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IMMIGRATION POLICY in PALESTINE UNDER SIR HERBERT SAMUEL: BRITISH, ZIONIST and ARAB ATTITUDES Moshe Mossek Thesis Submitted

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IMMIGRATION POLICY in PALESTINE UNDER SIR HERBERT SAMUEL: BRITISH, ZIONIST and ARAB ATTITUDES Moshe Mossek Thesis Submitted IMMIGRATION POLICY IN PALESTINE UNDER SIR HERBERT SAMUEL: BRITISH, ZIONIST AND ARAB ATTITUDES Moshe Mossek Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy- University of London 1975 ABSTRACT During the three decades of British rule in Palestine (1918-1948), the question of Jewish immigration played a major role in the political arena of the country. As far as the Zionists were concerned, Jewish immigration was a vital and indispensable condition to the growth and strengthening of the Yishuv (Jewish community in Palestine), to the x^^osperity of the country and to the building up of the Jewish National Home. On the other hand, the Palestinian Arabs saw in Jewish immigration the most dangerous and tangible threat to their political existence. and their economic, social and religious position. The British Government, which, according to the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate, took upon itself to assist the establishment of the Jewish National Home by facilitating Jewish immigration, was well aware of the controversial nature of this question and devoted considerable endeavour to finding a solution satisfactory to all parties concerned. The present study examines the making of immigration policy during the first five years of the Civil Administration, which correspond to Sir Herbert Samuel's rule in Palestine. This includes an analysis of the different approaches and contributions of the various bodies and. individuals which took x^art in the framing of the policy; an examination of the political, administrative arid legal patterns, procedures and schemes of immigration; and finally, the implementation 3. of the schemes and their subsequent effects on the official policy. With regard to the participants in this process, one can point to three political factors which acted concurrently in three different arenas: Jerusalem, London and the immigration centres in Europe. The first network consists of the Palestine Administration and the British Government: the High Commissioner, the Chief Secretary, the Legal Department, the Department of Immigration and Travel, the Sub-Department of Labour and various economic departments of the Palestine Administration; the British Cabinet, the Colonial Office, the ' Hone Office, the Foreign Office and British Consuls in Europe, mainly those situated in the immigration centres: Warsaw, Constantinople, Vienna and Trieste. The second network includes the corresponding bodies of the Zionist Organisation: the Zionist Executive in London, the Zionist Commission to Palestine and later, the Palestine Zionist Executive and the branches of the Zionist Organisation in Europe. An additional network is the supreme body of the .Palestine Arab national movement - the Palestine Arab Congress, its Executive Committee and the several Delegations which were despatched to London during this period for negotiations witn the Colonial Office. From a chronological and substantial point of view, this research is divided into two principal periods. The first is from July 1920, the date of the setting up Ao of the Civil Administration, until the May Disturbances of 1921. During this period, the primary political, administrative and legal patterns concerning immigration took shape, namely, crystallisation of concepts, outlining of policy, setting up of the Department of Immigration and Travel and legislation of the first Immigration Ordinanceo(Chapter 1). The later period runs between June 1921 until the middle of 1923, the end of Samuel's rule in Palestine0 During this period a revision was made of the concepts and schemes of the policy (Chaj^ter 3); nep:otiations regarding constitutional reforms in control of immigration took place (Chapter 9-); the Immigration Department and machinery of control were reorganised (Chapter 5); legislation of the second Immigration Ordinance (Chapter 6); and finally, an examination of the principle of Economic Absorptive Capacity as an indico.tor for immigration (Chapter 7)« PREFACE Among the numerous historical works on Mandatory Palestine, studies dealing with policy-making arc relatively scarce in comparison with those dealing with general political questions. Until recent years, various economic questions, land settlement, colonization, immigration, education, social welfare policy etcetera, have not had much profound or exhaustive research devoted to them. Although these topics were dealt with in British official publications in the form of reports and surveys, they generally go no further than descriptions of the facts and events, without analysing the concepts, motives or contributions of tho bodies and individuals