Editing Zionism (section)

=== Nazism, World War II and the Holocaust ===
In 1939, a [[White Paper of 1939|British White Paper]] would recommend limiting Jewish immigration and land purchase with the objective of maintaining the status quo while the threat of war loomed in Europe.{{sfn|Morris|1999|p=162}}<ref>{{harvnb|Pappé|2004}}: "A British White Paper of 1939 tried to make provision for Palestinian sensibilities. It repeated the promises made in 1930 of withdrawal from the Balfour Declaration and limits to Jewish immigration and land purchase. The objective was to maintain the status quo until the situation in Europe was clear. The limitation on immigration came at a time when Nazi expansion in Europe was making life for Jews there unbearable and impossible. The Yishuv now waged its own kind of rebellion, a clandestine operation of illegal immigration, land takeover, and formation of a paramilitary organization, helped by sympathetic British officers such as the legendary Orde Wingate."</ref> The immigration was to be limited to no more than 75,000 people over the next five years. With Nazi expansionism in Europe, the limits on immigration prompted further militarization, land takeover and illegal immigration efforts by the Zionist movement. The second world war broke out as the Zionists were developing their campaign against the White Paper—unable to accept the White Paper or to side against the British, the Zionist movement would ultimately support the British war effort while working to upend the White Paper.{{sfn|Cleveland|2010|loc=Communal Conflict and the British Response}}{{efn|David Ben Gurion famously would say: we shall "fight the White Paper as if there were no Hitler and fight Hitler as if there were no White Paper."}} From the start of the second world war, the Zionists pressured the British to organize and train a Jewish "army", culminating in the establishment of a Jewish Brigade and accompanying blue and white flag.{{sfn|Morris|1999|p=167}}{{sfn|Gorny|1987|p=277}} The development of this force would further train and enable the already substantial Zionist military capacity.{{sfn|Khalidi|2020|loc=Chapter 1}}{{sfn|Morris|1999|p=167}}{{sfn|Pappé|2004}}{{page needed|date=November 2024}} The Haganah was allowed by the British to openly acquire weapons and worked with the British to prepare for a possible Axis invasion.{{sfn|Cleveland|2010|loc=World War II and the Birth of the State of Israel}}

Despite the White Paper, Zionist immigration and settlement efforts continued during the war period. While immigration had previously been selective, once the details of the holocaust reached Palestine in 1942, selectivity was abandoned. The official Zionist movement's war effort focused on the survival and development of the Yishuv; Pappe argues that scarce Zionist energy was deployed in support of European Jews.<ref>{{harvnb|Pappé|2004|loc=Palestine in World War II}}: "This was selective, in which the physically fit and those with the right ideological bent were given priority and, at times, exclusivity. This mode of selection was abandoned for a while when the horrific news of Nazi exterminations reached Palestine around 1942. The news even prompted the symbolic act of sending Zionist parachutists into Nazi Europe as a gesture of support to the Jews dying in the death camps rather than as a real attempt to save them. Little Zionist energy was invested in saving Jews, as the priority in those difficult days remained the survival of the Jewish community in Palestine."</ref> Many of those fleeing Nazi terror in Europe preferred to leave for the United States, however, strict American immigration policies and Zionist efforts led to 10% of the 3 million Jews leaving Europe to settle in Palestine.{{sfn|Pappé|2004|loc=Palestine in World War II}}

In the [[Biltmore Program]] of 1942, the Zionist movement would openly declare for the first time its goal of establishing a Jewish state in all of Palestine.{{sfn|Morris|1999|p=169}}<ref>{{harvnb|Shlaim|2001}}: "With this resolution the Zionist movement for the first time openly staked a claim to the whole of mandatory Palestine."</ref> At this point, the United States, with its growing economy and unprecedented military force, became a focal point of Zionist political activity that engaged with the American electorate and politicians. [[Harry S. Truman|US President Truman]] supported the Biltmore program for the duration of his time in office, largely motivated by humanitarian concerns and the growing influence of the Zionist lobby.{{sfn|Cleveland|2010}}

