Disorderly Decolonization: the White Paper of 1939 and the End of British Rule in Palestine
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Copyright by Lauren Elise Apter 2008 The Dissertation Committee for Lauren Elise Apter Certifies that this is the approved version of the following dissertation: Disorderly Decolonization: the White Paper of 1939 and the End of British Rule in Palestine Committee: Wm. Roger Louis, Supervisor Judith Coffin Yoav Di-Capua Karen Grumberg Abraham Marcus Gail Minault Disorderly Decolonization: the White Paper of 1939 and the End of British Rule in Palestine by Lauren Elise Apter, B.A.; M.A. Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of The University of Texas at Austin in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy The University of Texas at Austin August 2008 Dedication For the next generation Acknowledgements First and foremost I thank my father and mother, J. Scott and Ruth Apter, for their constant support. My sisters Molly Georgakis and Katherine Rutherford, and their husbands Angelo and Tut, have provided encouragement and priceless humor. Thank you, Katie, for all of the maps included here. Over the years I have been rich in mentors. They include: Esther Raizen, Sharon Muller, Ann Millin, Judith Coffin, and, for the last six years, Wm. Roger Louis. They have enriched my understanding of the past while teaching me by example how to appreciate the present. My cohorts in British Studies, History, and Hebrew have made it a pleasure to study at the University of Texas. May we remain friends well beyond this stage. This work was supported at Texas by a Donald D. Harrington Doctoral Fellowship, and by grants from Middle Eastern Studies, History, British Studies, and the Schusterman Center for Jewish Studies. A grant from the American Israeli Cooperative Enterprise made possible the final year of writing. The National History Center/Mellon Foundation Seminar on Decolonization added the American dimension. Thanks also to Yoav Di-Capua, Karen Grumberg, Abraham Marcus, Gail Minault, Frances Terry, Dagmar Louis, Rick and Kathy Cohen, Mark, Tara, and Ben Levy, Marian Barber, Greg Harper, Lisa Lacy, Tim Walker, and my Elliot. v Disorderly Decolonization: The White Paper of 1939 and the End of British Rule in Palestine Publication No._____________ Lauren Elise Apter, Ph.D. The University of Texas at Austin, 2008 Supervisor: Wm. Roger Louis Britain's presence in Palestine coincided with a promise to Zionists to support the establishment of a Jewish national home. For two decades, Britain continued to support Zionist aims in Palestine including immigration and colonization, even in the aftermath of the first phase of an Arab Revolt in 1936 that shook the foundations of British colonial rule and could not be suppressed without intervention from neighboring Arab states. With the Arab Revolt in full force again from 1937 to 1939, in the midst of preparations for war in Europe, British statesmen questioned and reinterpreted promises the British government had made to Zionists two decades earlier. The resulting new policy was published in the White Paper of May 1939. By using the White Paper as a lens it is possible to widen the scope of vi investigation to examine the end of British rule in Palestine in a broader context than that provided by the years after World War II, 1945 to 1948. The White Paper of 1939 introduced three measures: immigration quotas for Jews arriving in Palestine, restrictions on settlement and land sales to Jews, and constitutional measures that would lead to a single state under Arab majority rule, with provisions to protect the rights of the Jewish minority. The White Paper’s single state was indeed a binational state, where it would be recognized by law that two peoples, two nations, inhabited Palestine. But the provisions of the White Paper were self-contradictory. Constitutional measures and immigration restrictions advanced the idea of a binational state with a permanent Jewish minority, while land restrictions aimed to keep Jews where they had already settled, legislation more in keeping with the idea of partition. The debate between partition and a binational state continued throughout these years. This work examines the motivations for the White Paper, foremost among them to keep the world Jewish problem separate from Britain's Palestine problem and to assure stability throughout the Middle East. An investigation based on the White Paper introduces a number of important debates that took place between 1936 and 1948 and echo into the present. vii Table of Contents List of Maps .............................................................................................................x Introduction: The White Paper of 1939: Holding Palestine to the Empire..............1 Chapter 1: Toward the White Paper of 1939: the Context for a Changing Policy, 1917-1937 .....................................................................................................21 British Rule in Palestine, 1917-1936 ............................................................27 The Middle East and Revolt in Palestine, 1936............................................38 “An Act of Very Dreadful Mutilation”: the Peel Report ..............................43 Conclusion ....................................................................................................57 Chapter 2: The White Paper’s Binational State: Zionist Dissenters, Moderate Arabs, and the Colonial Office, 1936-1939..................................................61 Judah L. Magnes and the Binational State....................................................66 The Search for Arab-Jewish Agreement.......................................................78 MacDonald and Tannous: the Palestinian Arab Position at the Colonial Office ...................................................................................................81 Conclusion ....................................................................................................91 Chapter 3: The Land Regulations of 1940: Upholding the Maps of Partition.......98 Ottoman Land Law and British Land "Settlement", 1880-1936.................104 Zionist Colonization of Palestine, 1880-1936 ............................................108 The White Paper and Land: Continuity or Reversal? .................................113 The Land Regulations of 1940....................................................................125 Conclusion ..................................................................................................129 Chapter 4: Illegal Immigration and the White Paper: The Case of the Mauritius Exiles...........................................................................................................136 Laws Governing Jewish Immigration to Palestine .....................................139 The White Paper at War..............................................................................146 viii The Deportation Policy Tested ...................................................................151 Internment on Mauritius .............................................................................159 Conclusion ..................................................................................................166 Chapter 5: The Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry: The White Paper Rejected.......................................................................................................173 The Emergence of the United States and the Question of Palestine...........184 The Formation of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry ..................189 The 100,000: Minority and Majority in Palestine.......................................192 The Idealists: Judah L. Magnes and the Ihud Association..........................198 The Report of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry ........................206 Conclusion ..................................................................................................213 Chapter 6: The White Paper and the End of British Rule....................................217 The War Against the White Paper Part I: Illegal Immigration ...................227 The War Against the White Paper Part II: Terrorism.................................235 The Anglo-American Committee Report Rejected.....................................242 The End of the White Paper: Palestine at the United Nations ....................247 Conclusion ..................................................................................................253 Conclusion ...........................................................................................................257 Bibliography ........................................................................................................267 Vita .....................................................................................................................280 ix List of Maps Map 3.1: Peel Partition Plan, 1937...........................................................117 Map 3.2: Woodhead Partition Plan A, 1938 ............................................119 Map 3.3: Woodhead Partition Plan B, 1938.............................................120 Map 3.4: Woodhead Partition Plan C, 1938.............................................121 Map 3.5: The Land Regulations of 1940..................................................127 Map 3.6: Cabinet Committee Partition Plan, 1943 ..................................132 Map 3.7: Cabinet Committee Partition Plan, 1944 ..................................133 Map 3.8: Jewish-owned Land in Palestine, 1929.....................................134 Map 3.9: Jewish-owned Land