which took part in outlining the policy. On the other hand, memoirs, monographs and general books wholly or partly dealing with those subjects usually have a rather tendentious approach which spotlights tho political aspects of the problem or emphasises the different viewpoints of their authors. A serious obstacle which stood in the way of researchers until recent years was the unavailability of archival material which is indispensable to studios of policy-making. The recent opening; to the public of archival material of the period concerned has made possible direct access to the official files of the bodies which participated in, or had certain influence upon, making of immigration policy. The five principal bodies concerned were the Palestine- Administration, the Colonial 0ffi.ee, the Foreign Office, the Zionist Executive in London and the Palestine Zionist Executive. 6 The material of the Palestine Administration is kept in the Israel State Archives (I.S.A.), in Jerusalem. The relevant material mainly includes the files of the Immigration Department, the Chief Secretary and correspondence between the High Commissioner and the Colonial Office. The latter correspondence, and in addition, internal minutes and memoranda of the Colonial Office are also kept in London, at the Public Record Oflice (P.R.O.). Also available at the Public Record Office is the correspondence between the Colonial Office and the Poreign Office and the Foreign Office with the British Consuls, regarding control of immigration. Zionist material is concentrated in the Central Zionist Archives (C.Z.A.),in Jerusalem. This material includes correspondence of the Palestine Zionist Executive with the Palestine Administration and the Zionist Executive in London, as well as correspondence between the latter body with the Colonial and the Foreign Office. Particularly important arc the confidential Minutes of the Zionist Executive and the Palestine Zionist Executive, which were both closed until recent years. Complementary to the Zionist material are the private papers of Chaim Weizmann, the President of the Zionist Organisation, during the period concerned, which are kept at the Weizmann Memorial, in Rehovot, Israel. When referring to archival sources I have given full details of the documents in the following order: sender, addressee, number and date and then, archival group, serial 7 number, volume, file and paper. Most of the material is in English. Translations of quotations from Hebrew are my own and from Atahic according to the official English translations as they appear in the files. I have supplemented the archival material with official publications of the Palestine and British Governments and the Zionist Organisation. The particular importance of these sources is their ability to reflect the official policy in the form of statements, laws and statistical data. In most cases I preferred the reliability of archival material to the official publications. Although memoirs and biographies have provided me with much fascinating historical material, these are at times of limited reliability. Nevertheless, I was able to make use of diaries, in particular those of Colonel Kisch and Dr. Ruppin of the Palestine Zionist Executive. The contribution of general books and monographs to my study is not very significant as most of them seem to have been based exclusively on official publications. However, doctoral theses written in recent years on various Palestine questions have been of great assistance to me. Published material is referred to in the footnotes by the author's name and title in brief. Full details of these sources may be found in the bibliographical list. 8 Finally, I wish to express my thanks to the Director and staff of the Public Record Office, for their kind permission to consult material and for their help; to Dr. M. Heimann and Mr. I. Philip of the Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem; to Mr. Julian L. Meltzcr and Mrs. L. Calcf of the Weizmann Archives, Rehovot; to Mr. H. Solomon and Miss Y. Teslitski, my colleagues at the Israel State Archives and particular^ to Dr. P.A. Alsbcrg, the Israel State Archivist. I am fortunate to have had the guidance and encouragement of my supervisor Professor Elio Kedourie, to whom I owe special thanks. I am also most grateful to my good friends Dr. Neil Caplan and Mr. Chaim Earam, who took the trouble to go through this study and gave me a great deal of sound advice. And most of all, to my wife, Marlene, without whose patience and constant support this work would not have been completed. This research was made possible by the generous support of the following bodies:- The Jewish Agency, Jerusalem; the Jewish Memorial Council, New York; The E'nai B'rith and Anglo-Jewish Association, London; and the Central Research Fund of the University of London. Jerusalem, December 197^ 9 ABBREVIATIONS A.E. Arab Executive; Executive Committee of Palestine Arab Congress
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