The Yishuv
Responds
The Jews in Palestine respond to Nazi anti-semitism and genocide,
1929-1945.
By David E. Lipman
The Yishuv, the Jewish
settlement in Palestine, struggled to do what it could in response to the
situation of the Jews in Europe. The following article outlines the complex
interactions between the Yishuv, the British, and the Arabs that defined the
Yishuv's activities vis-a-vis European Jewry between 1929 and 1945. It is
reprinted with permission from the Gates
of Jewish Heritage. Please note that the author's use of the word
"terrorism" in this piece reflects his own views. Not all scholars
would feel comfortable with his use of the term to describe the actions of the
Irgun.
Britain's
two greatest blows against the Yishuv were to limit immigration and to limit
the Jewish National Fund's ability to purchase land. Following major Arab riots
in 1929 in which the Jewish community of Hebron was massacred on Shabbat, the
British issued a White Paper which noted the unrest caused by Jewish
immigration and recommended severe restrictions on such immigration. World
Jewry was outraged, and the British retracted the White Paper. It was lucky for
many Jews that such restrictions were removed. Between 1933 and 1936, more than
164,250 Jews fled Germany and entered Palestine, thus doubling the size of the
Yishuv. Called the Fifth Aliyah [or Immigration], these German Jews came with
money to build businesses and cities. By 1936, Tel Aviv had more than 150,000
inhabitants, and Haifa had become a major port city with more than 50,000 Jews.
The
Yishuv recognized the need to help save Jewish children in Europe. In 1933,
Hadassah [an American Jewish women's organization] and Henrietta Szold [its
founder] established Youth Aliyah, an institution to bring German Jewish
children to Palestine and provide them with homes. Between 1933 and 1942, more
than 5,000 children were brought into Palestine and integrated into kibbutzim.
Another 15,000 were sent to Western countries by Hadassah because the British
refused to allow them to enter Palestine. From its founding, Youth Aliyah
provided homes for more than 140,000 Jewish children in Israel.
The
Yishuv was outraged by Britain's callous refusal to open the gates of Palestine
to Jewish immigrants. With Hitler in power in Europe, thousands of Jews
desperately needed refuge immediately. Britain adamantly refused to increase
its immigration quota for Jews. The Yishuv and European Jewry organized Aliyah
Bet, the institution responsible for smuggling Jews into Palestine against the
orders of the British. The British called this illegal immigration; the Jews
called it legitimate immigration based on the promise of the Balfour
Declaration [of 1917, with its promise of a Jewish state in Palestine].
Youth movements and
Zionist organizations set up transport systems to get Jews to small ports in
southern Europe. From there, a part of the Haganah [the non-governmental Jewish
military organization] called the Mossad L'Aliyah Bet tried to sneak boatloads
of Jews into Palestine. By the end of 1939, thousands of Jews had arrived in
Palestine illegally.
In
1936, despite all British attempts to placate them, the Arabs of Palestine set
up a revolt against both the British and the Yishuv. Mobs attacked and
ransacked the Jewish quarter of Jaffa.The
Arabs declared a countrywide work strike, and the Yishuv took over all
necessary civil occupations. With the permission of theBritish High Commissioner, the Yishuv established a port in Tel
Aviv, thus replacing Jaffa, which was on strike.
The
Arabs began a policy of terrorism against the British and the Yishuv. The
Haganah announced a policy of restraint: defend but don't attack. The Yishuv
developed a new defense measure. They chose sites which the Arabs would have to
pass to get to a Jewish town or village. In the middle of the night, groups of
young Jews would race to the selected site with prefab walls. Working through
the night, they would set up a defense wall (made of the prefab wooden frames
filled with gravel) and a watchtower with a searchlight. Protected from immediate
Arab attack, they then added houses within the walls and planted fields,
creating permanent settlements.
In this way, 52 settlements formed a fence around the older
Yishuv neighbors, protecting them from Arab attacks. They were called tower and
stockade settlements, and they saved many towns from possible massacres.
In addition, a British captain, Orde Charles Wingate,
trained Jewish volunteers from the Haganah to counterattack against the Arabs
and protect the British oil pipeline. Many of his students, such as Moshe Dayan
and Yigal Allon, eventually became the military leaders of Israel. For his
friendship with the Yishuv, Wingate was banished by the British from Palestine
and never permitted to return. He was killed in Burma during World War II.
