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Sunday, October 09, 2005
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WHITE PAPER
The British Mandate government in Palestine (1917-1948) issued a number of white
papers. Of particular significance was one White Paper by Winston Churchill,
issued on July 1st, 1922.
Called the Churchill White Paper, it interpreted the Balfour
Declaration of 1917, which called for a Jewish National Home to be
established in Palestine. Churchill was given the task of appeasing the Arabs,
so his White Paper made it clear that the Jews will not rule the Arabs in
Palestine, but will only govern themselves.
Events took a turn for the worse when the Mandate government responded to Arab
pressure by making it more difficult for Jews fleeing from Germany to Palestine.
This was in spite of increasing Nazi persecution of the Jews.
In the White Paper of July 1937, Britain gave permission for only 8,000 Jews to
enter the country from August 1937 to March 1938. According to the White Paper
of 1939, which came out after Kristallnacht (the Night of Broken Glass in
which synagogues across Germany were destroyed), just 75,000 Jews were allowed
to enter Palestine for the next five years (until 1944).
The British White papers became a major obstacle for ships loaded with Jewish
refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. Many of the ships were turned back after they
reached the shores of the Land of Israel.
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