Editing History of Israel (section)

===Arab revolt and the White Paper===
{{Main|1936–39 Arab revolt in Palestine|White Paper of 1939}}
[[File:Ghaffis in Nesher 2.jpg|thumb|[[Jewish Settlement Police]] members watching the settlement [[Nesher]] during [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine|1936–1939 Arab revolt]]]]
Jewish immigration and Nazi propaganda contributed to the large-scale [[1936–1939 Arab revolt in Palestine]], a largely nationalist uprising directed at ending British rule. The head of the Jewish Agency, Ben-Gurion, responded to the Arab Revolt with a policy of "[[Havlagah]]"—self-restraint and a refusal to be provoked by Arab attacks in order to prevent polarization. The Etzel group broke off from the Haganah in opposition to this policy.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://archive.jewishagency.org/peace-and-conflict/content/23707/ | title=Jewish Defense Organizations | date=31 May 2005 | access-date=25 November 2022 | archive-date=25 November 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221125164225/https://archive.jewishagency.org/peace-and-conflict/content/23707/ | url-status=live }}</ref>

The British responded to the revolt with the [[Peel Commission]] (1936–37), a public inquiry that recommended that an exclusively Jewish territory be created in the [[Galilee]] and western coast (including the [[population transfer]] of 225,000 Arabs); the rest becoming an exclusively Arab area. The two main Jewish leaders, [[Chaim Weizmann]] and [[David Ben-Gurion]], had convinced the [[World Zionist Congress|Zionist Congress]] to approve equivocally the Peel recommendations as a basis for more negotiation.<ref>{{cite book|author=William Roger Louis|title=Ends of British Imperialism: The Scramble for Empire, Suez, and Decolonization|year=2006|publisher=I.B. Tauris |isbn=978-1-84511-347-6|page=391 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NQnpQNKeKKAC|access-date=4 April 2018|archive-date=22 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170222045215/https://books.google.com/books?id=NQnpQNKeKKAC |url-status=live}}</ref><ref>Benny Morris, One state, two states: resolving the Israel/Palestine conflict, 2009, p. 66.{{full citation needed|date=September 2022}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Morris|2004}}: p. 48; p. 11 "while the Zionist movement, after much agonizing, accepted the principle of partition and the proposals as a basis for negotiation"; p. 49 "In the end, after bitter debate, the Congress equivocally approved –by a vote of 299 to 160 – the Peel recommendations as a basis for further negotiation."</ref> The plan was rejected outright by the Palestinian Arab leadership and they renewed the revolt, which caused the British to appease the Arabs, and to abandon the plan as unworkable.<ref>For more information see ''Palestine: Retreat from the Mandate, The making of British Policy, 1936–1945'' by Michael Cohen, New York 1979 Chapter 3</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Morris|2004}}: p. 11, "The AHC renewed the revolt. Whitehall ... took vigorous steps to appease the Palestinians."</ref>

Testifying before the Peel Commission, Weizmann said "There are in Europe 6,000,000 people ... for whom the world is divided into places where they cannot live and places where they cannot enter."<ref>{{cite book|author=Chaim Weizmann|title=The Letters and Papers of Chaim Weizmann: series B|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PsabNtx33VMC&pg=PA102|date=1 January 1983|publisher=Transaction Publishers|isbn=978-0-87855-297-9|pages=102–|quote=On 25 November 1936, testifying before the Peel Commission, Weizmann said that there are in Europe 6,000,000 Jews ... "for whom the world is divided into places where they cannot live and places where they cannot enter."|access-date=30 November 2021|archive-date=30 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211130170508/https://books.google.com/books?id=PsabNtx33VMC&pg=PA102|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1938, the US called an [[Évian Conference|international conference]] to address the question of the vast numbers of Jews trying to escape Europe. Britain made its attendance contingent on Palestine being kept out of the discussion.<ref>{{cite book|author=Conor Cruise O'Brien|title=The Siege|date=2015|publisher=Faber & Faber Limited|isbn=9780571324545|page=233|quote=The outside world, while shocked by Nazi atrocities, did little to help the victims. A conference of thiry-one countries, which met at Evian in early July did no more than confirm the validity of Weizmann's diagnosis, before the Peel Commission, of the condition of the European Jews in the late thirties: ... the world is divided into places where they cannot live and places into which they cannot enter." Palestine was excluded from the Evian agenda at the insistence of the British Government.}}</ref> No Jewish representatives were invited. The Nazis proposed their own solution: that the Jews of Europe be shipped to Madagascar (the [[Madagascar Plan]]). The agreement proved fruitless, and the Jews were stuck in Europe.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-evian-conference | title=The Evian Conference | access-date=25 November 2022 | archive-date=8 May 2019 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190508150007/https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-evian-conference | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Erbelding |first=Rebecca |date=17 May 2019 |title=The Evian Conference of 1938 and the Jewish Refugee Crisis |url=https://academic.oup.com/hgs/article-abstract/33/1/136/5491038 |journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies |publisher=Oxford University Press |volume=33 |issue=1 |pages=136–138 |doi=10.1093/hgs/dcz007 |archive-date=28 January 2023 |access-date=25 November 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230128214315/https://academic.oup.com/hgs/article-abstract/33/1/136/5491038 |url-status=live }}</ref>

With millions of Jews trying to leave Europe and every country in the world closed to Jewish migration, the British decided to close Palestine. The [[White Paper of 1939]], recommended that an independent Palestine, governed jointly by Arabs and Jews, be established within 10 years. The White Paper agreed to allow 75,000 Jewish immigrants into Palestine over the period 1940–44, after which migration would require Arab approval. Both the Arab and Jewish leadership rejected the White Paper. In March 1940 the British High Commissioner for Palestine issued an edict banning Jews from purchasing land in 95% of Palestine. Jews now resorted to illegal immigration: ([[Aliyah Bet]] or "Ha'apalah"), often organized by the [[Mossad Le'aliyah Bet]] and the Irgun. With no outside help and no countries ready to admit them, very few Jews managed to escape Europe between 1939 and 1945. Those caught by the British were mostly [[History of the Jews in Mauritius|imprisoned in Mauritius]].<ref>The Mauritian Shekel: The Story of Jewish Detainees in Mauritius, 1940-1945 by Geneviéve Pitot, Rowman 2000</ref><ref>{{cite web | url=https://jewishdetaineesmauritius.com/home/our-story/ | title=Our Story }}</ref>