Round 2: 1914-1939

1. What was the Arab response to Jewish immigration in 1914?

a. They demanded an immediate independent Arab state.
2. What was the British response?
a. The British response was to refuse but to agree to limit Jewish immigration.
3. Identify the two years where violence broke out in the 1920s.
a. 1921 and 1929
4. Where were those incidents?
a. Jaffa (Haifa) and the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem
5. How many Jews were in Palestine by 1930?
a. 150,000
6. What was the total population in the region in 1930?
a. 1 million
7. Why did Jewish immigration increase between 1933 and 1939?
a. Growth of anti-semitism in Europe
8. How many Jews were in Palestine by 1939?
a. 450,000
9. What was the total population in Palestine?
a. 1.6 million (1,620,005)
10. What did the Arabs organise in 1936?
a. General Strike followed by violence for 3 years.
11. How did the British do in response (2)?
a. Created the Peel Commission in 1937
b. Organised Jewish defence or Haganah – especially the Jewish Special Night Squads
organised by Orde Wingate.
12. What was the Jewish defence force called?
a. Haganah
13. When was the Peel Commission and what did it call for?
a. 1937;
b. It called for a partition, where most of the territory in the south would go to the
existing Arab population and a smaller proportion of territory would go to the Jews
in the north.
14. What did the Jews and the Palestinians think of this?
a. Jews accepted it and the Palestinians rejected it.
15. How did the McDonald report of 1939 and the White Paper based upon it differ from the
Peel Commission?
a. The McDonald Report and the White paper that followed proposed rejected
partition and the formation of a Jewish state (at least without Arab permission). The
1939 White Paper proposed a single government solution, and a permanent
limitation on Jewish immigration to prevent the Jewish population going beyond
1/3rd of the total population. It allowed the entrance of 75,000 Jewish immigrants
over a period of five years, after that, the immigration would need Arab consent.
16. Why did the McDonald report annoy both Jews and Arabs?
a. Arabs objected because it still did not give them the single independent state they
wanted;
b. Jews objected to restrictions on their immigration and particularly the level of
control that would be given to the Arabs, particularly during the current political
climate in Germany and Austria.