The White Paper of 1939
I. BackgroundIn 1929, the leaders of Arab nationalism organized a pogrom against the Jewish population of Palestine. The British reacted to this blood bath precisely as the Arabs had hoped: a British government White Paper was published which almost completely closed Mandate Palestine to Jewish immigration. As well as being a crisis for Zionism, this was a personal crisis for one individual: Chaim Weizmann, who succeeded in gaining the confidence of the British to the extent that they issued the Balfour Declaration in 1917, offering him the land of his forefathers. Weizmann had become a prisoner of his own gratitude, because the price for the fulfilment of Zionism was a chance to receive a peerage of the realm, which meant that he could not declare war on the Crown. To him, the White Paper was Britain's first betrayal, and he would be progressively broken by successive crises in the relationship between Zionism and Great Britain, together with the conflict between the love he felt for his country and his loyalty to those who had given it to the Jewish people through his hands. The Zionists, nevertheless, saw him as a man of compromise - someone without the courage to rebel. Ben Gurion, on the other hand, took a firm stand. The publication in 1939 of the new White Paper, which increased immigration restrictions, led him to declare war on the British. However, the world was simultaneously becoming aware of another conflict: the Second World War had broken out. Throughout the struggle against Nazism, the Zionist leaders did not hesitate to fight alongside Britain, although they never forgot their own private war against the Crown. Ben Gurion defined his political stance in one of his most famous pronouncements which became the motto of the Yishuv for many years:
"We will fight the war as if there were no White Paper, and we will fight the White Paper as if there were no war."The Zionist cause therefore needed new allies, namely America and her Jews. Those who opposed Ben Gurion's programme were:
However, on 12th May 1942, the 600 delegates of the American Zionist Congress voted in favour of the programme that Ben Gurion presented to them, known as the Biltmore Programme.
The split between Ben Gurion and Weizmann was complete.
II. ActivityAim:To contrast the views of two groups on the Zionist position in the Yishuv during the Second World War. Situation:The British have just published the White Paper, which prevents Jewish immigration. The Allies are fighting Nazism in the Second World War. As a Zionist, fighting the British mandate, which side would you choose? Can one wage "war" against an ally? Procedure:
These accounts will be used to prepare two arguments. Each group will have to formulate 10 arguments explaining why their proposal is the the more suitable.
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