For one group of angry youngJews, the Haganah defense policy of restraint in the face of Arab
attacks wasn't acceptable. Led by Zev Jabotinsky, who was still living in
exile, this group broke away from the Haganah to create a separate Jewish
military force called the Irgun Tz'vaei Leumi, referred to as either the Irgun
or Etzel, the acronym of its full title.
The Irgun responded to every terrorist attack with its own
terrorist attack. The Yishuv, fearing political reprisals from the British, and
the loss of world sympathy if Jews were seen as terrorists, opposed the Irgun
and their raids.
In 1939, when the Haganah and many in the Yishuv decided to
help the British fight the Nazis, the Irgun declared that the British were as
much an enemy as Germany or the Arabs, and they began terrorist raids against
the British. Again the Yishuv and the Haganah opposed these actions.
In 1939, when Europe's Jews most desperately needed a haven,
Britain issued another White Paper further limiting Jewish immigration to Palestine.
Seventy‑five thousand Jews would be permitted to enter over a five‑year
period, and then a fixed ratio of two Arabs per Jew would be maintained. This
White Paper shattered the Yishuv's hopes of attaining a Jewish state under the
British Mandate. The Irgun increased its attacks against British troops.
With the outbreak of World War II, the Yishuv found itself
once again in conflict. [They believed it] was clear that the British would
always double-cross them, and they were dedicated to saving Europe's Jews,
despite the White Paper. However, armed attacks against the British would
subsequently help Germany and the Axis Powers, which was unthinkable. Therefore
the Yishuv joined forces with the British. As David Ben-Gurion declared,
"We shall fight side by side with the British in our war against Hitler as
if there were no White Paper, and we shall fight the White Paper as if there
were no war." The majority of the Irgun also agreed to help the British.
One group, however, led by Avraham Stem, determined that the British were as
dangerous as the Arabs. Called the Stem Gang (or LECHI, an acronym for the
Fighters for Israel's Freedom), this group continued terrorist raids against
the British throughout World War II. One of LECHI's officers was Yitzhak Shamir,
who later became prime minister of Israel.
The Arabs, meanwhile, wholeheartedly supported Germany. The
Mufti of Jerusalem went to Berlin to help the Nazis. Between 1941 and 1945, he
broadcast from Berlin in Arabic encouraging the Arabs to expel the British and
slaughter the Jews.
Within the first week after the beginning of World WarII, more than 130,000 Jews from the
Yishuv had volunteered to enter the British army. The British refused to take
Jewish volunteers without accepting an equal number of Arab volunteers. The
Arab leaders, however, had already pledged their support to Germany. The
British therefore reluctantly accepted Jewish recruits, but they balked at
permitting the Jews to establish their own recognized brigade.
In 1941 the situation for the British in Palestine was very
serious. Their major front was in North Africa, trying to stop Rommel. The
Vichy French were in Syria and Lebanon, threatening Palestine's borders. The
British turned to the Yishuv for help. Within the Jewish units were special
fighting forces called the Palmach, the assault companies, famous for their
bravery under Orde Wingate. [Their] personal hallmarks were thick handlebar
mustaches. The Palmach was assigned to stop the Vichy French from crossing from
the north into Palestine. They did so, suffering enormous casualties. Their
reputation as courageous fighters was enhanced.
Throughout World War II, the Palmach trained rigorously and
became the broad base of fighting reserves needed to provide the backbone of
the Haganah. The Palmach cooperated closely with the British until after the
battle of El‑Alamein in North Africa. With the German threat diminished,
the British tried to dismantle the Palmach, knowing that the troops would
eventually be used against them. The Palmach therefore went underground and
continued to train and prepare the Yishuv for the struggle against the British
which they knew was imminent. Many famous Israeli generals received their
training and experience in the Palmach.
In 1944 the Yishuv finally convinced the British to let them
havetheir own brigade. In addition
to more than 26,000 Jews from Palestine serving in the British army, the Yishuv
created the Jewish Brigade, consisting of 5,000 men. The Jews in the Brigade
performed double duty in the army. At the same time that they were working for
the British, they organized and trained for their eventual opposition to
British control of Palestine. While they fought in Italy, they arranged escape
routes to get Jews out of Europe after the war. All Jewish Brigade members were
in the Haganah.
Jews worked on similar projects in central Europe while in
the British army. An excellent example of this two‑way action was a group
of paratroopers who volunteered to drop behind Axis lines to work with the
nationalist patriots in Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Yugoslavia. While fighting
against the Nazis, they were also finding ways to get Jews out of those
countries.
David E. Lipman is the rabbi of Temple Sinai
in Cranston, Rhode Island, and the creator of the Gates Of Jewish Heritage website.
