Block, SkipCaptcha, Upload, Automoderated users, edit, Moderators, protect
28,048
edits
Changes
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
Line 23:
Line 23: − + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
→White Paper
==White Paper==
==White Paper==
leaked details of the British proposals for Palestine, including capping Jewish immigration at 15,000 per year for the next five years.
March 17, 1939:<ref>[[Polish]] Jews ask Britain to keep faith."
March 17, 1939. [http://pdfs.jta.org/1939/1939-03-19_088.pdf JTA].</ref><blockquote>
A cable urging the British Government “not to betray the confidence of the Jewish people” with regard to Palestine was dispatched today by a conference of all Zionist parties together with the Agudath Israel, religious non-Zionist organization. The cable said: “In the darkest and most tragic hour of Jewish history, 3,500,000 Polish Jews appeal to the British Government not to betray the confidence of the Jewish people in Great Britain and not to destroy the sacred hopes of the Jewish people by adoption of a policy bound to drive them to despair.”</blockquote>
[[File:Polish Jews’ pre-Holocaust plea to Chamberlain- Let us into Palestine. In March 1939, weeks before the notorious White Paper.jpg|thumb|Polish Jews’ pre-Holocaust plea to Chamberlain: Let us into Palestine. In March 1939, weeks before the notorious White Paper]]
In 2019, the Telegram was uncovered, polish Jews’ pre-Holocaust plea to Chamberlain: Let us into Palestine. It was sent by both, non-Zionist/ultra-orthodox-Haredim and Zionists.<ref>Steven E. Zipperstein, [https://www.timesofisrael.com/uncovered-polish-jews-pre-holocaust-plea-to-chamberlain-let-us-into-palestine/ Uncovered, Polish Jews’ pre-Holocaust plea to Chamberlain: Let us into Palestine], ''TOI'', Jan 21, 2020</ref>.
<blockquote>In March 1939, weeks before the notorious White Paper, Polish Jewry sent London a desperate telegram, published here apparently for the first time. At terrible cost, it was ignored...
...'''"In the darkest and most tragic hour of Jewish history, three and a half million Polish Jews appeal to the British Government not to betray the confidence of the Jewish people in Great Britain and not to destroy the sacred hopes of the Jewish people by adoption of a policy bound to drive them to despair.."'''
The London Conference opened on February 7, 1939, at St. James’s Palace. [[Chaim Weizmann]] and [[David Ben-Gurion]], later the first president and first prime minister of the future State of Israel, respectively, led the Jewish delegation.
In his opening statement — made to the British Government and Jewish delegates only, as the [[Arab]] delegates refused to sit in the same room with the Jews — Weizmann stressed the extreme danger [[Hitler]] posed to European Jewry, prophetically noting “the fate of six million people was in the balance.”
But Weizmann’s warnings fell on deaf ears. By late February 1939, less than three weeks after the London Conference began, British officials began leaking to the press their intention to propose independence for Palestine in 10 years under majority Arab rule, along with immediate and severe limitations on Jewish immigration to Palestine.
‘The Arabs were jubilant about the proposals, the Jews cast down and bitter’
As the ''Times of London'' reported on February 28, 1939, “[t]he Arabs were jubilant about the proposals, the Jews cast down and bitter.” The same Chamberlain who foolishly believed appeasing Hitler represented the best way to keep the peace in Europe not surprisingly decided that appeasing the mufti was the best way to restore peace to Palestine.
By mid-March everyone realized Britain planned to close the doors of Palestine to all but a small trickle of Jewish immigrants. On March 15, 1939, the ''Times of London'' published additional leaked details of the British proposals for Palestine, including capping Jewish immigration at 15,000 per year for the next five years.
That same day, March 15, 1939, [[Nazi|Germany]] invaded [[Czechoslovakia]], and German forces triumphantly marched into Prague.</blockquote>
That same day, March 15, 1939, [[Nazi|Germany]] invaded [[Czechoslovakia]], and German forces triumphantly marched into Prague.</blockquote>