{|class="wikitable" style="float:right; margin-left:16px;"
|+ Population of Palestine by ethno-religious groups, excluding nomads, from the 1946 Survey of Palestine<ref>{{cite report |title=Survey of Palestine |date=1946 |volume=I |chapter=VI |page=141}} and {{cite report |title=Supplement to Survey of Palestine |date=1947 |page=10}}</ref>
|-
! style="width:50px;"|Year
! style="width:60px;"|[[Islam in Palestine|Muslims]]
! style="width:60px;"|[[Yishuv|Jews]]
! style="width:60px;"|[[Palestinian Christians|Christians]]
! style="width:60px;"|Others
! style="width:50px;"|Total Settled
|- style="text-align:right;"
||1922
||486,177 ''(74.9%)''
||83,790 ''(12.9%)''
||71,464 ''(11.0%)''
||7,617 ''(1.2%)''
||649,048
|- style="text-align:right;"
||1931
||693,147 ''(71.7%)''
||174,606 ''(18.1%)''
||88,907 ''(9.2%)''
||10,101 ''(1.0%)''
||966,761
|- style="text-align:right;"
||1941
||906,551 ''(59.7%)''
||474,102 ''(31.2%)''
||125,413 ''(8.3%)''
||12,881 ''(0.8%)''
||1,518,947
|- style="text-align:right;"
||1946
||1,076,783 ''(58.3%)''
||608,225 ''(33.0%)''
||145,063 ''(7.9%)''
||15,488 ''(0.8%)''
||1,845,559
|}

During World War II, as the horrors of [[the Holocaust]] became known, the Zionist leadership formulated the [[One Million Plan]], a reduction from Ben-Gurion's previous target of two million immigrants. Following the end of the war, many [[Sh'erit ha-Pletah|stateless refugees]], mainly [[Holocaust survivors]], began [[Aliyah Bet|migrating to Palestine]] in small boats in defiance of British rules. The Holocaust united much of the rest of world Jewry behind the Zionist project.{{sfn|Johnson|1998|pp=21–28}} The British either [[Cyprus internment camps|imprisoned these Jews in Cyprus]] or [[SS Exodus|sent them]] to the British-controlled [[Allied Occupation Zones in Germany]]. The British, having faced Arab revolts, were now facing opposition by [[British–Zionist conflict|Zionist groups in Palestine]] for subsequent restrictions on Jewish immigration. In January 1946 the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, a joint [[United Kingdom–United States relations|British and American]] committee, was tasked to examine political, economic and social conditions in Mandatory Palestine and the well-being of the peoples now living there; to consult representatives of Arabs and Jews, and to make other recommendations 'as necessary' for an interim handling of these problems as well as for their eventual solution.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Avalon Project – Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry – Preface |url=https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/angpre.asp |access-date=March 10, 2023 |website=avalon.law.yale.edu |publisher=[[Yale Law School]] |archive-date=August 7, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180807185116/http://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/angpre.asp |url-status=live}}</ref> Following the failure of the [[London Conference of 1946–47|1946–47 London Conference on Palestine]], at which the United States refused to support the British, leading to both the [[Morrison–Grady Plan]] and the [[Bevin Plan]] being rejected by all parties, the British decided to refer the question to the UN on February 14, 1947.{{sfn|Ravndal|2010|p=}}{{pn|date=March 2025}}{{efn|group=fn|The reasons for this decision were explained by His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in a speech to the House of Commons on February 18, 1947, in which he said:<br />
"His Majesty's Government have been faced with an irreconcilable conflict of principles. There are in Palestine about 1,200,000 Arabs and 600,000 Jews. For the Jews the essential point of principle is the creation of a sovereign Jewish State. For the Arabs, the essential point of principle is to resist to the last establishment of Jewish sovereignty in any part of Palestine. The discussions of the last month have quite clearly shown that there is no prospect of resolving this conflict by any settlement negotiated between the parties. But if the conflict has to be resolved by an arbitrary decision, that is not a decision that His Majesty's Government are empowered, as Mandatory, to take. His Majesty's Government have of themselves no power, under the terms of the Mandate, to award the country either to the Arabs or to the Jews, or even to partition it between them."}}