The Palestine Mandate in the Late 1930s HIST 4339

Outline Palestine, pan-Islam, and Indian nationalism 1936 Arab Uprising 1937 Peel Commission plan Challenges to Peel plan Zionists and Gandhi Gandhi on European Jewry

1936 Arab Revolt Strikes, violence, with wide popular support Viceroy’s close attention to Indian Muslim interest in revolt August 1936: British declaration of martial law in Palestine, decision to send troops en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Train_hostages.jpg

Peel Commission Proposal 1937: Peel Commission (aka Palestine Royal Commission) —official recognition that Britain’s WWI promises were incompatible —recommendation that Britain partitionPalestine into Arab state and Jewish state Peel Plan

Challenges to Peel Plan 1938: Woodhead Commission (aka Technical Commission, aka Partition Commission) —Peel partition plan impracticable 1938: British rejection of Palestine partition 1939: PM Neville Chamberlain: “if we must offend one side, let us offend the Jews rather than the Arabs.”

1939 White Paper Limitations on Jewish immigration to Palestine —75,000 over the next five years Zionist vow to “fight the war as if there were no White Paper, and to fight the White Paper as if there were no war.”

Zionist Contacts with Gandhi Efforts to win Gandhi’s support for Jewish state in Palestine Gandhi’s international influence Zionist efforts unsuccessful im.rediff.com/news/2011/apr/06gandhi7.jpg Gandhi and Kallenbach in 1937

Zionist Contacts with Gandhi Disappointment at advice to use non-violence vs Nazis —Gandhi: “if the Jewish mind could be prepared for voluntary suffering, even the massacre I have imagined could be turned into a day of thanksgiving and joy” —Judah Magnes: Violence against Jews “makes not even a ripple on the surface of German life.... Contrast this with one of your fasts, or with your salt march to the sea, or a visit to the Viceroy, when the whole world is permitted to hang upon your words and be witness to your acts.”

Zionist Contacts with Gandhi 1939 meetings Zionist identity: European or “Eastern”? – Early alignment with British empire – 1930s shift: Jews as “Eastern people” Zionist distrust of advice to practice non- violence