memorandum to the Arab States: "The removal of the Arab inhabitants ... was voluntary and was carried out at our request ... The Arab delegation proudly asked for the evacuation of the Arabs and their removal to the neighboring Arab countries.... We are very glad to state that the Arabs guarded their honour and traditions with pride and greatness." Cited by J.B. Schechtman, The Arab Refugee Problem (New York: Philosophical Library, 1952), pp. 8-9; also see Al-Zaman, Baghdad journal, April 27, 1950.
35. Near East Arabic Radio, April 3, 1948: "It must not be forgotten that the Arab Higher Committee encouraged the refugees to flee from their homes in Jaffa, Haifa and Jerusalem, and that certain leaders . . . make political capital out of their miserable situation . . ." Cited by Anderson et al., "The Arab Refugee Problem and How It Can Be Solved," p. 22; for more regarding Arab responsibility, see Sir Alexander Cadogan, Ambassador of Great Britain to the United Nations, speech to the Security Council, S.C., O.R., 287th meeting, April 23, 1948; also see Harry Stebbens, British Port Officer stationed in Haifa, letter in Evening Standard (London), January 10, 1969.
36. Special Report of the Director, UNRWA, 1954-55, UN Document A/2717.
This page was produced by Joseph E. Katz
Middle Eastern Political and Religious History Analyst 
Brooklyn, New York 
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