Studies in the History of Zionism

The Jewish National Movement from 1917-1939
Background Text

by Nili Kadary

Note: This is a review lesson for units 17-25, revised especially for the Internet edition of the course.

Conceptualization:

1. Development of the Jewish "Yishuv" [settlement] in Eretz Yisrael between the two world wars.
2. The Jewish-Arab conflict in the '20s and '30s.
3. Characteristics of British policy in Eretz Yisrael from the "Balfour Declaration", 1917, to the MacDonald "White Paper" of 1939.

A. Review

1. Development of the Jewish "Yishuv" [settlement] in Eretz Yisrael between the two World Wars

The 1920s with the third and fourth aliyot saw the foundations of the Jewish national home.

• The Yishuv tripled its population to 160,000 [35,000 arrived during the third aliya; over 67,000 in the fourth aliya].
• The number of agricultural settlements reached 110, incorporating about one quarter of the Jewish population.
• The redemption of land in Emek Yezreel [the Jezreel Valley] during the third aliya was the pride of the settlement project in the country; other areas also saw significant progress with the founding of new "moshavot" and other agricultural communities.
• There was development across these mixed sector communities, and particularly in fruit growing.
• Industrialization began to grow.
• The urban Yishuv devloped rapidly as a consequence of the private capital brought by members of the fourth aliya [the "bourgeois" aliya]. This generated a broadening of the Yishuv's industrial infrastructure, and enabled further land purchases in Eretz Yisrael as well as providing employment for Jewish laborers.

The 1920s may be regarded as the foundation of the "state-to-be" in respect of the structure of the future independent government [the establishment of agencies and organizations, political parties and new, normative, social bodies - such as:

• the "Electoral Assembly" [the legislative branch];
• the "Va'ad Leumi" - National Council [the executive branch];
• the Chief Rabbinate;
• the "Histadrut" - the General Labor Federation and its institutions;
• the Kibbutz Movement;
• various cultural and scientific agencies;
• the Jewish defense force, known as the "Haganah".

The 1930s were mainly the era of the fifth aliya, which grew after Hitler's rise to power in early 1933 and continued until the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939. From an annual average aliya of 3,500 between 1926-1932, the rate escalated to 37,000 in 1933; 45,000 in 1934; and 66,500 in 1935. The entire aliya numbered approximately one quarter of a million people, partly illegal immigration - the Ma'apilim - who arrived without "certificatim", i.e. British immigration papers.

On the eve of the Second World War, the Yishuv's population numbered 475,000 and constituted over one third of the population in Eretz Yisrael.

2. The Jewish-Arab Conflict in the '20s and '30s

The conflict between Jews and Arabs began as far back as the 1880s, during the period of the first aliya, in the form of local social and economic disputes. Relations between the Arabs of Eretz Yisrael and the Jewish Yishuv worsened during the second aliya with the growth of the Arab national movement. The "Balfour Declaration", and transfer of Eretz Yisrael as mandated territory to Britain, exacerbated Arab opposition to Jewish aliya and the consolidation of the Jewish Yishuv in Eretz Yisrael. Arab national opposition found expression in violent incitement, hate articles in the press, protest gatherings and demonstrations. Arab national opposition reached its peak in acts of terror and bloody massacre in the '20s and '30s:

1] The early hostilities:

1. The riots of 1920
   • "Bloody Pesach" in Jerusalem;
   • the attack on Tel Hai for control of northern Eretz Yisrael [the Galilee "finger"], in which eight of the settlement's defenders fell, including Yosef Trumpeldor.
2. The riots of 1921
   • * Yafo [Jaffa], in which Yosef Haim Brenner was killed;
   • * other incidents elsewhere.

2] The riots of 1929:

After a seemingly peaceful hiatus of several years, several major loci of anti-Jewish incitement began to emerge. The incitement was orchestrated by the Jerusalem "Mufti", Haj Amin al-Husseini. At the center of the 1929 riots was Arab opposition to Jewish prayer at the Western Wall; Moslem propaganda claimed that Jewish prayer endangered the mosques holy to Islam.

