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”]

(ISRAEL, LAND OF).

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. Thousands of European Jews, fleeing for the safety of the Jewish Homeland, from a certain death in Nazi-dominated Europe, were sent back by the British Immigration officials of Palestine implementing the immigration restrictions proposed and subsequently established by the MacDonald White Paper