KOMPAS.com – The wave of nation immigration Jewish ke Palestine pushed by the darkest chapter of World War II, Holocaust.
The practice of mass extermination of the Jews was carried out by Nazi Germany. History records, 6 million Jews were killed all over Europe.
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Hitler’s Nazi Germany atrocities undoubtedly made more and more Jews want to leave Europe for Palestine.
However, this intention was hindered by the British policy, which a few months before the outbreak of World War II, published the so-called 1939 White Paper.
In essence, the white paper contains Britain’s desire to prepare a Palestinian state, which will be administered by Arab citizens at a later date. There are also restrictions on the number and immigration of Jews to Palestine.
According to this document, the number of Jewish immigrants to Palestine will be limited to only 75,000 people until 1944. The breakdown is a quota of 10,000 immigrants per year and it could be 25,000 if there is a refugee emergency.
In another part of the document it is also explained that in the future immigration of the Jewish nation must obtain the permission of the majority Arab population. Jewish immigrants also bought land from Arabs.
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Squeezed in the midst of new colonial policies and threats of systematic mass extermination against their nation, a number of Jewish organizations also tried to carry out illegal immigration.
At least 100,000 Jews aboard 120 ships on 142 voyages trying to smuggle into Palestine.
However, Britain, which deployed eight of its warships to blockade the waters around Palestine, managed to thwart most of these illegal immigration attempts.
The immigrants who failed to enter Palestine were then taken and detained in a refugee camp in Cyprus. Several thousand others are being held in Palestine and Mauritius.
A total of 50,000 immigrants were detained by Britain and about 1,600 immigrants drowned. Only a few thousand people managed to escape to Palestine in those times.
The restrictions on Jewish immigration to Palestine as outlined in the 1939 White Paper, plus the massacre of their nation in Europe, angered the Zionist Organization.
Zionist leaders gathered in New York in 1942 precisely at the Biltmore Hotel. It was then that Zionist leaders officially designated Palestine as the territory of the Jewish Commonwealth.
In addition, the Jewish leaders now viewed Britain as an enemy to be fought. Whereas previously because of the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the Jews had hopes for this country.
Various Jewish armed groups such as Haganah, Irgun, and Lehi, which initially competed, now united with the same goal of overthrowing British rule in the Palestinian Mandate.
These armed groups often carry out acts of terrorism such as the murder and kidnapping of British officials to blow up British-owned trains.
One notable incident was the assassination of the Minister of State for Middle Eastern Affairs, Lord Moyne on November 6, 1944 in Cairo, Egypt, by two members of the Jewish underground movement, Eliyahu Bet-Zuri and Eliyahu Hakim.
Lord Moyne is known as a very anti-Zionist British official. He upholds the rules of limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine, as stipulated in the 1939 White Paper document.
However, the assassination of Lord Moyne did not change British policy in Palestine. In fact, this action actually had a bad impact on the Zionism movement.
The reason is, Lord Moyne was a close friend of the then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill. As a result, the Queen’s right hand man reconsidered his support for Zionism.
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Separated in Europe, World War II finally ended in the defeat of Nazi Germany. But there were still about 250,000 Jews scattered in German-owned concentration camps.
The Zionist leaders also wanted to bring their compatriots to Palestine. The problem is, Britain is still restricting Jewish immigration to Palestine according to the mandate of the 1939 White Paper.
This situation made the resistance of the Jewish armed groups in Palestine even harder and spread terror even more.
They bombed trains, train stations and even the British military headquarters at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem on July 22, 1946.
The terrorist act carried out by the right-wing Zionist group, Irgun, killed 91 people and injured 46 others.
The worsening conditions in the Mandate of Palestine made headlines in British newspapers.
British politicians then urged his government to immediately resolve the conflict in Palestine, to save the lives of British citizens and troops in Palestine.
Pressure on Britain also came from the United States and a number of countries that asked Britain to immediately open the taps of Jewish immigration, which had been closed so far.
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Various investigations were carried out to confirm the real conditions in Palestine.
The British-US Joint Committee formed the United Nations on April 20, 1946, finally recommended immigration of 100,000 Jews to Palestine as soon as possible.
However, this recommendation was rejected by Arab leaders. The British soon realized they were no longer able to cope with the situation in Palestine.
The mandate to administer Palestine which has been held since 1920, was then given to the United Nations starting May 14, 1948.
This then led to the establishment of the State of Israel. (continued)
Source: Kompas.com (Author: Ervan Hardoko | Editor: Ervan Hardoko)
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