The riots of 1929 began in Jerusalem and spread to many other areas of the land. Particularly infamous is the massacre of the Jews of Hevron, accounting for over one third of the victims in this wave of riots.

3] The riots of 1936-39 [The "Arab Revolt"] The rapid growth of the Jewish Yishuv in the 1930s generated a new wave of extremist activity and reaction by the Arabs. During this period, the Arabs in Eretz Yisrael gradually adopted a new position, opposing not only the Jewish Yishuv in Eretz Yisrael, but also the British mandate regime - which, they claimed, favored Zionism at the expense of the Arabs. This stand was sustained from the international situation, with the rise of Fascism and Nazism in Europe, in conjunction with the feeling that Britain's status was on the wane. Against this backdrop, the bloodshed and riots of 1936 were to erupt and continue unabated almost right up to the outbreak of the Second World War.

3. Characteristics of British policy in Eretz Yisrael from the "Balfour Declaration", 1917, to McDonald's "White Paper" of 1939

In November 1917, the "Balfour Declaration" was published in Britain. This was the first in a series of events whch were to determine the framework of relations between the Jews, the Arabs and the British in Eretz Yisrael.

The Terms of Mandate granted to Britain by the powers at the San Remo Conference, and later confirmed by the League of Nations in 1922, expressly stated that Britain undertakes to implement the "Balfour Declaration" in recognition of the historic link between Eretz Yisrael and the Jewish people.

The Jewish population of the Yishuv and the Zionist movement were delighted with this continuity of sequence and believed that their dreams would all be realized during the governorship of Sir Herbert Samuel.

The Arabs of Eretz Yisrael, however, oppposed all efforts to implement the Balfour Declaration: it was on this basis that the riots of 1920 and 1921 erupted. These bloody disturbances led to the publication of Churchill's "White Paper" in 1922, the first in a series of three up to 1939. The 1922 Paper, while it confirmed the intention to implement the Balfour Declaration and determined the right of the Jews to settle in their land as of right and not a favor, included a section limiting Jewish immigration, which was to set a dangerous precedent for future mandate governments. It proved that Britain was concerned primarily with the preservation of British interests in the region, even at the expense of submission to Arab pressures.

Following the 1929 riots, a Royal Commission of Enquiry [the Shaw Commission] arrived to investgate, and recommended the limitation of Jewish immigration and supervision of land purchases. The Commission also determined that the provisions in the Terms of Mandate contained no commitment compelling the British Mandate to implement the concept of establishing a Jewish national home.

In October 1930, the next White Paper appeared, under Lord Passfield, the British Colonial Secretary. This was a transparent effort to maintain the Arab majority in Eretz Yisrael by prohibiting Jewish immigration. Once again, it demonstrated that Arab pressures had paid off and that Britain wished to disengage itself from its commitment to create a Jewish national homeland in Eretz Yisrael.

One month after the eruption of the 1936 riots, Britain sent out another Royal Commission, headed by Lord Peel. In its report, the Commission reviewed the situation which had developed in the country during the British mandate and resolved that the land should be partitioned into two states: one Jewish, one Arab. However, in 1938, against the background of the tense international situation and the approaching clouds of war, there was a dramatic turnabout in British policy: the British needed Arab support in order to defend the Near East - and so they relinquished the idea of Partition.

The third White Paper appeared in May 1939 under McDonald as Colonial Secretary. This limited aliya - Jewish immigration - to 75,000 over a period of five years and subsequently conditioned the renewal of immigration on Arab consent. This particular White Paper was the most vocal expression of Britain's pro-Arab policy and its total reneging on its commitment to the concept of a "Jewish national homeland", putting the lid -- in effect -- on the Balfour Declaration.

Twenty years of cooperation between the Zionist movement and the British Mandate regime came to an end.

Editor: Yossi Pnini; Gila Ansell Brauner: Internet Editor
Internet Version: The Pedagogic Center

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