Palestine: Statement of Policy. Presented by the Secretary of State for the Colonies to Parliament by Command of His Majesty May 1939 [The “MacDonald White Paper”]

(ZIONISM)

HM Stationary Office

London

1939

Seal of the British Empire on title

The infamous White Paper of May 1939: “His Majesty's Government now declares unequivocally that it is not part of their policy that Palestine should become a Jewish State." To achieve an even balance between Jewish and Arab interests in Palestine, the British Government curtailed Jewish immigration and prohibited any further transfer of Arab land to Jews. To expand the Jewish National Home indefinitely, believed the Mandatory Government, would result in "rule by force," and thus they declared over the subsequent five years, Jewish immigration would be limited to no more than 75,000. On the eve of the Holocaust of European Jewry, the immigration restrictions proposed and subsequently implemented by the MacDonald White Paper led to thousands of European Jews - fleeing certain destruction in Europe - for the safety of the Jewish Homeland being sent back to a certain death by the British Immigration officials of Palestine. See: EJ, IX, cols. 343-4