Cards List
FILTERED BY:
Documents and Sources
Europe and Israel
Assembled here are key sources that have shaped the modern Middle East, Zionism and Israel. We have included items that give texture, perspective and opinion to historical context. Many of these sources are mentioned in the Era summaries and contain explanatory introductions.
1914-1915 Hussein-McMahon Correspondence

1914-1915 Hussein-McMahon Correspondence CIE+ members only

The Sharif of Mecca and Sir Henry McMahon, a British official in Cairo speaking for the Foreign Office, exchange letters about the current war effort against the Turks and the future political status of specific Arab lands in the Ottoman Empire. McMahon says, as he repeats in 1937, that the area of Palestine is excluded from any area to be provided to an Arab leader after World War I. The British instead allow the area of Palestine to develop as a “national home for the Jewish people.”

Documents and Sources|October 24, 1915|Spanish
Herbert Samuel’s Review of Present and Future Zionist-Arab Interactions in Palestine, 1920

Herbert Samuel’s Review of Present and Future Zionist-Arab Interactions in Palestine, 1920 CIE+ members only

Herbert Samuel, soon to serve as Britain’s first high commissioner for Palestine and the only Jew to hold the role, notes reasons for Arab political infighting, the origins of Arab dislike of Zionism, how land sales to Jews generate Arab jealousies, Jewish educational focus and the potential of the region of Palestine to support 4 million people.

Documents and Sources|April 2, 1920
1922 White Paper on Palestine

1922 White Paper on Palestine CIE+ members only

With intentioned ambiguity, Britain asserts that its goal in Palestine is not to make it wholly Jewish or subordinate the Arab population. Self-determination is not promised. Britain wants to remain an umpire between the communities. Naively, it thinks it can control communal expectations and keep the peace.

Documents and Sources|July 1922
Government of Palestine, C.F. Strickland, “A Report on the Possibility of Introducing a System of Agricultural Cooperation in Palestine”

Government of Palestine, C.F. Strickland, “A Report on the Possibility of Introducing a System of Agricultural Cooperation in Palestine” CIE+ members only

Correctly observing that the vast majority of Palestinian Arab peasants were trapped in debt with interest rates between 30% and 70%, this British civil servant suggested establishing agricultural cooperatives. But neither Arab leaders nor British bureaucrats wanted to provide the funding. For the duration of the Mandate, the Palestinian peasant remained hard-working, sullen and impoverished.

Documents and Sources|July 3, 1930
Palestinian Arab Grievances Against the British for Supporting the Jewish National Home, 1936 

Palestinian Arab Grievances Against the British for Supporting the Jewish National Home, 1936  CIE+ members only

Five Arab political parties sent a memorandum of protest to the British asking for a halt to Jewish immigration, a stoppage in Arab land sales to Jews,and a measure of self-determination. The British did not change their policies in these three areas. In 1939, they did severely limit Jewish land purchases and severely curtailed Jewish immigration.

Documents and Sources|January 10, 1936
British Government: Policy Statement/Advice Against Partition, 1938

British Government: Policy Statement/Advice Against Partition, 1938 CIE+ members only

Pressure from Arab leaders in states surrounding Palestine, growing instability in the eastern Mediterranean, and a firm opposition voiced by the British High Commissioner in Egypt, Miles Lampson, caused the British to withdraw the idea of resolving the Arab-Zionist conflict with a two-state solution. Instead, heavy restrictions were imposed in 1939 on the growth of the Jewish National home. Coincidently this policy statement is issued, two days after Nazi Germany attacks Jewish, homes, businesses and synagogues, in what came to be known as Kristallnacht.

Documents and Sources|November 11, 1938|Spanish|Hebrew
HMG White Paper: Statement of Policy, 1939

HMG White Paper: Statement of Policy, 1939

Zionist leaders—David Ben-Gurion, Chaim Weizmann and Eliezer Kaplan—learning of the British intent to limit severely the Jewish national home’s growth. Increasingly, they are also aware of the German government’s hostilities towards European Jewry.

Documents and Sources|May 23, 1939
Sir Harold MacMichael, High Commissioner of Palestine, to Oliver Stanley, Colonial Secretary, 1944

Sir Harold MacMichael, High Commissioner of Palestine, to Oliver Stanley, Colonial Secretary, 1944 CIE+ members only

Before ending his term in 1944 as Palestine’s High Commissioner, Sir Harold MacMichael suggested the partition of Palestine, “Jews and Arabs alike would enjoy the possession of their own respective territories, the former protected by international guarantees for their security, and the latter relieved from fear of further encroachments.”

Documents and Sources|July 17, 1944
British Report Reveals “Separatist” Jewish Education System in Palestine, 1946

British Report Reveals “Separatist” Jewish Education System in Palestine, 1946 CIE+ members only

With the British spending local revenue on strategic needs — ports, roads and communication systems — scant funds were devoted to education in the Mandate. Already baked into diasporic habits, the Jewish community raced forward in educating its own in Palestine to inculcate penetrating attachments to Palestine as the Jewish national home. Arab youth literacy ran in place, with separatist education contributing mightily to communal divisions, as occurred simultaneously in the economic and geospatial spheres.

Documents and Sources|1946
Page: 1 of 3 1 2 3