PALESTINE STATEMENT OF POLICY by his Majesty’s Government in the United Kingdom – The statement of the policy of Palestine by his Majesty’s government in the United Kingdom which came out next to the report of the Peel Commission and set a limit on the number of Jews who were allowed to immigrate to the Land of Israel, at a fateful time when thousands of European Jews sought to escape From the terror of the Nazi occupier, London, 1937.
The White Paper from July 1937 in which the British government’s policy statement was published following the report of the Royal Commission on Palestine – the Peel Commission. The report determined that the only solution to the land conflict between Jews and Arabs was the partition of the land of Israel, and granting equal rights to both peoples. In order to implement the plan, the report stipulated that all land deals that could undermine the partition plan would be prohibited, and that Jewish immigration to the land of Israel would be limited to no more than 8,000 people between August 1937 and March 1938. Later, a Jewish state and an Arab state would be established in the land of Israel. This statement led to the closure of the gates of the land of Israel to thousands of European Jews at a critical time, as they tried to escape the terror of the Nazi occupier just months before the outbreak of World War II. This document indirectly caused the death of thousands of Jews who remained in occupied European cities and were later sent to death camps. It also led to what was called the “illegal immigration” trend, in which Jews managed to reach the land of Israel by various means despite the ban. (This rare and important document is also featured in the Yad Vashem Museum exhibition on escape attempts and the breaking of the Iron Curtain against European Jewry during the Nazi regime).
[4] pages. On page 3 some of the lines are marked with a pen. general condition good.
