By Tomer Ilan
Recently, there’s a
wave of demands from Palestinian Arabs to the United Kingdom to apologize for
alleged abuses during the British Mandate period.
Munib al-Masri, a rich
Palestinian businessman submitted a dossier of evidence alleging abuses by the British between 1917 and 1948. Masri is
planning to present the file to the UK government later this year and is
reportedly demanding a formal acknowledgement and apology.
Separately, a Palestinian Arab is seeking
an apology from the Royal Ulster
Rifles for a 1938 incident in
Mandatory Palestine in which he alleged the British troops forced civilians to
drive over a landmine after a roadside bomb placed by Arabs killed two British
troops.
The Jews have a right
to demand an apology from Britain as well.
The Jews deserve an
apology from the British for systematically discriminating against the Jews, in
terms of official policy against Jewish immigration and Jewish land purchase
and settlement in contradiction to international law, namely the Mandate of
Palestine. The British government was also deeply involved in the illegal Arab
invasion of Israel in the 1948 war.
The first major
anti-Jewish move by the British government came in 1922, when The League of
Nations, at Britain’s request, modified the mandate by withdrawing Transjordan from the area intended to provide a national
home for the Jews. With a stroke of a pen, the Jews lost 78% of the national
home promised to them by Britain and the League of Nations.
Then, as a response to
Arab violence, including the 1920 Nebi Musa riots and the 1921 Jaffa riots,
Britain published a series of White Papers with new anti-Jewish policies that
contradicted the legally-binding League of Nations Mandate for Palestine that
Britain was supposed to follow.
The Mandate resolution (Article 6) requires Britain to “facilitate
Jewish immigration under suitable conditions and encourage, in co-operation
with the Jewish agency referred to in Article 4, close settlement by Jews on
the land, including State lands and waste lands not required for public
purposes”. The Mandate states that this shall be done “while ensuring
that the rights and position of other sections of the population are not prejudiced”.
However, in a series
of White Papers published between 1922 and 1939, the British Administration restricted
Jewish immigration and settlement rather than “facilitate” and “encourage” it
as required in the Mandate resolution.
Initially, the 1922
White Paper vaguely stated that Britain would limit future immigration to
"the economic capacity of the country". The 1930 White Paper called
for stricter controls to be placed on Jewish immigration and land purchase.
The worst White Paper
was published in 1939, on the eve of World War 2, with millions of Jews trying
to escape from the Nazi threat in Europe, the paper severely limited
Jewish immigration to just 15,000 a year for 5 years and made subsequent
immigration to require Arab
approval. Jewish purchase of land from Arabs was forbidden in 95% of
Palestine.
In effect, the White
Paper prevented the escape of millions of Jews from Europe before and during
WW2. Six million of those Jews were murdered by the Nazis in the Holocaust. If
the British had not imposed the 1939 White Paper immigration restrictions, many
of those Jews could have been saved.
The McDonald White Paper of 1939 was explicitly racist and openly discriminated
against Jews. Jewish immigration was severely restricted, while Arab
immigration was not. Jewish land purchase was forbidden in 95% of the land,
while Arab land purchase was allowed in 100% of it. The language of the White
Paper was explicit and racist: “Transfer of land save to a Palestinian Arab
prohibited” (see map).
In today’s terms, it
would be called an “apartheid” White Paper. Anti-Jewish apartheid.
British Land transfer Regulations
of 1940 based on the
White Paper of 1939
Starting from 1939,
the British Authorities also restricted Jewish settlement on Jewish-owned land
in direct contradiction to the Mandate resolution requiring them to “encourage
close settlement by Jews on the land”. The Jews, however, found a way to
establish new settlements anyway, the famous “Tower and Stockade”
method.
In the 1948 War of
Independence, Britain was deeply involved in favor of the Arab side. The Arab
Army of Transjordan, more commonly known as the Arab Legion, was financed by
Britain and commanded by British officers. The Legion was armed, trained and
commanded by British officers and was considered the most effective Arab force
in the 1948 war.
The British-backed
Arab Legion illegally invaded Palestine in 1948 and helped Jordan illegally
occupy eastern Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria between 1948 and 1967.
In 1948, Britain had
dominant influence over Egypt, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon as well. Those countries
would not invade Palestine to fight the Jews, without British involvement.
This is confirmed by Dr. Ezra Nishry’s research. His 2016 doctoral thesis (English Abstract – p. 510) based mainly on the documents of the British National Archives (as well as Israeli and American documents and previous research literature) confirms that the British organized, armed and pushed the Arab countries to invade Israel in the War of Independence.
Nishry shows that the
British government used covert action and pushed for the Arab invasion that was
actually carried out on May 15, 1948. According to British sources quoted in
the research, the senior British leadership in London determined the end date
for the evacuation of the British forces from Palestine, brought it forward,
and returned to the original date according to the changing needs of the
invasion plans which changed according to the circumstances on the ground. There
was a direct connection between planning the timing of the Arab invasion and
planning the timing of the British evacuation.
His findings were published in a book “The British Trojan horse in the Israeli War of liberation : 1947-1948”.
In many cases during
the 1948 war, the British troops themselves helped the Arabs.
One of the worst
incidents was at Radar Hill (near Jerusalem) on 23 April 1948. A Jewish force
who tried to evacuate wounded Jewish troops in the Many Jewish fighters were
killed and wounded in the Nebi Samuel battle, encountered British fire from
Radar Hill which killed and wounded a number of Jews. The wounded Jews were
collected by the British and handed over to the Arabs who murdered them.
Another example of British involvement against the Jews was in the Etzion Bloc. On 4 May 1948, the Arab Legion aided by the British and by a large number of local Arabs launched a major attack on the Etzion Bloc in which 12 Jewish defenders were killed. A few days later, the Kfar Etzion Massacre was committed and the Bloc was ethnically cleansed from Jews until it was resettled in 1967.
Great Britain should
apologize to the Jews for:
- · Giving 78% of the Jewish National Home to the Arabs in 1922
- · Restricting Jewish immigration just before WW2, preventing the escape of millions of Jews from the Holocaust
- · Imposing anti-Jewish “apartheid” laws restricting land purchase by Jews in most of Palestine
- · Opposing the establishment of new Jewish settlements on Jewish-owned land.
- · Britain backing the Arab Legion in 1948 leading to the illegal Jordanian occupation the Old City of Jerusalem and Judea & Samaria until 1967.
- · Britain pushing other Arab states to invade Israel an attempt to annihilate her in 1948.
- ·
British troops fighting against the Jews in the 1948 war.
These British policies and actions went against their commitment to the League of Nations and against the Mandate for Palestine, i.e. against international law.
The British have more
reasons to apologize to the Jews than they do to the Arabs.
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